Positive Language

Communication and Customer Service are such a large part of the job, that it’s important to start filtering your words. Think about your choice of words… How negative or positive are they? If you notice more negativity, then you’ll have to start filtering what comes out of your mouth. Which brings us to step number 4, Positive Language.

A casino’s reputation depends largely upon the attitude of its dealing staff. Every dealer should promote a positive attitude by using positive language because language is what people use when they create perceptions of you and your company. This is why a dealer’s personality is so important, when casinos are considering which dealers to hire. It’s a lot easier to teach someone blackjack then it is to teach them how to interact with people. Make it a habit to look for something on the guest that you sincerely like and then give them a compliment on it. You want to leave your customers with a good impression, so be polite, courteous and pleasant to everyone. “Positive Words, Powerful Results”… If you’re hungry for more information on this topic, then you might like this book written by Hal Urban.

“Every Client. Every Time. No Exceptions. No Excuses.” A great casino is built one customer at a time. If you try to follow these steps with every guest every time, then they’ll leave this casino satisfied and wanting to return.

Small changes in how you utilize positivity will greatly affect how the player responds to you. If you’re not acting grumpy all of the time, then you’ll notice less people being grumpy too. People tend to mirror the people around them, so start acting in a way, that you wish to see in other people. If you’re always looking for the bad in people or the negatives in a situation then you will always find it and you’ll always have something to complain about. Why not look for the positive instead? I guarantee that if you search for the positive, you’ll find that too.

Obviously, there are going to be some offensive, hurtful players on your table, no matter how you act, but what really matters in this type of situation is how you react. How do you choose to respond? The way I chose to respond is, I would be nothing but nice, friendly and I would pretend that nothing they did bother me. I wouldn’t get mad, snide, sarcastic or anything like that. This accomplishes a few things. The angry customer can’t yell at you for being nice. This protects you from getting in a fight with the player and from getting written up for saying something foolish. And the best part of all, acting this way usually infuriates the unpleasant guest because they didn’t get a rise out of you. Just remember, they’re trying to troll you. Don’t give them what they want.

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”

~ Dorthy Nevill

So work on filtering yourself, by increasing the positive statements and cutting back on the negativity, complaints, snide comments, and mean-spirited jokes. Watch your tone of voice. If you’re going to use a patronizing or sarcastic tone, then why even waste the energy trying to say nice words. Even on large event days, when the Bengals are playing the Browns, or the Steelers, and one side is against the other; try to stop yourself from poking fun at or bantering with players who are rooting for the opposing team.

If there’s a dealer who’s acting sour, depressed, negative, or mean then they’re going to scare the players away and no players means no tokes. Our goal is to make money, not scare it away. Nobody wants to be on a table where the dealer is complaining about how horrible their life is, how unlucky they are and they certainly don’t want to hear a series of unfortunate events. They have Netflix for that.