Gaming America spoke to Christopher Justice, CEO of Pavilion Payments, about the current evolution and hot topics within the US payments industry. Justice’s views on cashless, cardless and other technological advancements will be included in Gambling Insider's upcoming Payments Focus magazine.
Part of the current luxury and convenience of enjoying a trip to a casino resort is the potential for each guest to have a unique and omnichannel experience. We asked Justice what it means to be truly omnichannel.
He said, “When you think about omnichannel, it's how you are every day in your life. It's the fact that you can go to your favorite retailer and you can look online while you're there.
"It’s about being real-time, on-demand with your guest and meeting the guest where they want to be.”
When it comes to businesses failing to meet customers’ requirements, Justice said there were plenty of great stories; however, a particular example serves best as a cautionary tale.
Justice said, “Circuit City was the dominant electronics retailer with the philosophy of: ‘I'm going to have the best-trained professionals in all of the various disciplines.’
“There wasn't a central counter; if you were looking for an audio device, you went to their audio place. You were able to have expert conversations, but the requirement was you had to go to them, face-to-face.
“All the while, there was this little upstart called Best Buy out of Minneapolis, who said, ‘I want to have highly trained professionals, but I need to meet somebody where they are: if they want to do research online; if they want me to actually deliver it; if they want me to install it'."
Justice spoke with a knowing smile about how Best Buy’s creation of an omnichannel experience made Circuit City go from the dominant retailer to “evaporating completely” in seven years.
He said, “Their requirement was inconsistent with the guest's. The moral of the story with Best Buy is they met the customer where they are.”
It’s a moral that every industry should note. When it comes to the payments industry, Justice says the omnichannel experience is about operators and payments companies working together to deliver things to guests the way they want them delivered.
He added: “People spend their money where they get the best experiences. Omnichannel is going to be one of those things that really starts to set operators apart as we go into the next several years.”
