Patrons of certain businesses are often in need of services to accommodate their needs and desires. For example, in a casino, players at slot machines (or other types of casino gaming machines) are often in need of services from service attendants, for example to pay out jackpots, correct a problem with the machine, or the like. Presently, the delivery of these and other services to slot machine players is best described as random acts of kindness. This is largely due to the fact that getting slot service is dependent on a service attendant's ability to see visual cues (e.g., flashing “Jackpot” lights) or to hear audible tones (e.g., various alarm sounds) emitted by the slot machine needing service. However, given the amount of activity on a casino floor, especially on busy evenings and weekends, this way of identifying which players need service results in service that is at best, sporadic, and at worst, haphazard, slow, and unsatisfactory to the player. Players often sit for many minutes waiting for a service attendant, unable to continue playing.
To maximize the chance of identifying slot service events and reduce the amount of time it takes to respond to a player's needs, the casino is sectioned into areas, and service attendants roam through the aisles of slot machines in their assigned section. If, as is often the case, a service attendant identifies several simultaneous service needs, she is unable to determine which player needed service first and therefore which to respond to first. This service delivery methodology is not only inefficient, but also tends to upset players who saw other guests attended to first even though they had been waiting for assistance longer.
Various systems that improve on this service methodology have been implemented. These systems fall into two categories, paging systems and dispatch systems. Conventional paging systems rely on a message generated by a Slot Management System (SMS) to identify slot service needs. When a slot machine is in need of service, it sends the SMS a message indicating the type of service required. The SMS in turn, forwards the message to a paging system. The paging system parses out the message, identifies the location of the slot machine and pages the service attendants working in that section of the casino.
This system, although significantly better than the roaming process, has a number of shortcomings. First, these one-way paging systems do not verify that the message was actually received by a service attendant who can actually provide the desired service. The casino operator must have faith that the message was received by the attendant, read, understood, and that the service attendant actually delivered the needed service. Often, either the message is not received or even if received, the attendant is too busy with other tasks to immediately respond to the message, and go to the player in need of service. As a result, the player is still left waiting for service, sometimes for a considerable length of time.
Second, these one-way paging systems are incapable of identifying which service providers in a given section are busy and which are free. Consequently, these systems are designed so that all incoming service requests are sent to all of the service attendants in a given area. As a result, each attendant receives many messages, most of which the attendant cannot respond to. This constant barrage of pages overloads and frustrates the service attendant, leading to pages being ignored, and in some drastic cases, pagers being turned off.
Third, these types of paging systems do not make any attempt to schedule or prioritize the services provided to the players, but rather operate in a strict first-come, first serve fashion.
Dispatch systems are modeled after those used by Police Departments and Emergency Medical Technicians. They rely on human interaction between a dispatcher sitting in front of a number of computer monitors, and the service attendants on the casino floor. A slot machine in need of service sends a message to the SMS that is displayed on the dispatcher's workstation. When the dispatcher sees the service event, she uses a 2-way radio asking for any free service attendant in the appropriate area of the casino to respond to the event. One of the available service attendants will respond, and this attendant is then given the information required and asked to provide the service needed. When the dispatcher is ready to assign another task, she can verify that the service attendant is free and ready to be dispatched again.
This system is better than traditional one-way paging in that it allows the casino operator to verify that the service attendant received the message and that she is delivering the service needed. The two-way communication between two human beings, dispatcher and service attendant creates a strong sense of teamwork and general esprit-de-corps, however this comes at a price. The cost of staffing even a small dispatch center requires at least 4 full time equivalents to cover a modest size casino floor 24 hours a day, seven days week, at an estimated cost of over $160,000 annually.
The implementation of one or both of these systems is a significant improvement over the roaming service delivery methodology, yet both of these systems still rely on a first-in first-out (FIFO) method of slot service scheduling. That is, service attendants are instructed to handle service requests in the order in which they are received. In today's highly marketed casino industry, where customers are rewarded based on their level of play, the FIFO methodology is at odds with the rewards and incentives programs used by casino operators.
More particularly, casinos today have many different types of programs that distinguish players based on their level of gaming activity. Players who play frequently and bet in large amounts are typically considered premium players, and given various types of incentives and “comps,” such as free rooms, discounts, and the like. Casinos determine player activity level through various types of bet monitoring techniques, including affinity card programs that use identification cards to track player betting levels in gaming machines. However, when it comes to providing slot service, these premium players are treated no differently than other level players.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and methodology of service that combines the features of the paging and dispatch system while adding functionality that more closely ties in to the incentive programs used by the casino (or other business) to differentiate its patrons.
Beyond casinos, other types of business establishments also need to provide services to patrons. For example, hotels often support a variety of services for patrons, such as room service, housekeeping, concierge, valet, and so forth. Conventionally, a patron telephones the desired service department, which then sends an available attendant to the patron's room (or other location). Conventional systems schedule services for all patrons on a FIFO basis, without regard of the particular value of the patron to the hotel. To the extent that different patrons obtain different service levels, it results more from happenstance, than from a systematic approach to provide service. The same appears to be true of other business that provide services to customers, such as airlines, cruise ships, hospitals, and so forth.
Thus, it is also desirable to provide systems and methodology of service delivery that scheduling services to patrons of a business in consideration of factors such as the availability of service attendants and the value of the patron to the business.