Strategies for customer retention in the online gaming industry

That old adage that it’s easier to retain a customer than attract and convert a new one is true across all industries including online gaming. However, customer retention is something many gaming operators struggle with. Competition is fierce and players are easily attracted by the bright lights of other gaming websites, especially when they offer seductive incentives for new players.

No doubt you’re already using a variety of different customer retention strategies, but have you thought about how payments could help?

Here we explain how the payment methods you offer, and the payment service providers you partner with, can reduce churn and boost customer loyalty.

Fast, secure and convenient payment transactions

The first step is to make sure your payment methods are aligned with your customers’ needs. For online gaming customers that means fast, secure, mobile-friendly, no redirects and real-time transactions.

Customers return when they know that they can resume play with the minimum of hoops to jump through. Unlike many e-wallets, MuchBetter integrates with the gaming website so players are not redirected to another website to top up their gaming account or to take winnings out.

Payment data can help you identify your best customers

Behavioural data that allows operators to segment their customers and align customer loyalty programmes with their top players is expensive. It’s not just the cost of extracting the data it’s also the expertise needed to interpret it in meaningful way.

Payment service providers have a lot of data that can deliver useful insights into player behaviour. From the devices the customer uses to their spending patterns. This data can be made available, subject to data protection regulations, to help operators identify their best customers. Please get in touch if you want to find out more about what type of data is available via MuchBetter.

Keep your company in their minds

There are lots of digital tools you can use to remind players to return to your gaming website. Remarketing, email campaigns, SMS messages, app notifications etc. But what about when they’re offline?

Loyalty gifts can be very effective especially if they’re something that the customer can use regularly and for non-gaming related activities. But is a branded mug going to encourage customer loyalty? Choose the right loyalty gift for maximum return.

We’ve delivered great results for operators with our contactless key fob. This allows users to make payments from their MuchBetter account in store. Building loyalty via the payment methods your gaming site offers is a different approach to customer retention, but one that is highly effective.

Push notifications via a payment app

You probably already use push notifications through your gaming app, but these can be viewed as spammy and are easy to overlook. However, when a push notification comes from a different source with an incentive such a bonus, it gets customers’ attention.

You could target customers using popular e-wallets or payment apps in this way. For example, target those dormant players that regularly using the e-wallet for online gaming (your competitors) who haven’t visited your website for a period of time.

E-wallet providers like MuchBetter, actively want to help their customers be more successful. We’ve taken a unique approach customer retention by allowing operators to use our wallet as an engagement channel with their customers. It’s building stronger and stickier relationships between customer and operator. MuchBetter is a payment wallet but also a touchpoint between customer and operator: no other payment channel is currently providing this opportunity.

If you’ve never thought about tapping into your payment provider’s data, reach and marketing expertise, perhaps it’s time to make them part of your retention strategies?

Speak to us to explore how we can help with customer retention in online gaming.