COVID-19 secret shopper study reveals Las Vegas hospitality and gaming brand/cleanliness perceptions

Experience Strategy Associates, a boutique consulting group focused on assisting organizations with customer experience and branding strategy, in partnership with HS Brands Global, a global leader in deploying field resources to verify and assess expectations of some of the world's favorite brands, announced on Sunday results from a comprehensive secret shopper study focused on perceptions of how brands are managing operations through a COVID-19 lens.

Secret shoppers were sent out to evaluate 600 customer touch-points across the LV Strip, LV Locals, and Downtown LV gaming properties on reopening weekend and again two weeks later to learn how well brands were maintaining consistent safety standards and where there may be opportunity to continue to focus for optimal brand perception.

According to the study, the LV Strip properties and Downtown properties scored the highest consistently among all three key segments.

"This is a very positive story," said Greg Chase, Founder and Chief Thought Provoker of Experience Strategy Associates. "This data was very specific to key elements that would ultimately make a customer feel safe or not, such as if sanitizer machines were functional and if they observed employees cleaning public areas, which we know has a lot of consumer focus in the present time."

Comprehensive COVID-19 Secret Shopper Study Reveals Las Vegas Hospitality and Gaming Brand/Cleanliness Perceptions https://t.co/OztKzR4OAZ

— Greg Chase (@GregJChase) August 17, 2020

Secret shops were conducted across three key segments, Downtown LV properties, LV Locals Casinos and LV Strip Properties on both re-opening weekend and again two weeks post reopening, totaling over 560 customer touchpoints.

Top 5 Areas for Opportunity Across All Segments to Improve Customer Perception Amid COVID-19:

• Allowing customers to see some element of sanitation practice on table games
• Ensuring Staff are proactively offering masks to customers who are not wearing them or do not have on their person
• Supporting staff in enforcing social distancing standards in F&B venue lines
• Allowing customers to see staff cleaning and sanitizing F&B tables and chairs
• Ensuring sanitizer dispensers are properly functional

"As a member of the Las Vegas community, HS Brands is proud to provide our partners with tools necessary to measure their COVID protocols to better protect their employees and guests." Michael Mills, Vice President of Sales at HS Brands.

To learn more about this study, visit https://hsbrands.com.