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I’ve never mentioned it here, but I love poker. In fact, playing poker is how I pay the bills when I’m not blogging or working on Web projects. After playing for about two years now, I’ve visited many of casinos in Atlantic City, NJ. The most popular casinos located there — at least for playing poker — include the Borgata, Taj Mahal, and Tropicana. So why do I stay and play at the Hilton when I go? It’s a combination of good marketing and a positive customer service experience that keeps me returning to the Hilton.

Like any good casino, every Atlantic City casino offers some sort of “players card”. The card keeps track of the games and stakes you play in addition to the time spent at the tables. In return, players earn compensation, or “comps”, as these hours accumulate. The higher the stakes or better the game (whereby the casino has the best odds of winning your money) will result in more comps earned per hour.

I’ve collected players cards from many casinos, including the Borgana, Taj Mahal, Tropicana, Caesars, Showboat, Resorts, and Hilton. I never seemed to care or pay attention to the comps earned on my cards in the past, as the amount was minuscule. For example, Borgata offers a comp rate of about $0.50/hour when playing poker at the smallest stakes. Furthermore, the low accrual rate is compounded by the double rate at which Borgata charges comps when using them. This effectively reduces the earnings by half to $0.25/hour. After about 26 hours of playing poker, I can afford a burger from Fatburger; no fries or drink, though.

Several months ago, I joined my brother in going to the Hilton. He heard about a special promotion that he wanted to partake in, and I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to play poker in Atlantic City. Their poker room was small, and only a few of the tables were full with players. The 20-30 players engaged at the tables here represented only a small percentage of the Borgata’s poker room, which is brimming with hundreds of players at any given moment. However, I still had fun and made money just like I could have anywhere else in the city.

So why did I choose to go back to the Hilton? Obviously there were more players at other casinos. There’s much more to it than that, though. The thing that brought me back is their many facets of customer appreciation. Despite poker being a small source of income for the casino relative to the “house” games that are designed to effectively reach into player’s pockets, they continue to demonstrate that they value my business and want me to return to them instead of other casinos.

First, Hilton Casino offers comps at a rate of $2/hour while playing at the same stakes where Borgata offers an effective $0.25/hour.

Second, I can easily get comps while playing there. If I’m sitting at the table and decide I’m ready for dinner, the poker room management is more than happy to offer a comp for their noodle bar or buffet. Not only that, but the comp they provide when asked is not even taken from your player’s card. Those comps are still available for later purchases.

Third, they offer a special poker rate on their rooms that is not only lower than the poker rate of their competition, but also requires less hours of play in order to be eligible for it. (In fact, as long as you’ve played poker there before, they’ll book you at the poker room rate without even verifying that you’ve played a certain number of hours, which is uncanny.) The Hilton’s poker room rate is $30/weeknight for only a couple hours of play per day in contrast to Borgata’s $39/night for 8 hours of poker/day, which is strictly enforced.

Fourth, they offer great promotions and coupons as incentives for you to return. Some promotions are for free food and shows. Others are for free rooms. One that I accepted this week was a complementary three-course dinner/dance with open bar and a free gift to celebrate my birthday. And it wasn’t just for me; I was allowed to bring a guest. There ended up being well over 300 guests enjoying their June birthdays that Hilton paid to feed, entertain, and host in their rooms. And this is not to say that everyone accepted either, as there were undoubtedly countless more that were invited but were unable to attend.

I could continue on with other promotional offers the Hilton has extended to me, such as two free poker tournaments with $9,000 in combined prize money they gave away, but that’s not my intention. The point is that they offered something that demonstrated their appreciation of me as a customer. They recognized that I chose the Hilton that day, and they wanted to prove that the Hilton is where I should return time and time again. Even if the Hilton offered half the things they did, I gladly would have returned. In fact, a complimentary room would have been more than enough to convince me to stay. I doubt I’m the only guest to the Hilton, or any casino for that matter, who feels similarly. It just goes to show what a little consideration and appreciation can do for your business.