Award Date

12-1-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

William F. Harrah College of Hospitality

First Committee Member

Chih-Chien Chen

Second Committee Member

Tony Henthorne

Third Committee Member

Seyhmus Baloglu

Fourth Committee Member

John Schibrowsky

Abstract

Developing extraordinary relationships between sales personnel and customers is essential to corporate success. To meet the increasing demands of customers within the hospitality industry, corporations must ensure they pair customers with salespeople who are highly competent, possessing refined and adaptable skill sets that directly increase customer satisfaction and account profitability. Corporations spend billions of dollars annually on hiring and training salespeople; yet, salespeople often quit or miss their quota targets. Considering this industry-wide business problem, the purpose of this dissertation study was to determine how sales competencies influence customer satisfaction and account profitability while taking into consideration the duration of the customer-salesperson relationship. This study was the first to empirically measure the views of casino operators as they evaluated purchasing behaviors and satisfaction levels with the primary slot salesperson. By use of a mixed-methods approach—first, via one-on-one interviews followed by a survey to be sent to 4500 casino operators, n=529 responses indicated salespeople who possessed product knowledge, understanding the needs of the customer, honesty, and high communication skills, yielded the greatest profitability and customer satisfaction. The moderating variable of duration of the salesperson-customer relationship revealed the longer the length of the relationship, the higher the yield of profits and customer satisfaction.Keywords: sales competencies, casino gaming, sales, slot machines, customer satisfaction, account profitability, customer lifecycle

Keywords

account profitability; Casino gaming industry; customer lifecycle; customer satisfaction; Sales competencies; sales-customer relationship

Disciplines

Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms | Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Marketing

File Format

pdf

File Size

2500 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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