My two decades in the casino industry began in the beginning of 2002, and I would put in four and a half years of front-line casino customer support experience before climbing into a management role. I served in roles in the Security department. I spent two-and-a-half years in the Slot department, and during this time attended school and was certified in dealing poker and black jack. And I spent a significant portion of time working in Information Technology.
After a number of years in both I.T. and Marketing for a group of three casinos in Black Hawk, Colorado, I accepted the position of Marketing Manager at Century, the market leader in the nearby City of Central. Here I've been able to join a seasoned management team in managing a 500 machine property with a twenty-six room hotel, multiple live table games, and two restaurants. In the time since, I've been able to not only to market the property, but to contribute in upgrading both the marketing and the operations of the property to new digital methods.
Hospitality Direction
Hotel Management is a dedicated discipline and I only succeed in overseeing it with the help of dedicated fellow managers like the Player Development Manager or, previously, subordinates like the Club Supervisor. In my time, room inventory use has been expanded to high occupancy with online availability through our own web site, as well as through commission services like those in the Expedia and Booking.com groups.
Through the tireless efforts of myself and the Player Development Manager, our people in the Club (Front Desk) and Hotel Housekeeping departments, as well as the buy-in and help from Casino Shift Managers and Maintenance staff, our property has maintained top ratings in our market even against the much larger hotel properties in Black Hawk.
LISTING EXAMPLE:
Casino Direction
In my time working closely and directly with the General Manager at Century, I've been proud to have my input accepted and valued for business development concerns outside of my usual arena of Promotions. Whether it be considerations of decor, new features and menu items, or new avenues of potential revenue for the business to explore... active and engaged managers were encouraged to wrap their heads around all area of the business and bring something to the table for consideration.
One idea I was happy to have accepted involved allowing our food outlet operations, which were located a floor below the age-protected casino floor and accessible with separate exterior entrances, allow for families and guests under 21 years of age to be permitted to the restaurant level only. Not only did this allow us to accept business previously turned away entirely in the market, there was goodwill generated by acting in cooperation with the city's goals and initiatives to expand their family-friendly offerings.
Customer Service Direction
Few customer service environments are as challenging as those of a casino, with all the challenges of alcohol service combined with gambling itself: a vice that people often enjoy without consequence, but that others struggle to enjoy reasonably and with a cool head. However in my years of front-line casino customer service I found great success in relating directly with guests from holiday pass-throughs to high-end VIP's... whose displeasure could present significant costs to the business. This ranges from acting as Master of Ceremonies for a large-scale promoiotion, hosting and judging costume contests, or sitting down one-on-one with an aggreviated player to help resolve an issue.
In addition, I've collaborated in conceiving more formalized customer service training programs and executed on my key abilities in helping to produce supporting collateral. I was part of the team that helped conceive the G.O.L.D.E.N. Service training initiative for Golden Gaming, still impressed into my memory: Greet Every Guest; Own the Situation; Look, Listen, and Learn; Demonstrate and Deliver; Exceed Expectations; Never Say No.
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Dana has excellent technical and analytical skills. These, combined with his great communication ability and business acumen, make Dana an oustanding addition to any company. Dana's technical skill set includes Major Project Management, IT Operations, software develpment and database engineering/analytics/BI/CRM. He also possesses a strong knowledge base of marketing campaigns-promotions-offers, Gaming, Hospitality, Food & Beverage, Retail and Finance operations. Dana is a self starter, excellent manager and will apply his talents to leverage technology to positvely impact the business.
