Welcome to PostFunnel’s 25th episode in the Seven CRM Commandments series. Today, we will be checking whether William Hill’s basic CRM practices are on top of their game.
While at it, make sure to see how they compare to Dream11 – the fantasy sports platform we analyzed recently.
Let’s begin.
1. Be Transparent 10/10
Because of the coronavirus, William Hill reported a loss in its Q3 revenues of 9% compared to the same time last year, as lockdowns throughout Europe meant much less sport to be on.
Additionally, the bookmaker noted that as long as football (soccer) season continues with no crowds, its expectations for surprise outcomes will continue. The empty sports stadiums are “taking a hit on WH’s profits by producing a string of unpredictable results at fixtures being played behind closed doors,” according to The Guardian.
The fact WH was open about it and collaborative when working with the media in recent months buys the company a few points here.
“We’re in brand new times. There’s nothing to fall back on but your gut and a good guess,” Nick Bogdanovich, Director of Trading, William Hill.
WH also added a special section to their Help page on coronavirus impact. The dedicated Coronavirus page details numerous COVID-19 FAQs including info on their betting shops:
Another way the brand is being transparent is by letting customers know that due to COVID-19, they won’t be able to contact them as usual:
Not all brands are doing so, and it’s worth all the points here.
2. Incentives and Perks 10/10
William Hill knows how to offer promotions to customers that make sense. Everything from the free bet offers in their HP banner below, to the promo code to use upon signup, and additional free bet offers in the scrolling banner:
On top of that, William Hill’s promotion page has additional offers on a wide variety of games/brands/platforms – free spins, welcome packages, bonus codes, discounts, and so much more.
It’s hard to do more than this.
3. Be Relevant 7/10
They are going strong on promoting games and events that happen right now.
In addition, William Hill added a 2020 US Presidential Election betting game – which shows how they’ve altered their product offering so that it is timelier and super relevant for customers to partake in.
Could the brand have mentioned the coronavirus on a more prevalent spot on their site – besides from at the very bottom of the HP footer in the help section. You could think everything in the world of sports is normal right now. They lose points on this.
4. Be Helpful 10/10
Back in June, William Hill donated $125m to tackle problem gambling in the UK.
Together with GVC Holdings, Sky Betting and Gaming, Bet365, and Paddy Power Betfair, the funds they donated would be allocated from Betting and Gaming Council (BGC).
“This latest funding commitment is yet more evidence of the industry’s determination to improve the quality and provision of treatment for problem gamblers – and of our members’ eagerness to get on with it as quickly as possible,” BGC chief executive Michael Dugger.
At the coronavirus outbreak, William Hill CEO donated salary to laid off, furloughed workers, too.
“I didn’t feel right about continuing to get paid while so many people were out of work,” said CEO Joe Asher.
“So, I just decided to donate all of my salary to the foundation and encourage everybody else in the company who’s still working to donate what they can. Obviously, people aren’t going to be able to donate all their salary, but everybody can do something, even if it’s 20 bucks. And the response has been great.”
5. Realtime Personalization 1/10
After looking through casino games when logged into the platform – we were retargeted with similar games when going back to the HP of the specific product:
However, the HP wasn’t personalized according to our recent activity or search when logging out and going back to the HP. Additionally, we did not come across any cross-selling attempt.
When logging off the platform, no retargeting efforts were implemented by the brand on our social media accounts.
Maybe something was wrong at the moment we checked. But this is way below basic expectations.
6. Master UX 7/10
When logging into the platform, everything seemed a bit crammed into the first fold – quite overwhelming for the new player. There are so many buttons, colors, and text to look – it’s hard to focus, and your eyes don’t know where to go first.
On the other hand, the entire process of picking and choosing games to bet on was very exciting, delightful, and quite engaging. If gamers are looking for some escapism and an online thrill – William Hill definitely knows how to provide that on their platform.
Finally, each game organizes the categories on offer in an elegant way, making it easy to engage all around. For example, see the navigation banner in the casino games:
And the sports menu bar:
7. Leverage Social Media 6/10
William Hill’s Twitter account boasts over 29K followers. The brand Tweets in high frequency, mostly content on popular bets, mobile promos, sportsbook games to play, odds and trends, and more.
This Tweet, however, was quite different and nice to see:
Normally we ask you to place your bets, but today make sure you also place your votes. https://t.co/ZjfaCkaMmm. #VOTE
— William Hill US (@WilliamHillUS) November 3, 2020
With the sporting content available to them, we’d maybe expect more followers.
Their Instagram account boasts 5.5K+ followers, and the brand also uses the platform mainly to promote the sports games they offer players to bet on. A more well-rounded approach to the topic they deal with – sports -could allow perhaps for more followers here, too.
We didn’t notice them using the Instastory/Reels feature.
However, perhaps the brand’s target audience isn’t really an active Instagrammer – therefore – no need to invest as much in the platform.
William Hill’s Facebook page boasts over 700K followers. The brand posts the same type of content as the above two social channels, in high frequency.
We deducted a few points here simply because we feel that the brand can be doing a bit more on social media besides posting mostly matches that are taking place. Maybe a giveaway, a weekly tutorial to keep customers engaged, influencer marketing, tips/tricks on sports betting, and there’s so much more that could be useful.
**
Overall, William Hill is getting a 51/70 here (73%), placing them smack in the middle of the pack on the 13th spot. Though they did beat Dream11 at the CRM gaming match – they’ve still got some catching up to do – especially with their realtime personalization efforts. in that sense, we felt their CRM team is playing with one hand tied behind their backs.
Here are the full rankings of all the brands we analyzed to date:
- Pets at Home 91%
- Lowe’s 90%
- Petco 90%
- Target 87%
- Uniqlo 86%
- West Elm 81%
- The North Face 81%
- Brooks Running 79%
- Best Buy 78%
- Etsy 76%
- The Body Shop 74%
- Gymshark 73%
- William Hill 73%
- Iceland Foods 71%
- Total Wine & More 70%
- Tommy Hilfiger 70%
- Walgreens 70%
- Kohl’s 70%
- Buy Buy Baby 68%
- Fiverr 67%
- Next 63%
- Patagonia 61%
- Burberry 60%
- COS 57%
- Dream11 53%
We publish a new analysis every week, so watch this space for more brand analyses coming your way!
