Hi VWM,
I started reading your post and was relieved that someone finally started to understand one of the reasons for the changes. Yes, you are right, by changing some manual processes such as flushing and the manual multiple crediting of what is a single bonus - it does free up CS time, but you couldn't be more wrong with your second paragraph.
We are not trying to cut costs, we are not cutting back on customer service, quite the contrary. By stopping these unofficial 'perks' which a very small percentage of our base take up a lot of our time in administering it allows us to answer 'genuine' customer service queries faster, be proactive in recognising a customer who may be experiencing problems and solve 'on the fly'. We pride ourselves on customer service and continue to be one of the few casinos who have 100% of their support staff in house, trained by us and with more authority than most other managers in other businesses. In fact, we are currently in the process of moving offices as our support team has almost doubled over the last couple of years.
I appreciate that these changes are not to everyone's taste and if I am honest I am totally shocked by the percentage of CM members who this has affected. As previously said, there was a very very small percentage of our player base who flushed or claimed bonuses in parts - but for some reason unknown to me, the majority of this small percentage are CM members. I wonder if the forum has served to be an education for players to avail of such 'perks' - I don't know.
Regards
Mark
Why hasn't the move been to put more of this routine stuff into the hands of players, which would also free up support staff?
Players don't have to contact CS to reverse a withdrawal, they can do this in the cashier, yet they have always had to contact CS in order to request a flush of a withdrawal. This too could surely be dealt with by having a "flush this withdrawal" button in the cashier, which would immediately send it along to be processed in the next batch. Unlike an automatic setting, this would allow players who think they might reverse a bit later to leave their withdrawal alone until they decide that they will definitely not reverse.
There are many automatic systems available with the Microgaming software product that operators just don't use, yet using them would solve some of the issues they are having with CS staff time being taken up with "trivia" at the expense of being able to serve customers with "real issues" better. Why is this?
CM Members tend to be seasoned players who know their way around the industry. They know what can be done with the various software products and platforms through experience, so if there is a niche perk, CM members are much more likely to know about it. Other players will not miss the removal of something they never knew about, and most casinos that offer manual flushing don't exactly announce it from the rooftops. Other features can be discovered by accident, such as whether a promotion is configured to work for multiple deposits up to a maximum amount, even if this is not made clear up front. The fact that this is a known option configured by many of the MGS casinos that kicked UK players out may be what is driving players at 32Red to ask CS about it, where they quickly discovered that CS would manually credit the rest for them. It's probably the most risk averse players that use this unofficial feature, so that they don't commit the whole sum in one go, even though at 32Red this "whole sum" even for Club Rouge players seldom exceeds £200.
These things that have been ended are all part of "customer service", so those using them will say "customer service has deteriorated", whereas those who find that their queries get dealt with faster because CS are less bogged down with the unofficial perks will say "customer service has improved".
In most of business, companies do not see such changes as an opportunity to improve service, but as an opportunity to downsize their CS teams to save money. This tends to mean that despite lightening the load on CS, the service provided doesn't get any better, and sometimes gets worse. The outward impression being given by this continual drip feeding of negative changes at 32Red gives the impression that this is an ongoing process designed to cut operating costs, and that there may be more cuts to come before a new level of stability is reached. Many businesses embarking on such measures will be looking at them in terms of "what the market will tolerate", rather than "how can we best serve our customers". This is usually measured by revenue, rather than feedback, so it's no good having customers SAY they will close accounts and go elsewhere, it has to be seen to be happening from the revenue figures before it's taken seriously as a sign that the tolerance of the market is being exceeded.
.I will behave now promise lol 
