Increasing customer independence in result verification

Increasing customer independence in result verification

Customers often don’t check themselves whether or not they have made the correct predictions and have claim to winnings – opting instead to remain passive and let sales staff check their receipts for them at the lottery terminals. What possibilities are there for allowing the customer to check their receipts themselves given a certain infrastructure? An essential and highly sensitive process in the overall context of the lottery business is checking whether the receipts earned any winnings. When buying a lottery product, customers receive a receipt as a certificate of purchase. As a general rule, this is not personalised, as most customers prefer to play anonymously. The proof of purchase is the only valid and accepted document for claiming winnings. Because of the lacking connection to a specific individual, possession of the receipt is the deciding factor in claiming winnings. As the winning numbers are published, every customer can theoretically check whether they are able to lay claim to any winnings. However, in practice, only a fraction of customers actually do this. System games in particular even require some expert knowledge in checking the receipt for possible winnings. That’s why the majority of people, especially regular players, prefer automated checking systems. Customers are most satisfied when they receive direct information about the winnings and their payoff amounts. This advantage is offered by the sales and receiving offices, in that staff check for a claim to winnings using the lottery terminal. But since these terminals are not accessible to customers, they have to hand over their receipt to staff to have it checked. In doing so, customers are handing over the proof of purchase (and the right to any winnings) to sales personnel: A situation that has to be seen critically from both the customer’s point of view and that of lottery company management.

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Increasing customer independence in result verification

Customers have very little idea about what happens with their receipt after that point. The equipment, such as the reader or keypad, is usually not visible to the customer and they therefore have to trust that the correct measures are being taken with their receipts. The majority of customers don’t realise the potential shortcomings of this situation and put a lot of trust in the staff involved. Whether this trust is abused and to what extent is unknown. Past experience shows that there are almost always black sheep in the fold. Therefore, abuse cannot be completely ruled out and lotteries see themselves automatically confronted with suspicion. And should fraud or even the suspicion of it be made public, the lottery is wide open to public criticism. These kind of affairs set off a feeding frenzy for the tabloid press and the reputation of the lottery suffers. What alternatives are there for lotteries then? One possibility involves improving the existing verification process. However, lotteries could also offer alternative options such as an autonomous verification of potential winnings. The following sections focus on these methods. Possibilities for autonomous result verification The possible methods for customer performed autonomous winning verification can be divided into two categories: Lottery-supplied infrastructure or using existing or publicly accessible infrastructures. A supplied infrastructure involves self-service verification devices. Well-known lottery suppliers offer specific devices called wincheckers for this purpose. These generally consist of a scanner and display function. Customers have their receipt read by the scanner and are shown their winnings on the display. Verification is provided via the interface between the device and the lottery’s central system. That’s why it is only sensible from a cost perspective to use these devices in locations where there is already an existing communications infrastructure. This generally only exists at sales and receiving offices. The investment costs for implementing these devices are also very high.

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Increasing customer independence in result verification

An alternative lies in expanding existing self-service (SS) infrastructures. These SS infrastructures could be operated by either the lottery itself or third party providers. An even more decisive factor is the option of simply collecting the receipt data and displaying the result in a suitable way. The level of convenience varies from entering the data using the keypad to automatic reading via a scanner. The SS infrastructure is already connected to the communications network – which means no additional costs are incurred in this area. Maintenance and repair are already budgeted, enabling companies to take advantage of both aspects without having to invest in a completely new infrastructure. Upgrading the necessary software modules and interfaces to the lottery are the areas where some investment is required. Therefore, the financial aspect and high level of convenience are the main advantages of adopting this solution. Another attractive and often overlooked possibility is expanding in the areas of these internet and mobile services. In Germany, these two channels were highly neglected in the past due to legal requirements. Therefore, both methods carry considerable potential in customer service and also offer almost complete coverage. A good part of the required infrastructure also already exists on the lottery side and generally sits idle. Why shouldn’t customers be able to check to see if they have won anything over the internet or via text message? With a very low investment volume, customers are provided with greater convenience while lottery managers benefit from increased security. The ideas stated above have also been supported in practice, as Lotto Hamburg has shown since launching the winchecker. Lotto Hamburg has been offering its customers the option of checking their own receipts at a self-service terminal or on the internet since the start of September 2009. Already, 5% of customers are checking their receipts themselves and even more during peak playing times. Nearly half of the receipts are checked over the internet during these peak playing times.

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Increasing customer independence in result verification

adesso AG offers individually tailored solutions for lotteries based on its broad product range. We have specifically focused on the topics of customer service and proximity in a number of projects. From expanding existing SS infrastructures to service and customer portals on the internet as well as text message solutions and mobile applications for the iPhone and others – adesso’s expertise spans the entire length of this segment.

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