Why Northern Quest Resort & Casino’s emails to guests impressed me
One of the first casinos nationwide to reopen after the coronavirus closings set a best practices protocol for guest communications during these challenging times. Northern Quest Resort & Casino, a Kalispel Tribal Enterprise in Airway Heights, WA, was in uncharted territory in creating a guest communications plan from pre-closing to post-reopening.
Northern Quest Resort & Casino has been open to sharing their learning throughout this process. From the operations side, please click here to read our wrap up from a round table discussion we had with their leadership team. You can also watch an interview with Northern Quest Resort & Casino we did with them on opening day.
Of the many emails I receive from being on casino mail lists, Northern Quest Resort & Casino stood out and above. To find out the strategies and tools used in communications to their guests, Raving interviewed Julie Holland, Director of Public Relations and Communications for the Kalispel Tribal Economic Authority.
The many different components of the communications program can be a resource for other casinos. The messages sent by Northern Quest to its guests, and the detailed lists by department of the “new normal” at their property, can be found at this link: https://www.northernquest.com/covid-19-information
DEB: What were the key objectives in your guest communication strategy regarding the closing/reopening?
NQ: Like others around the country, the decision to close our doors came within a matter of hours, not days. There was so much uncertainty early on. Our first communications were driven by a need to communicate operational facts with a focus on the health and safety of our guests and team members. Once our doors were closed (March 16), the uncertainty about COVID-19 continued. So many new facts were coming out every day across the nation. What started as a two-week shutdown became the potential for more.
