Passport Technology created Lush for the gaming industry to be a one-stop, complete customer engagement solution at any point of interaction via kiosk, web, or mobile connection, with blanket coverage of all patron management needs.
The focus the past year has been on product integrations, according to Missy Strickland, Senior Vice President of Loyalty, who observed that because Lush was always intended to be a resort-wide solution, loyalty kiosks are not the only point of customer interactions.
“When a guest receives a hotel offer that is created through Lush, for example, they can log into their player portal where it can be accessed and sent to the booking engine, which can then complete the offer,” Strickland explained.
“We concentrated on integrations to different systems where guests can take their offers and promotions directly to the point-of-sale or table management system. It is a seamless process which allows the marketing team to use different outlets other than the kiosk.”
Strickland said that Passport has integrated Lush with a table management system, offer management solution, point of sale systems, and a booking engine. They used these integrations to build out a new product called the Player Portal, which is a web view that can be embedded into the existing casino website. The Player Portal provides an online solution where the guest can enroll, link accounts and sign in. Once the guest signs in, they can view their tier status, account balances, offers/promotions and Win/Loss statements. The casino can create offers and promotions that can be viewed and redeemed through the player portal or kiosk.
“The feedback from operators has been very positive,” Strickland said. “We offer two options for the player portal. The first is fully built by us and a URL is provided to the casino to embed into their existing site. The second is for the casino to build out their own website but leverage our Origins API for all the integrations. This saves them from having to do each individual integration and Origins is a pass through to the various systems.”
Origins API is known as the gaming industry’s most robust and comprehensive integration tool to connect disparate hospitality applications, drive player acquisition and retention, improve internal guest services, encourage cross-promotion among casino partners, and drive margin and CLTV.
Origins API allows each component of Lush (Lush Manager and Lush Kiosk) to be maintained separately, while at the same time easily changing the backend API calls to push and pull data from other systems, including retail, food and beverage, booking engines, hotel management systems, point of sale systems, and various resort tools that make up the overall resort experience.
The real-time integration means that no direct data base connections or replicating are required. Lush’s API uses a regulated, secure gateway between the system and the platform.
The features and functionality of the technology make the evolution of Lush the leader in next-level loyalty and rewards. Lush was first in the industry to be an HTML5 web-based application, leveraging modern, secure web-based technology to deliver a robust, reliable patron loyalty platform.
Web-based applications reduce installation time and eliminates expensive licensing fees, paving the way to acquire, retain, and grow customer loyalty and engagement, open the door to more marketing and advertising options, and make enrollment easy with multiple touchpoints.
With no technical footprint, operators can ease the burden of managing marketing solutions by hosting the platform without the need of Windows or MS SQL licensing costs.
“Lush is a HTML5 web-based application,” Strickland said. “Everything runs on the server, which can be hosted on-prem. It makes it very flexible to integrate with other systems and saves a lot of time with installs and upgrades. The application can be accessed through a web browser and does not require anything to be installed on each individual workstation. The Lush Manager gives the operator a lot of flexibility.”
“For example, all of the UI elements on the kiosk can be changed by the operator through the back office. They can upload their own logo, change the fonts, and change the colors of all the elements on the kiosk to match their branding standards.”
If a property has a specific style guide or a branding guide, Lush makes it possible to change this through the Lush Manager without any custom development.
“It can be set to the property’s exact color codes,” Strickland revealed. “The RGB code can be set so they can customize the kiosk to match their exact branding, which eliminates a generic UI. With Lush you can actually brand and skin the kiosk to make it look exactly like the existing branding of the casino.”
The same development process applies to Lush’s games, which makes it unique within the industry. Strickland said that with a lot of the other loyalty providers, the property must contact them to perform custom development to skin the games.
“With our games, all of that is configurable through the Lush Manager, which makes it possible to upload your own assets,” she said. “If a customer wants to create a casino-branded spin the wheel game, for example, the game mechanic is already there. The casino’s marketing teams can create all the content, upload it, and then automatically put it right up on the kiosk.
“The customer has no custom development, and they don’t have to wait for us to do anything. Lush empowers them to do everything themselves. We built in a lot of components in the back end that allows the marketing team to configure and brand everything on the kiosk to what makes sense for them and what fits their market.”
Lush’s customizable loyalty solutions create the ability to quickly set up multiple events with the Draw and Win application, as well as a choice of customizable interactive games.
Customizable, real-time promotions – including swipe-and-win, pick-and-win, earn-and-get, etc. – plus monetizing streaming ad service throughout the property by displaying advertisements on the kiosk, screens, and player tracking devices are among other perks.
Integrating Earn & Shop on multiple platforms features end-to-end order fulfillment with SLA, half a million SKUs, including custom items and events, with merchandise delivery available at the patron’s home or the casino.