When it comes to creating a community feel at any given online bingo site the chat hosts are at the fore. Without a decent host, the banter in the rooms doesn’t flow and we are left with a room full of 3TG, 2TG, 1TG, GL, WTG etc. It was always going to be a difficult task to recreate the social side of bingo in a chat room but a host worth anything can manage it, sadly we are often left wanting thanks to what I like to term an eBay Host.
Here I am going to explain where the term eBay host came from, how I feel this can be addressed and a few suggestions as to what operators can do to ensure they don’t have this type of host in their employ.
What is an eBay Host?
The term eBay host is one that I made up to describe a chat monitor who quite clearly isn’t even watching the chat and it came about simply because I believe that this type of host is likely to be shopping on eBay. They could quite easily have been labelled Facebook hosts simply because they could just as likely be looking at Facebook but with bingo games available on the social networking site, it was quite possible that at some point their could be hosts in the Facebook games.
You’ll all be aware of this type of host because your arrival is ignored or you ask a question and get no response. It could be that all you see in the room are congratulatory macros for the game winners and no chat games are in progress. These are all symptoms of an eBay host.
Whilst I understand that in busy rooms all players cannot be welcomed, if a room contains less than 20 players it’s not a mammoth task to greet a player. After all, they are the sites bread and butter.
How can the curse of the eBay host be addressed by operators?
First and foremost perform a little secret shopping. Enlist friends or family to sign up as new players and arm them with a questionnaire on how the host should perform in a session. Gather the feedback and address the training program if the hosts do not meet the expectations of the brand.
Of course I am not saying that all chat monitors are eBay hosts, far from it. I’ve even been known to praise hosts individually when they do a sterling job (Bingo Godz example here) BUT there are quite a number of hosts who are paid an hourly rate to perform a certain job who let the brand they work for down.
Why not let us know which sites you think have the best hosts or if you have come across and eBay host in your time as a player by leaving a comment below.
It may be that you are a chat host and feel that I have been unfair in my assumption, I’d love to hear from you too.
