MGM Resorts ushers in a new era of hospitality with immersive learning

With a focus on providing the best guest experience possible, MGM Resorts parterned with Strivr to better equip and empower frontline hotel staff with the customer service and hospitality skills they needed to deliver superior guest experiences.

92%

of learners felt more confident in their customer service skills

94%

of learners felt VR training was an effective way to practice empathy

500+

learners trained across 5 premiere MGM Resorts locations

The challenge

It’s a great time for organizations to reflect and think about what they can do differently to create a better onboarding and training experience for current employees and future applicants.

Laura Lee

Chief Human Resources Officer, MGM Resorts

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At its core, the hospitality industry is centered on customer service. It is the key to success, and ensuring your workforce is prepared to deliver the best guest experience must be priority number one. MGM saw an opportunity to improve the employee experience, and ultimately the guest experience, through XR training.

With an existing training program that was designed to be delivered in person, the company sought out to find a solution that would encompass a more hybrid experience that included both traditional learning and virtual experiences. The team needed to reinforce proper guest arrival procedures by providing a safe space for practice through a standardized and scalable learning platform.

In addition, MGM looked to support its company objectives by ushering in a new era of hospitality, and wanted innovation in how it was training its employees to match this goal.

The solution

My job is to support employees and give them the tools they need to be more self-confident. With VR, we’re able to give our employees the opportunity to do empathy training without the pressure of real customer interactions.

Laura Lee

Chief Human Resources Officer, MGM Resorts

*In-headset view of MGM's Customer Service VR training course.*

Starting with nearly 500 learners across five premier locations, MGM introduced XR to its lobby hosts and front desk agents. The program was designed to initially provide all new employees with an opportunity to practice the real-world simulations in XR most similar to what they would experience on the job. Their experience mirrors that of a guest and follows the customer journey from the valet to the front desk.

Course details

Target learners

Guest services associates

XR content modality

Live action VR

XR use case(s)

Customer service
New hire onboarding

TRAINING duration

20 minutes

Learning objectives

Better engage learners to improve guest services skills
Deliver realistic scenarios to apply mindfulness, attention to detail, awareness, and engagemen
tDevelop empathy that correlates with delivery of genuine, meaningful service

The impact

There are no do-overs in live customer service. Virtual reality gives employees the opportunity to think and correct themselves without getting stressed or worried that they did something wrong.

Laura Lee

Chief Human Resources Officer, MGM Resorts

With XR, organizations in the hospitality industry like MGM Resorts are able to:

Evoke real-world behavior change among employees to adhere to company policies and culture
Better engage employees for higher impact and retention
Enable repetition of on-demand practice for optimal learning proficiency and skill retention

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With Strivr,

MGM Resorts

was able to:

Reinforce proper guest experience procedures in a standardized and scalable learning platform
Standardize and reinforce proper guest experience proceduresIncrease guest service experience to drive guest retention, top-line revenue, and increase customer friendliness scores
Help usher in a new era of hospitality and service with guests and employees coming back in greater quantities.