How to Become a Chat Moderator.

 

 

Anyone who has ever played online bingo, for any substantial period, will understand the importance of the Chat Moderators (CM); they are the party-people of the bingo world, there to entertain.

 

They play games, they make jokes, they are there for you when your upset (be that by a win, or anything else), they will be there in the middle of the night when you have no one else to talk to, they offer help with bingo issues, they fight your corner...all-in-all they are the glue that holds the whole experience together.

 

A lot of regular bingo players try to become CMs, but only the best get through to become the Jeremy Kyle/Jerry Springer of the bingo site...this beggars the question: how can you become a CM?

 

Firstly:

Well, as with any job, you need to have a good sense of perseverance and determination, you need to passionate about bingo, be friendly and confident in your communication skills; these are qualities that we all have in some measure, and regular players have in spades – hence the reason they enjoy playing enough to become regular players in the first place.

 

But what makes a CM stand out from the crowd? Well, a large majority of this is that they actually take the steps to apply for a role as a chat moderator. What is it that the bingo sites look for from their employees?

 

Talk to any CM and they will tell you that the job was a lot harder than they expected it to be and it is not as easy as it looks. The job does not involve simply talking to people socially, if it did, this would be the dream job to which people aspire.

 

No, other demands are asked of the CMs, they need to make sure that the games are working ok, if they are not, they need to fix the problem, or report to the appropriate person; they have to deal with players problems and queries; they need to be entertaining enough to maintain the bingo sites customer base, ensuring they keep profits turning over; they need to keep track of the called numbers, in case a player misses one and wishes to know which one they missed; they need to organise, and correctly manage, the bingo site chat room games; ...

 

What it is like to be a CM:

CMs are the front-shop of the bingo site; the CMs meet and greet the incoming players. They need to make sure that they maintain interesting dialogue with players, keeping them entertained and keeping them revisiting. The CMs can make or break a site; sometimes this part of the bingo experience is what attracts players to the site.

 

There no off days are allowed for the CM, if they are feeling off, they cannot show it. If you have a hangover, or you are half-asleep, you need to keep up the quality, as you would were you feeling top-form. The sites require vibrant, energetic, happy CMs that care about their work.

 

And the CMs need to be this way day in day out, every time they are on site. The most popular sites have new customers arriving every second and they need to see that the CMs are happy and good at what they do. A poor CM can drive people off the site; I have seen it myself, a grouchy CM with a chip on their shoulder means people leave – some CMs let the power go to their heads, penalising people for minor indiscretions, of for breaking rules they knew nothing about, diplomacy is key.

 

If you are a regular player, you will be well aware of the fact that the CMs job lies in your hands, you can push a bad one out and get a good one promoted. The sites listen to their players’ reviews of their CMs, they wish the site to be popular, and out of favour CM who is driving customers away, will soon receive their P45.

 

If you manage to get work as a CM, and you replace a CM much loved by the roomies, expect to be ostracised until a point that you have proved your worthiness. It takes time to develop a reputation and the banter that comes with being a great CM.

 

And clearly, the most important thing about being a CM is the actual bingo itself, if you do not understand the games, or what you are expected to know, you will not go down well. You need to know what games are playing in all rooms, plus the extraneous games on offer, such as slots and keno.

 

You need to know what is going on throughout the duration of a game, there is more for a CM to bear in mind than a standard player, and given the fast pace of the game, and the difficulty faced of simply keeping up with that, the CMs need to be proficient and knowledgeable.

 

You will need a good grasp of the language the site operates in. Typos are allowed, consistently poor spelling is not.

 

Strops and starts:

A key difficulty many CMs face is lag; this is where the site or the computer used to access the site run slowly because of technical difficulties.

 

The browsers that players use will also affect the efficiency of the software, CMs need to be aware of these differences and be able to advise players on the issue.

 

CMs need to know how to use various pieces of software, from online payment systems to office programmes.

 

Players will ask the CMs for advice on various issues, and expect them to have the answers. They need to know which cards are accepted for deposits and withdrawals, how the bonus structures work, how to update account details.

 

The CM needs to be available the whole shift, breaks are a no-no. The best thing a CM can do is to use a laptop to carry out their work, that way they can remain mobile, whilst still being in touch with their customers. It is probably fairly common for CMs to wee and chat at the same time ; ).

 

Not having the answers to hand, when a player asks for help, can lead to volatile and explosive situations. Some players are impatient, and as a CM, you need to know how to diffuse tense situations.

 

 

Troublesome players:

There can be some very irate players playing bingo. They can be annoyed because they think the games are fixed, they lose, but it has nothing to do with odds, the game that is rigged. You will be familiar with such players if you are a regular; you may even be one on occasion yourself. They way you deal with these players can be the difference between being a good CM and a bad one.

 

A CM needs to be assertive, without becoming aggressive. When a player is rude, then the CM must bite their tongue. There are ways of dealing with players like this, but you need to follow the correct channels. This usually entails sending reports to your supervisors and keeping a record of chat interactions – make sure you are not rude, because you run the risk of being sacked if this is seen by a superior; a player may report the CM for rude behaviours, so beware.

 

It is not all hard work though, a lot of the job is chatting, making friends (with fellow CMs and players, alike). There are a lot of interesting people to talk to, and you may come across a celebrity or two; apparently, Catherine Zeta Jones is partial to a little game of bingo, she even acts as caller at her private bingo parties – whether she plays online, however, is another matter.

 

In summary, you need to be patient; hard working; have good conflict resolution skills; be efficient; capable and knowledgeable in all things bingo; have a good grasp of language and computer skills; self-motivated; etc.

 

How to become a CM:

The following is an extract from an article on the site bingoport.co.uk, advising how to apply a position of CM, which was written on behalf of Foxybingo.com, one of the largest bingo rooms on the internet today:

 

 “to become a CM [...] email your Resume in to support of the bingo site you are playing on, if you do not get any joy on your first try, my advice on this would be to continue to email your Resume in about once a month to keep yourself known, this also let’s the site no how keen you are.

 

Another alternative would be to email your resume to bingojobs.com site, from there you can start emailing online Bingo Managers. They keep an up to date list of available online cm jobs. I know quite a few of my Bingo Buddies that have found successful CM jobs through CM of the years site, and now have a career they love working the hours they like, around their family from the comfort of their own home”

 

The advice in this article is also relevant to American players looking to become CMs, and remember, because the jobs are online, you do not have to work with a site based in the same country as you are, literally, the bingo world is your oyster.

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