As casinos struggle to stay afloat during the current recession, top-notch customer service is the key to retaining guests. Twin Creeks General Manager Jay Morrison knows the secret to long-term success better than most gaming company executives—after all, he has specialized in customer satisfaction since 1972.

That was the year Morrison moved from Wisconsin to the southwest to attend the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

“I got tired of shoveling my car out of the snow all winter,” Morrison said. “I think I was shoveling for the third time one day, when I went in the house and said, ‘Get me a map. I want to see where it’s hot and they have jobs.’ And this was it.”

Throughout his school years, Morrison worked at the original MGM Grand, before the company transferred him to Reno to open the northern Nevada MGM. Morrison eventually moved back to Las Vegas to work at the Las Vegas Hilton, then Station Casinos.

How he came to manage the Silverton Casino Lodge’s premier restaurant involved a bit of a detour. Morrison had retired from the gaming industry, but was coaxed out of retirement by his former employers at MGM. The company had just purchased Primm Valley Resort & Casino, and wanted Morrison to manage food and beverage operations at the resort’s three casinos.

After five years at Primm Valley, Morrison tired of the 520-mile commute and joined his former Sunset Station colleagues at Silverton’s Twin Creeks last year. He said he prefers working at the locals casino to his time on the Strip.

“I got tired of not having the regular, repeat guests, and getting to establish relationships and a rapport with people who live here that you see all the time,” Morrison said. “Being with Stations, and even more so here at Twin Creeks, we have such a nice, regular clientele—people we’ve gotten to know, people that we see twice a week, five times a month, once a month—we see them over and over again.

“That’s what I like the best about it, is getting to know your clientele. As you get to know people, they get to feel more comfortable coming here, and they start ruling out other places to go. And we see them even more. I feel like I host a dinner party every night and then they send me a check at the end of the week.”

Morrison’s customer service philosophy is reminiscent of times gone by, when guests were greeted by name and seated at their favorite table. Morrison moves around his restaurant with ease and grace, creating an atmosphere of luxury at locals’ market prices.

Shortly before Morrison joined the team at Twin Creeks, Silverton commissioned a $3.7 million remodel of the high-end restaurant. Twin Creeks became the picture of elegance, with a high-end menu to accompany it. Locals loved the new look, but were not so happy with the $62 per person check. Morrison helped guide Twin Creeks in a new direction that is more conscious of the economic hardships their patrons face.

“We did some good business for a period of time, but the local people thought we were a little fancy schmancy for local folks, and our prices were a little fancy schmancy, too,” Morrison said. “So we re-inaugurated what we called the Twin Creeks classics, and that is a throwback to the Twin Creeks prior to the remodel. We still have the full a la carte section, so you can go that route if you like, but the new classics menu added back a filet with a salad and a choice of two side dishes, instead of all a la carte, at a really nice price.”

With the new classic menu, guests can now feast on a dinner of petite prime rib with a salad and two sides for $17—and Morrison’s presence at Twin Creeks only adds to that value.

By Caitlin McGarry