Empathetic CX creates trust by recognizing that every interaction is much more than a transaction.
At ODEON Cinemas, particularly, that belief has shaped both its guest experience strategy and its approach to adopting AI, using Zendesk technology to strengthen service while protecting the human moments that define the brand.
CX leaders must therefore be thinking about how to deploy AI to enhance efficiency without diminishing the relationships customers value most.
In conversation with CX Today, Charlotte Ullathorn, Head of Marketing at ODEON Cinemas, explained that the company’s approach to CX extends far beyond ticket sales or operational efficiency.
“The cinema is a place where you’re never actually alone,” she noted.
“Even if you’re the only person in the screen, you’re with the film.”
The Growing Pressure Behind Every Enquiry
For customer-facing brands such as ODEON Cinemas, preserving guest connection whilst demands increase have become increasingly complex to handle.
In order to maintain both, its guest service center agents were required to navigate fragmented customer contact channels whilst also rely on multiple internal systems to find information and resolve issues.
Despite these juggling efforts, enquiry volumes continued to rise, meaning more customers experienced slower response times and duplicated efforts, whilst teams faced higher pressure to deliver on time.
“We were using multiple channels internally, as well as offering multiple channels for our guests to contact us,” Ullathorn explained.
“If you multiply all the channels they could contact us by, with all the channels we then used internally, it wasn’t efficient.”
This effect on human cost was too damaging to continue with, as agents who spent years using ODEON’s operations revealed they were spending more time switching systems instead of helping customers.
This growing frustration revealed that these processes were creating unnecessary stress in an environment where empathy and speed was too important to leave to the side.
As a result, ODEON required more efforts being placed to ensure employee expertise retention and relevant customer empathy.
“These individuals, not only do they have huge output, their knowledge on ODEON, our cinemas, our films, is invaluable,” she said.
In environments where customer service extends beyond transactional problems, guests are often reaching out at moments that matter, whether they are planning a family outing, arranging a special occasion, or simply looking for somewhere to spend time.
In a previous campaign with UK charity, Mind, in December, ODEON highlighted how the cinema has remained one of the few public spaces where spending time alone can still feel like belonging.
“We did a huge campaign at Christmas with Mind, and it was a really lovely campaign to remind people you’re never alone at Christmas, whether you choose to be or not,” Ullathorn said.
By viewing each enquiry as a person rather than a ticket or booking reference, brands can implement responsive, thoughtful customer service into the entire experience.
As operational complexity increases, improving efficiency does not have to mean removing the human element, but create the conditions to allow it to thrive.
Designing Customer Service Technology Around People
To redesign its guest service operation worked, ODEON Cinema’s approached Zendesk for a partnership to develop a better understanding the reality of life on the front line.
“We went to them and said, these are our challenges, these are our objectives, help,” Ullathorn recalls.
“The guys from Zendesk came and spent time with our agents, actually doing it, talking to them firsthand. That was super helpful.”
By observing workflows and listening to agents, Zendesk were able to build a picture of where friction existed to shape the technology around the people using it for a more streamlined guest service operation.
This included consolidating multiple communication channels into a single platform, reducing unnecessary complexity and automating repetitive, high-volume requests.
This enabled agents to gain more time on customer requests that required human empathy or complex input, improving day-to-day efficiency and giving ODEON a richer understanding of what guests were experiencing.
“It’s a really good channel to get insights around what’s the noise, what are guests saying?” Ullathorn emphasized.
“If there’s roadworks outside a cinema, how many guests have complained? Or merchandise that’s gone on sale, how many guests have contacted us asking when it’s coming out?”
Moving away from reactive work, ODEON can now monitor enquiry volumes and themes to react in near real time to operational issues or emerging customer concerns, creating a feedback loop that informs decision making across the business.
Furthermore, by reinvesting in the expertise it had built, agents experienced with both the brand and Zendesk were redeployed into areas where those skills could create additional value.
“Their output is incredible. They work at pace,” she continued.
“To be able to deploy that knowledge and skills into other teams has meant we’re seeing efficiencies in other areas of the business.”
Protecting the Guest Experience
Whilst the AI implementation has improved operations, the success of the technology for ODEON continues to be measured by whether it creates more capacity for the conversations that matter most.
By establishing clear automation boundaries for automation from the outset, this ensures that conversations involving legal considerations or potential brand risks are intentionally escalated to experienced agents.
“Anything that could be high risk, to the business or the brand, we know would be pulled from the AI and escalated,” Ullathorn emphasized.
“It’s all about learning and putting it all in based on real previous inquiries, and then feeding them into the bot.”
When AI performs best by drawing on established patterns, entirely unforeseen customer scenarios can create questions that cannot always be anticipated.
“We don’t know what we don’t know. When you’re dealing with the public, any scenario could happen at any one time,” she continued.
“That’s why you need that human, because if something comes into the AI bot that we’ve not had before, it won’t know what to do with it.”
Regardless, this approach remains an ongoing process as the system continues to learn from real customer interactions, particularly important in an industry where customer demand is driven by unpredictable moments.
As AI takes responsibility for routine enquiries, agents now have time to focus on conversations that require reassurance or careful problem solving.
“Now our agents have a bit more time to be able to get into it in detail, into a situation. Give back that because it’s a big part,” she said.
With every interaction contributing to a wider guest experience in the cinema industry, CX leaders operating in similarly empathetic environments must understand that AI should not replace human service, but use it to improve how services are deliberately used.
Whilst technology can handle the repetitive work that slows teams down, human judgement offers the required adaptability and empathy when circumstances fall outside patterns.
As a result, the strongest CX is created when automation makes room for meaningful human interactions, giving guests the choice to speak with a person when needed.
