AI solution, which turned +30,000 monthly customer comments into instant insights in trial across New Zealand, will help streamline service operations and improve customer satisfaction for EVT’s cinema operations across Australia.
EVT, one of Australia’s largest entertainment and hospitality groups, is set to roll out an AI-powered sentiment analysis solution – developed in partnership with Decision Inc., a leading Global Technology Services consultancy – to its cinema operations across Australia this year.
The solution transforms how EVT listens to customers leveraging GenAI, allowing the company to quickly understand sentiment and direct feedback and take action each day to rectify issues and provide feedback to staff.
The roll-out follows a successful trial at sites across EVT’s cinemas in New Zealand.
“This wasn’t just about automation – it was about making feedback actionable,” said Denis Jimenez, Group GM of Data Analytics and AI, EVT.
“Decision Inc. Australia helped us turn large quantities of customer feedback into insights our teams can actually use. We’re now able to instantly identify issues, such as a broken seat or air conditioning concerns, and act immediately.”
Acting on all feedback and improving experiences
With iconic brands such as Event Cinemas, QT, Rydges and Thredbo, EVT pitches itself as being in the business of creating exceptional experiences.
As part of its strategic Elevate Our Customers initiative, the company sought to equip General Managers and executive teams with near-real-time customer insights to enhance decision-making, refine service delivery and improve issue resolution across its cinemas, hotels, restaurants and resorts.
But with over 30,000 customer comments submitted each month from its cinemas alone, keeping up with feedback was an escalating challenge.
Traditional manual review processes were slow, inconsistent and reactive – meaning critical issues were at times addressed too late and valuable positive feedback lost in the noise.
Scaling this process effectively was also a major obstacle – often leading to delays in identifying and resolving customer concerns.
“Customer experience is everything in our industry, but when you’re dealing with thousands of comments a month, separating real issues from background noise becomes a serious challenge,” said Jimenez. “We needed a smarter way to spot trends, flag urgent concerns and amplify what customers love – without drowning our teams in data.”
Recognising the need for a scalable, AI-driven approach, EVT selected Decision Inc. Australia to develop a bespoke solution. Decision Inc.’s expertise in data analytics and artificial intelligence made it the perfect partner to help EVT achieve its strategic goal.
Built with an advanced LLM and integrated into EVT’s existing tech stack, the system delivers near-instant insights – categorising responses by themes such as service, cleanliness, and value for money, then generating sentiment scores to prioritise action.
A custom-built Power BI dashboard consolidates this data into a single source of truth, giving General Managers and executive teams a real-time view of customer sentiment. Operational issues are flagged instantly while strategic feedback is summarised and centralised to support long-term business decisions.
Granular actions can be undertaken quickly and accurately, with data privacy paramount
Now fully operational, EVT can decode customer feedback across its cinemas – turning thousands of unstructured comments into real-time insights – helping its teams respond faster, address issues in real time and improve overall service quality.
It can even help staff understand issues such as a broken seat – and advise them of the specific seat number that requires attention.
“Previously, we spent hours manually sifting through customer feedback,” said Jimenez.
“Now, we have a system that distils everything down to what really matters, daily, in real time. It’s made us more agile, more proactive and ultimately, more in tune with what our customers want and expect.”
Beyond efficiency, the solution has had a noticeable impact on employee morale. Frontline teams now have greater visibility into what customers appreciate, reinforcing the value of their work.
Importantly, the system records no personally-identifiable information of customers or staff – helping EVT maintain a robust privacy posture.
The success of the project in New Zealand has buoyed the company to roll the solution out across many of its cinemas in Australia. In turn, the success has also laid the foundation for further innovation within EVT. The company is now exploring ways to expand its use across other brands and business areas, including hotels and resorts.
Additionally, the ability to track emerging trends over time is expected to help EVT make more strategic, data-driven decisions about future service improvements.
“What GenAI has proven it can do better than any human already is summarise vast streams of data within minutes, which is proving a boon for EVT,” said Tony Butler, MD, Decision Inc. Australia.
“A business in the service industry relies on its reputation and the better it can understand and respond to customers, the better for its reputation.”
