CX: Regal Theaters Is One To Watch

No spoilers here. I went to watch Fantastic Four: First Steps this weekend and had an out of this world experience at Regal Theaters in Dublin, CA. I won’t be talking about the movie in this post, but rather how Regal Theaters absolutely clobbered my expectations.

Let me break down the journey…

Before selecting this specific theater…

  • I’ve passed by this location countless times and have often said “I’d love to see a movie there”. The building is massive, the signage is recognizable from a distance. Besides those two things I didn’t know what to expect inside the building.
  • I had a gift certificate to Regal Theaters pinned to a corkboard in our kitchen for the last 7 months. This helped with my decision, however I’ve seen no less than 4 movies in the theater since the start of the new year. Why now?

Selecting a time…

  • This is part of what made it an easy decision. There were multiple times and screen formats at the Regal Theaters that fit into our weekend schedule.
  • I mentioned screen formats and wanted to dive a bit deeper here. I’ve never heard of ScreenX before but after reading the description thought it was worth a try. More on this later on.

Ordering process…

  • I ordered my ticket and it was easy to access it and add it to my digital wallet. I was even curious and noticed how easy it would have been to reschedule my tickets if needed. I didn’t complete this process but got one step before confirming another time and it was super easy.

First impressions…

  • The lobby was incredible. I was welcomed with large scale movie stand-ups, a panoramic selection of food and beverages (coffee bar, meals, movie snacks, full bar), and friendly staff. So far, so good.

Take your seats…

  • Here’s where things got interesting. As I made my way to the specific theater I noticed the entryways to each individual theater had signage for the Screen format. IMAX, RPX, and here we were, ScreenX.
  • My theater door was open and I made my way in. “That’s it?”, I lamented as I made my way to my seat. The room reminded me of a theater I watched indie films so many years ago. I got through about half my popcorn before the trailers, and then it happened.
  • “Focus on the center screen”. What? There’s only one screen. These instructions seemed odd as I’ve been going to the movies since Batman (the one with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson) and never was told how to watch a movie. Then, the once invisible four ceiling mounted projectors positioned in pairs at the front and rear of the theater whirred to life. These additional projectors expanded the visuals to the surrounding walls. Yes, you heard that right. It felt like magic. I understand that advances in hardware and software make experiences like this possible, but it was too much of a stretch to understand it until I saw it with my own eyes.
  • Throughout the movie certain scenes used three of the four walls in the theater. It was incredible and made for an immersive and unique experience. Watching a movie like this one was perfect for it too given the special effects and sweeping galaxy sized scenes.

Closing the loop…

  • Like I said, no spoilers. Immediately after the movie I checked my email and wouldn’t you know it. Regal sent me a survey about an hour into the movie.

This entire experience, from before booking a ticket, selecting a time, the absolutely fire screen format, and attention to detail shows how well Regal understands the moviegoer’s experience.

I’ve included some screenshots (all mobile, in dark mode) and added some notes to each. Really amazing job by the entire team at Regal!

This level of detail was super helpful in understanding what this screen would be like compared to others. It still didn’t prepare me for what to expect, and I’m glad it didn’t over sell it.
In addition to the thing I absolutely need (my ticket), this email included everything else I might need related to making changes to my booking, adding my ticket to my digital wallet, and more.
Closing the loop is such an important part of any experience to learn what worked, what didn’t, and how to create relationships with customers.
This is exactly how brands should use preview text in an email. What a great use of an often underutilized attribute. I’d imagine this helps with open rates compared to those that don’t use it like this.
This email was great, however I’m really overwhelmed with how much I’ve heard from Regal in a short period of time. I’m actually hoping they follow up with a TL;DR version, or tailor it to what I want to hear about (maybe if I gave them an indication of what that is in my booking process and they connected that input to this message I’d engage with it!)

Addendum

Here’s what stood out about the feedback experience…


Responsive Design

I was able to complete everything on my mobile device and the UI/UX was perfect.

Super clean design, everything from the element sizing, color scheme, and question shows how much work went into this survey.


Verbatim Tracking & Suggestions

This knocked my socks off. You’ve seen free text fields say whether or not you wrote enough and prevent you from submitting until hitting a character limit. This feedback field was listening in real time and gave me advice on how to write a better review. See how I’m pressed to give more details on what made the facilities exceed expectations?

Think about all the rich data that a company can capture from that free text fields technology. Even if the user doesn’t submit the Feedback they have signals on what they wanted more detail about.