Customers Aren’t Escalating Anymore. They’re Leaving.
DCX Links | January 18, 2026
Welcome to the DCX weekly roundup of customer experience insights!
Escalations used to be a signal that something was wrong. Today, their absence can be even more concerning.
When customers run into friction now, many don’t argue, complain, or ask for a manager. They decide whether the effort is worth it. If it isn’t, they move on. Quietly.
That shift shows up across this week’s stories. AI and automation aren’t failing because they exist — they fail when they block progress, break context, or make customers work too hard to be understood. Systems meant to streamline support are often doing the opposite.
As expectations rise, tolerance drops. In 2026, the brands that win won’t be the ones managing escalations best — they’ll be the ones that never make customers feel like leaving is easier than getting help.
Let’s dig in!
This week’s must-read links:
2026 CX Predictions: The Contact Center Gets Back to Basics
Why 2026 Is the Year CX Finally Gets Called Out
Five CX Newsletters I Keep Coming Back To
The “Godmother of AI” Says We’re Missing the Obvious
DCX Stat of the Week: Customers Are Fine With AI… Until You Get Sneaky About It
DCX Case Study of the Week: When the System Failed, the Experience Didn’t — H-E-B’s Checkout Moment
2026 CX Predictions: The Contact Center Gets Back to Basics
In this quick but telling set of predictions, Guillaume Seynhaeve argues that the enterprise contact center is done chasing shiny objects. After years of piling on tools, channels, and automation, 2026 is shaping up as the year CX teams simplify, reconnect systems, and refocus on what actually resolves customer problems.
Why it matters:
The CX stack has become bloated. More tech hasn’t translated into better outcomes.
Customers don’t care how modern your architecture looks. They care if things work, connect, and get fixed fast.
Enterprises are realizing that friction between systems creates friction for customers.
What’s really changing:
CRM takes center stage. Agents can’t keep swivel-chairing between systems. CRMs are becoming the primary interface, with contact center platforms acting as extensions, not silos.
Voice is back. Not as a fallback, but as the fastest path to resolution for complex, emotional, or urgent issues. AI is expected to increase voice traffic, not eliminate it.
Voice AI finally grows up. Legacy IVRs are wearing out their welcome. Modern voice AI and multimodal experiences promise conversations that actually flow instead of forcing customers down rigid paths.
Between the lines:
Data quality is now a competitive weapon. AI without clean, connected data just automates confusion.
There’s an early signal of a counter-move: clearly labeled human-only service tiers. As automation becomes default, human help may become the premium.
The common thread isn’t more AI. It’s more intention. Use AI to support resolution, not to hide humans behind menus.
The CX To-Do:
Audit where your systems break context. If agents struggle to see the full picture, customers feel it immediately.
🔗 Go Deeper: 3C Logic
Why 2026 Is the Year CX Finally Gets Called Out
In a blunt piece, Constantine von Hoffman isn’t predicting a trend. He’s reading the warning signs. Customers aren’t mildly dissatisfied. They’re tired. And 2026 looks like the year that fatigue finally turns into consequences for brands that keep mistaking automation for experience.
Why it matters:
CX failure today isn’t about edge cases. It’s systemic. More problems. More effort. Less tolerance.
When customers struggle to get help, they don’t escalate. They disengage. Quietly. Permanently.
Trust, once lost, doesn’t come back because you added another bot.
By the numbers:
77% of customers had a product or service issue last year. The highest level ever recorded.
68% say resolving issues requires high or very high effort.
Nearly 50% would cancel a service if AI-only support was their only option.
CX scores have declined four years in a row, despite more “AI-powered” investments.
Between the lines:
Companies believe AI is improving CX. Customers believe it’s being used to deflect cost. Both can’t be true.
The real shift isn’t chatbots getting better. It’s AI moving into orchestration. Anticipating friction, preserving context, coordinating across systems.
Leaders at Genesys describe AI that operates quietly in the background. Changing state before problems surface. That’s a very different role than frontline gatekeeper.
What CX teams should take from this:
This isn’t about choosing humans or AI. It’s about deciding who owns the experience. Customers are signaling clearly. They want continuity, context, and the option of human help when things matter.
2026 won’t reward efficiency theater. It’ll reward brands that design AI to support people, not stand between them.
🔗 Go Deeper: Martech
Five CX Newsletters I Keep Coming Back To
CXLead recently published a thoughtful roundup of the 17 best CX newsletters for 2026. It’s a strong list and a good reminder of how much smart thinking is happening across the CX community. From that group, these are the five I personally keep coming back to. They consistently help me think more clearly about the work.
Why these stand out for me:
The CX Lead
A practical read with useful how-to guidance and clear tool reviews. It’s especially helpful when you’re trying to turn ideas into action.Customer Experience Dive
Reliable, daily coverage of what’s happening across CX, service, and technology. It’s one of the easiest ways to stay current without overthinking it.CX Journey by Annette Franz
Grounded, customer-first thinking that brings you back to fundamentals. Annette has a way of cutting through noise and keeping the focus where it belongs.The Shepard Letter
Shep Hyken’s weekly insights are approachable and experience-led. Short reflections that often stick with you longer than expected. I love his insightful cartoons, as well.CX Network
A solid source for leadership perspective and strategic CX conversations. Useful when you want to step back and look at the bigger picture.
Why this matters:
What you read shapes how you show up as a CX leader. These newsletters, and Decoding Customer Experience, of course ;-) help reinforce good judgment, practical thinking, and a customer-first mindset without adding unnecessary noise.
👉 Want to see the full list of all 17 newsletters CXLead curated?
You can find the complete roundup on CXLead.
The “Godmother of AI” Says We’re Missing the Obvious
In a moment worth slowing down for on The Tim Ferriss Show, Fei-Fei Li names what’s quietly going wrong with the AI conversation. We keep treating AI like a tech race. She treats it like a societal decision. That difference matters.
Why it matters:
Calling AI a civilizational technology reframes the stakes. This isn’t software adoption. It’s economic power, cultural norms, education paths, and political influence reshaping at once.
When leaders focus on growth curves and capability demos, they miss how people feel inside the change. That gap shows up later as distrust, resistance, or quiet withdrawal.
CX leaders sit closest to this fault line. You see the human cost before strategy decks catch up.
State of play:
AI dominates attention everywhere. Not because people understand it well, but because it feels unavoidable.
Anxiety isn’t irrational. It’s a signal. People sense their agency slipping while decisions get made faster and farther away from them.
Silicon Valley talks progress. Politics talks advantage. Very few talk dignity.
Between the lines:
Fei-Fei Li isn’t anti-AI. She’s pro-human authority.
Her warning isn’t about runaway intelligence. It’s about systems that forget who they serve.
CX becomes governance by design. Every AI interaction either reinforces agency or erodes it.
The CX To-Do: Stop asking, “Can we automate this?” Start asking, “What does this teach people about their place in the system?”
🔗 Go Deeper: Tim Ferris Blog
🔗 More from Tim Ferris: Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter):
DCX Stat of the Week
Customers are fine with AI… until you get sneaky about it
Data Source: Talkdesk Post-2025 Holiday AI Survey
89% of shoppers used AI in some way during holiday shopping. (It’s not “the future.” It’s “last month.”)
74% said AI saved them hours. (Convenience is officially a baseline expectation.)
40% said they’d feel misled if a brand didn’t disclose they were interacting with AI. (Translation: “Don’t catfish me with a bot.”)
The Insight:
This is the new deal: customers will happily use AI if it helps, but they expect you to be straight with them. Surprise AI is what damages trust, not AI itself.
🔗 Source: Talkdesk
🔗 MORE STATS: Daily Stats on Substack Notes
DCX Case Study of the Week
When the System Failed, the Experience Didn’t: H-E-B’s Checkout Moment
Just days before Christmas, shoppers stood in line at a Texas grocery store as the checkout screens went dark — and then an employee made an announcement no one expected.
📖 The Story
At an H-E-B store in Burleson, Texas, a computer system outage shut down checkout registers during one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year. Customers were stuck with full carts and no way to pay.
Instead of asking shoppers to abandon their groceries or wait indefinitely, store leadership made a snap decision: anyone already in line could take their groceries home for free. Employees waved customers through as applause broke out across the store.
Shoppers later described the moment as emotional and unexpected — especially during a season when food budgets are already stretched. The story spread quickly across social media and national news, reinforcing H-E-B’s reputation for putting people before policy.
🧠 Why This Is a CX Case Study (Not Just a Feel-Good Story)
This wasn’t about free groceries. It was about decision-making under pressure:
Frontline teams were empowered to act without waiting for corporate approval.
The brand optimized for emotional outcome, not short-term loss prevention.
A technical failure became a trust-building moment customers will remember longer than any promotion.
📌 The CX Lesson for Leaders
Customers don’t judge experiences by whether systems fail — they judge them by how brands respond when they do. H-E-B chose empathy over efficiency metrics, and in return earned loyalty, advocacy, and national goodwill.
Moments like this are where customer experience stops being a strategy deck and becomes a behavior.
📘 Why This Matters for CX Builders
In The Psychology of CX 101, I break down why emotionally intelligent responses outperform rigid processes — especially during moments of stress. H-E-B didn’t “delight” customers by design; they respected them by instinct, which is exactly what strong CX cultures enable.
👉 If you’re building CX systems that still leave teams afraid to act, this story is your signal.
🔗 Further Reading: People.com: H-E-B Gives Shoppers Free Groceries After Holiday Computer Glitch
Have a case study to share? Reply and let me know!
🔚 Final Thought
The most dangerous CX problems are the ones you don’t hear about.
When customers stop escalating, it can look like progress. Fewer complaints. Lower call volume. Quieter dashboards. But silence doesn’t mean satisfaction — it often means customers have given up.
Strong CX today isn’t about preventing every failure. It’s about removing the friction that makes people walk away. Clear paths to help. Honest use of AI. And employees who are trusted to step in when systems fall short.
Because customers who still complain are telling you something.
The ones who leave without a word already have.
Thank you!
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