DCX Links | July 13, 2025
What do a pushy owl, a faceless meme maker, and a hotel concierge have in common?
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Welcome to the DCX weekly roundup of customer experience insights!
What do a pushy owl, a faceless meme maker, and a hotel concierge have in common?
They all understand that customer experience isn't about polish, it's about presence. This week, we explore the strategies powering real customer connection in a landscape shaped by algorithms, anonymity, and automation.
From Duolingo’s chaotic charm to Cursor’s stumble with pricing clarity, one message comes through: when brands lead with clarity, care, and cultural fluency, customers respond. When they don’t, trust unravels; quietly or all at once.
In a world where AI can mimic tone but not empathy, and virality is both chaotic and intentional, CX pros need to show up with design that feels human, pricing that makes sense instantly, and systems that adapt fast through real customer feedback. The customer experience revolution is already here. It's weird, decentralized, and deeply human.
-Mark
This week’s must-read links:
How Duolingo’s Owl Took Over the Internet
Faceless Creators Are Reshaping the Customer Journey—Quietly
Designing for Care: Why Customers Can Sense When You Don’t
Cursor’s Pricing Mishap - Broken Trust
CX in the GenAI Era: Talk Less, Build More
The ROI of Giving a Damn
How Duolingo’s Owl Took Over the Internet
Duolingo’s TikTok-famous green owl has done more than threaten your language streak—it’s built one of the most influential brand identities online. But behind the memes, weird stunts, and Charli XCX cameos is a case study in how to win hearts and build habits in the digital age. The smart folks at Brand Genetics dissected the DNA of Duolingo’s brand to reveal how it turned chaos into consistency—and why it works
Why it matters:
CX leaders can learn a lot from how Duolingo blurred the line between product, brand, and community. The owl’s antics work because they never lose sight of the goal: helping people show up and learn something every day.
Embrace the weird—and the flawed
Duolingo didn’t run from user jokes about its “pushy owl”—it leaned in.
Self-deprecation turned frustration into fandom. “Annoyance” became a feature, not a bug.
Quirk builds loyalty faster than polish. People trust what feels real.
Let your team lead
Duolingo’s social crew has full autonomy—and it shows.
They create raw, chaotic, culturally fluent content in real time, no approvals needed.
That freedom is what keeps the brand one viral moment ahead.
Anchor chaos in clarity
Beneath the dancing owls and meme storms, there’s always the same message: learn a language.
Their unfiltered tone still ladders up to a clear brand truth—daily learning made fun.
The CX To-Do: Give your frontlines the keys. Show your brand’s quirks. And always bring the noise back to the product.
🔗 Read the article → Brand Genetics
Faceless Creators Are Reshaping the Customer Journey—Quietly
They don’t have followers. They don’t go on podcasts. But they might be the ones driving your next conversion. Faceless creators—anonymous content machines churning out product promos, texting stories, and meme clips—are changing how brands shape customer experiences across social platforms.
Why it matters:
This isn’t just a media buying trend. It’s a CX evolution. Faceless creators are blurring the line between entertainment and commerce, embedding branded moments deep inside customer feeds—without disrupting the scroll.
Invisible influence, real impact
These creators optimize for behavior, not fame. Their goal? Clicks, trials, signups.
Brands now meet customers mid-scroll with native, relatable, performance-optimized content.
It’s soft-sell storytelling that doesn’t feel like marketing—and that’s why it works.
Personalized at scale
With many creators running multiple accounts, they tailor content to micro-communities and subcultures.
Instead of pushing a one-size-fits-all brand message, CX leaders can test dozens of creative variants simultaneously—each designed for a specific mood, moment, or mindset.
It’s UX-level personalization delivered through social content.
Lower risk, faster learning
Unlike celebrity-led campaigns, faceless content allows rapid experimentation with little downside.
Brands can A/B test formats, tones, and CTAs across hundreds of pieces of content—learning in real time what customers respond to.
This gives CX teams faster feedback loops to shape messaging, offers, and even product features.
The CX To-Do: Don’t just outsource content—outsource experimentation. Use faceless creators as agile CX testers embedded in the feed, learning what clicks before you scale what sticks.
🔗 Read the article → DigiDay
Designing for Care: Why Customers Can Sense When You Don’t
Great design isn’t just usable—it’s felt. In a deeply personal reflection, Ben Holliday, Chief Design Officer at TPXimpact, argues that design is ultimately about care, and the absence of it is just as powerful. Whether it’s AI in public services or cables in an iPhone box, people know when something has been crafted with care—or thrown together without thought.
Why it matters:
CX leaders must understand that carelessness is a customer experience. It’s the error-prone interface, the confusing referral system, the AI tool that automates discrimination. When people feel abandoned by design, trust erodes fast.
Care is context
A Samaritans poster placed above a motorway bridge isn't just signage—it’s life-saving design.
Smart CX meets people in moments that matter, not just channels that convert.
Human-centered placement > clever tech.
Carelessness has a cost
Systems built for growth, not good, quietly harm the vulnerable—especially in public services.
Meta’s alleged targeting of insecure teens is a cautionary tale of design without ethics.
When customers sense they’re being optimized at, not cared for, they disengage or revolt.
Small signals, big meaning
Jony Ive knew every detail—down to how cables were coiled—communicated intention.
Customers feel thoughtfulness in design. It builds confidence, delight, and trust.
Neglected UX or opaque AI signals a lack of accountability—and invites scrutiny.
The CX To-Do: Design like it matters. People can’t always articulate what’s wrong—but they know when you didn’t care enough to make it right.
🔗 Read the article → Ben Holliday
Cursor’s Pricing Mishap - Broken Trust
Cursor’s recent Pro plan changes weren’t just confusing—they fractured a fragile user-brand contract. In a July 4 post, the team owned up to the poor communication and offered refunds for surprise overages. But the real story is about what happens when clarity fails in the most critical part of your customer experience: pricing.
Why it matters:
Price is more than math—it’s messaging. When expectations around usage, cost, and value don’t align, trust erodes fast. Cursor’s stumble is a sharp reminder that pricing clarity is central to user experience.
Context is everything
Cursor moved from “requests per month” to a $20 usage credit tied to API token consumption.
That shift made technical sense—reflecting true costs across model providers like OpenAI and Anthropic.
But users didn’t understand that “unlimited” only applied to Auto mode—and many were caught off guard.
The pain wasn’t the plan—it was the surprise
Users weren’t mad at the new structure; they were blindsided by vague language and evolving definitions.
Terms like “rate limits” and “frontier model usage” lacked context or real-world examples.
It’s a classic UX pricing pitfall: assume too much technical fluency, explain too little.
Trust, refunded
Cursor offered usage refunds and updated dashboards to show usage in real time.
More importantly, they publicly admitted fault—showing vulnerability and accountability.
Done right, this kind of honesty can deepen loyalty more than a perfect rollout.
The CX To-Do: Audit your pricing like it’s a product. If customers wouldn’t understand it in three swipes, it’s too complex—or too risky to launch without serious handholding.
🔗 Read the Letter → Source
CX in the GenAI Era: Talk Less, Build More
Publicis Sapient’s latest research is clear—while most execs say CX is a top priority, too many are still stuck in planning mode. GenAI is already changing how customers search, shop, and connect. If you're not testing, learning, and building now, you're falling behind.
Why it matters:
Customers don’t care about your strategy docs. They care about how it feels to deal with you. GenAI has raised the bar, and brands that aren’t using it to improve real experiences are already losing ground.
Data is your fuel, not your fallback
53% of leaders say data is a blocker—but it’s also the unlock.
GenAI only works when it’s fed clean, real-time customer signals.
Without that, you’re guessing. And customers can tell.
Everyone wants personalization—but no one has the content
67% of execs are banking on AI assistants to boost productivity.
The problem? Most teams don’t have enough content to personalize at scale.
That’s where GenAI shines—but only if you give it the right tools and access.
Search is changing—fast
Customers are using natural language to find what they want.
This flips traditional SEO on its head.
Smart brands are rethinking how people ask before optimizing what gets found.
The CX To-Do: Stop waiting for the perfect roadmap. Pick a use case, test it with real customers, and let the results shape your next move.
🔗 Get the Report → Publicis
The ROI of Giving a Damn
Mack Collier makes a simple case backed by real science: empathy isn’t just good vibes—it’s a business advantage. And if you want proof, look no further than the hospitality industry. While most sectors chase AI shortcuts and flashy CX gimmicks, hotels and tourism brands keep winning by doing one thing well: actually caring.
Why it matters:
Empathy isn’t fluff. It reduces stress, deepens loyalty, and boosts word-of-mouth. Customers don’t need perfection—they need to feel seen, heard, and valued. That’s what builds memories. That’s what gets shared.
Hospitality gets it right
Hospitality pros understand the customer’s why—a birthday, a long-awaited trip, a family memory in the making.
Everyone plays their part. Hotels, restaurants, and attractions treat the guest experience as a team sport.
Convention & Visitors Bureaus align businesses around shared service values, creating consistent, delight-filled journeys.
The science is in
Human empathy triggers 30% higher feelings of connection and 25% less stress (Depow et al., 2021).
AI-generated empathy flops. People rate it 40% less supportive and trust it far less, even when the message is the same.
True empathy even boosts prosocial behavior, meaning one act of care can ripple into many.
Don’t outsource your heart
AI has its place—but empathy isn’t plug-and-play.
When leaders skip over the people doing the work (like the customer service manager), they break trust from the inside out.
The best CX strategy still starts with a human giving a damn.
The CX To-Do: Build a culture that values care as a measurable asset. Train for empathy, reward it, and make it everyone’s job—AI included.
🔗 Read the article → Backstage Pass
Thank you!
I hope you found value in this week’s links. See you next Sunday at 8:15 am ET!
If this edition sparked ideas, share it with a colleague or team member. Let’s grow the DCX community together!
👋 Please Reach Out
I created this newsletter to help customer-obsessed pros like you deliver exceptional experiences and tackle challenges head-on. But honestly? The best part is connecting with awesome, like-minded people—just like you! 😊
Here’s how you can get involved:
Got feedback? Tell me what’s working, what’s not, or what you’d love to see next.
Stuck on something? Hit me up whether it’s a CX challenge, strategy question, or team issue—I’m here to help.
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Your input keeps this newsletter fresh and valuable. Let’s start a conversation—email me, DM me, or comment anytime. I can’t wait to hear from you!
— Mark
www.marklevy.co
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