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Welcome to the DCX weekly roundup of customer experience insights!
Let’s face it—customers today expect more than speed.
They want experiences that feel smart, personal, and seamless—whether they’re calling support, walking into a store, or shopping from their phone. And this week’s stories make one thing crystal clear: CX is growing up.
From AI that handles your calls like a pro, to retailers turning stores into immersive ad experiences, to companies finally cleaning up the messy stuff like billing and delivery—real change is happening behind the scenes.
The best part? The brands getting it right aren’t just tweaking things around the edges. They’re baking CX into how they operate, how they think, and how they win.
If you care about building trust, loyalty, and long-term value, this one’s for you.
This week’s must-read links:
Meet Your New AI Receptionist
Best Buy Turns Stores Into Brand Billboards
Can a Cable Company Really Change?
The CX Imperative: From Surface Fixes to Real Change
DCX Stat of the Week: 64% Want Humans in the AI Loop
DCX Case Study: How Walmart Drove CSAT from 78% to 92%
Meet Your New AI Receptionist
AT&T is testing a new AI-powered receptionist that screens calls before they ever reach you. Instead of just tagging robocalls, this digital helper actually talks to callers, figures out if they’re real, and decides whether to put them through.
Why it matters:
Spam calls aren’t just annoying—they’re a trust killer.
Scammers are already using AI to sound more convincing.
This flips the script: AI isn’t just blocking, it’s actively protecting your time.
What’s happening:
AT&T already blocks or labels 2B+ robocalls each month.
The receptionist uses large language models to hold natural conversations.
You can watch a live transcript, set “Do Not Screen” lists, or let it take messages.
The bottom line:
Because it’s built into the network, you don’t have to download anything or drain your battery. That’s a big differentiator. And for CX pros, it’s another sign that AI intermediaries are going to start handling the small stuff—so customers can spend more energy on what matters.
🔗 Go Deeper: AT&T Blog
Best Buy Turns Stores Into Brand Billboards
Best Buy is rolling out a bold new play: letting advertisers “take over” entire stores for a month. Think windows, TV walls, PC monitors, Geek Squad counters, even checkout screens—basically every touchpoint in the shopping journey.
Why it matters:
Retail media is exploding, and Best Buy wants to turn its stores into a new revenue stream.
The upside: a focused electronics audience that brands crave.
The risk: pushing too far and turning shopping into a wall of ads instead of a customer-friendly experience.
What’s happening:
Campaigns aren’t just for tech brands—restaurants, movies, even car companies could join in.
Best Buy ran 3,000 campaigns last year and expects to double that with these takeovers.
Measurement will track both product sales and off-site actions like app downloads or ticket sales.
CX takeaway:
If done right, in-store ads can feel like part of the journey—guiding decisions, adding excitement, maybe even sparking discovery. But if overdone, they risk feeling like clutter. For CX leaders, this is a reminder: monetization has to serve the experience, not compete with it.
🔗 Go Deeper: Modern Retail
Can a Cable Company Really Change?
A year ago, Spectrum promised to put customers at the center of everything. Now they’re saying it’s working—faster installs, clearer pricing, and fewer billing headaches are driving satisfaction scores up.
Why it matters:
Cable and telco companies don’t exactly have a reputation for great service.
Spectrum is trying to change that by making reliability, speed, and transparency part of the everyday experience.
For CX leaders, it’s a reminder that bold promises only work if you actually deliver—and keep proving it.
What’s happening:
Techs are showing up within two hours for most installs and repairs.
Price guarantees and simpler billing cut customer billing calls by 16% in a year.
AI and machine learning tools are catching issues before customers even notice them.
CX takeaway:
Customers don’t care about slogans—they care about results. Spectrum’s progress shows the power of making promises you can measure and then delivering on them consistently. It builds trust, and trust is the real currency of CX.
🔗 More → Charter Communications
The CX Imperative: From Surface Fixes to Real Change
Too often, companies treat customer experience like window dressing—clean apps, glossy touchpoints—while the real business model stays stuck in the past. The CX Imperative, a new guide from Mark Fithian and Jeff Rosenberg, Co-founders and Partners in CC consulting firm Wide Open, makes the case that CX only works when it’s built into the core of the business.
Why it matters:
Brands like Blockbuster and Kodak show what happens when you drift too far from customer needs.
The winners? Companies that weave CX into their DNA—driving growth and employee pride.
For CX leaders, this book is fuel to push the conversation beyond “surveys and NPS” into strategy and culture.
What it’s about:
Building empathy-driven insights into how customers really think and behave.
Designing experiences with intention, not just reacting to problems.
Creating operating models and cultures where CX is everyone’s responsibility.
CX takeaway:
If CX lives only on the surface, it’s theater. If it’s wired into strategy, structure, and culture, it becomes advantage. This book shows how to make that leap—and why it matters now more than ever.
🔗 Get the Book→ Amazon.com
🔗 Learn More→ This is Wide Open
DCX Stat of the Week
64% of customers believe having people involved within AI processes would improve their customer experience.
Takeaway: While businesses race toward AI automation, customers are sending a different signal—they don't want pure machine interactions but human-AI collaboration. This challenges the "replace humans with bots" mindset and suggests the winning CX strategy isn't about choosing between people and technology, but designing experiences where both work together seamlessly.
🔗 Go Deeper: MIT Technology Review Insights
🔗 MORE STATS: Daily Stats published on Substack Notes
DCX Case Study of the Week
How Walmart Drove CSAT from 78% to 92%
CX Challenge: Walmart struggled with a fragmented customer experience, slow 24-48 hour deliveries, and satisfaction scores that lagged competitors at just 78%.
Action Taken: In 2024, Walmart deployed a massive omnichannel transformation by integrating proprietary AI and AR platforms, unifying commerce on social channels, and deploying AI-powered customer support.
Result: The transformation directly improved customer sentiment and behavior. CSAT jumped 14 points to 92% as delivery times dropped to same-day service. This fueled engagement, with daily same-day orders soaring from 60,000 to over 500,000 and Walmart+ membership growing by 10 million users.
Lesson for CX Pros: True omnichannel isn't about adding more channels. It's about unifying the back-end technology so the customer sees one seamless brand, not a collection of siloed touchpoints.
Quote: "A standard search bar is no longer the fastest path to purchase, rather we must use technology to adapt to customers' individual preferences and needs." — Suresh Kumar, Global CTO, Walmart
🔗 Further Reading: Walmart's AI Strategy
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.
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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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