Trust Isn’t a Metric—It’s Your CX Lifeline
DCX Links | November 23, 2025
Welcome to the DCX weekly roundup of customer experience insights!
Trust is no longer something brands earn over time. It is either built into the experience or it isn’t there at all.
This week, we’re seeing what that looks like in the wild. Google is reshaping expectations with AI that plans your trip in seconds. Sonos is doing damage control in public, one reply at a time. Delta is turning premium experience into measurable revenue. And scammers are using AI to mimic your voice, your tone, your email templates.
The message is clear. Trust is not just a message from marketing. It is what happens when the product works, when communication is clear, and when the customer feels seen without having to ask twice.
This week’s must-read links:
Google leans into AI trip planning
Sonos’s CEO is rebuilding trust one public reply at a time
Become an Octopus Organization, not a Tin Man
AI chatbots are quietly training the next wave of scammers
DCX Stat of the Week: 61% of U.S. consumers trust YouTube as a source of accurate information
DCX Case Study of the Week: Elevating Experience to Protect Premium Revenue
Google leans into AI trip planning
Google just pushed a fresh set of AI tools into Search that make planning a trip feel less like work and more like a guided conversation. The update brings itinerary building, deal hunting and early booking tools into one place, which signals where high-consideration journeys are heading next.
Why it matters:
People are tired of juggling tabs, reviews and comparison charts.
AI Mode now behaves like a planning partner that pulls real data together in seconds.
CX teams should pay attention because these expectations spill into every category, not just travel.
What’s happening:
Canvas in AI Mode builds a full itinerary from your prompts. It pulls in flights, hotels, Maps reviews, photos and suggestions that match what you describe.
You can tweak anything by asking follow-up questions. The plan updates without making you start over.
Flight Deals is expanding to more than 200 countries with support for 60 languages, helping flexible travelers find bargains through casual queries.
State of play:
Agentic booking now helps people secure restaurant tables, event tickets and local appointments.
Hotel and flight bookings inside AI Mode are coming soon through partnerships with major travel brands.
🔗 Go Deeper: Google
Sonos’s CEO is rebuilding trust one public reply at a time
Sonos has spent months digging out of a mess of its own making. The company shipped a major app redesign that broke features loyal users depended on, and the backlash has been loud. What stands out is how CEO Tom Conrad has chosen to respond. He’s not delegating the cleanup. He’s on Threads, talking directly with angry customers.
Why it matters:
Most leaders disappear when the product experience turns painful.
Customers don’t rage about things they don’t care about. Anger is an early warning that the relationship is cracking.
Public engagement signals priorities inside the company far more loudly than any press release.
What’s happening:
Users have flooded Threads with harsh critiques of the new Sonos app. One called it “the worst piece of shit software I have ever used.”
Conrad replied without spin, owning the failure and asking to learn more.
He’s repeated this pattern across threads, inviting customers to DM him and surfacing real issues instead of hiding behind PR.
State of play:
Sonos’s hardware reputation remains strong, but the software gap has grown wide.
The app redesign meant to modernize the platform left customers with a clunkier, less capable experience.
Conrad openly says he’s in the CEO seat to fix the app because nothing else matters until trust is restored.
The CX to-do: Treat visible frustration as a signal and show up where customers already are. Silence communicates indifference.
🔗 Go Deeper: Sonos
Become an Octopus Organization, not a Tin Man
Companies keep funding “transformation,” yet only 12% see lasting gains. The authors of this HBR article say it is because most orgs still operate like Tin Men: rigid, centralized, and built for a predictable world. Octopus Organizations treat complexity as normal and build for adaptation, learning, and customer value.
Why it matters:
CX leaders feel the gap when metrics look fine but customers and teams feel stuck.
Today’s environment rewards distributed intelligence, not command-and-control.
Customer-obsessed firms are over 3x more likely to lead revenue and earn about 23% profit premiums.
State of play:
Tin Man orgs script call centers, centralize decisions, and isolate innovation in labs.
Octopus orgs give small teams ownership of customer problems and power to fix them.
One question anchors choices: “Does this create more value for our customers?”
How to act on it:
Make change with people, using small experiments tied to outcomes and learning.
Target antipatterns that blur purpose, weaken ownership, and punish curiosity.
Shift leaders to work on the system, clearing friction so better CX becomes the natural result.
🔗 Go Deeper: Jana Werner & Phil Le-Brun, Harvard Business Review
AI chatbots are quietly training the next wave of scammers
Reuters and a Harvard researcher probed major AI chatbots and showed how easily they slip from “I can’t help with that” into writing phishing emails aimed at seniors, including advice on tone and timing.
Why it matters for CX leaders:
Fraud is now AI-assisted, faster, and more tailored to vulnerable customers.
Your legitimate messages compete with slick, bot-written scams in the same inbox.
What’s happening:
Six leading chatbots were nudged into drafting fake charity pitches, tax notices and senior “discount” offers after minor rephrasing.
Nine bot-written emails were tested on 108 U.S. seniors; about 11% clicked, similar to many enterprise phishing tests.
Between the lines:
Guardrails are inconsistent. The same prompt can be blocked once and allowed minutes later.
Vendors are rewarded for “helpfulness,” while accountability for how tools fuel fraud remains murky.
The CX To-Do: Treat AI-driven scams as a core CX risk. Make verification dead simple, repeat how customers can confirm “this is really us,” and run education campaigns built around real scam patterns your customers are seeing.
🔗 Go Deeper: Steve Stecklow & Poppy McPherson, Reuters
DCX Stat of the Week
61% of U.S. consumers trust YouTube as a source of accurate information — far more than other social platforms
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In a survey of 365 U.S. consumers (July–August 2025), 61% identified YouTube as a social media platform they trust for accurate information — compared with 47% for Reddit and only 32% for Instagram.
Takeaway:
As CX and marketing teams increasingly rely on social and search channels, this stat underscores how credibility matters more than just reach — investing in platforms your audience trusts can boost brand reputation and reduce friction in customer experience.
Source: Gartner, Inc., “Consumer Survey Identifies Most Trusted Social Media Platforms for Information Accuracy” (Oct 13 2025)
🔗 MORE STATS: Daily Stats on Substack Notes
DCX Case Study of the Week
Delta Air Lines – Elevating Experience to Protect Premium Revenue
CX Challenge: Delta faced pressure as consumers became increasingly willing to switch brands based on experience, making its premium-travel segment vulnerable to churn.
Action Taken: Delta invested across the full customer journey: enhancing its premium seating fleet, doubling down on loyalty offerings, and committing to elevated service and seamless operations.
Result: In Q3 2025, Delta reported record revenue of US $15.2 billion, up 4.1% year-over-year, led by premium, corporate and loyalty segments. Retention in its premium products held in the “mid-80%” range.
Lesson for CX Pros: Investing in premium-segment experience isn’t just luxury—it’s business strategy. When experience becomes a differentiator, measurable revenue and retention gains follow.
Quote: “At the heart of our position of industry leadership is a relentless focus on elevating the customer experience.” – Ed Bastian, Delta CEO
🔗 Further Reading: Delta Quarterly Report
Have a case study to share? Reply and let me know!
🔚 Final Thought
Trust is no longer a brand halo — it’s a CX outcome. Structure, tools, and tone all matter less than what it feels like to deal with you. If your experience can’t keep up with the smartest thing your customer used today, you’re not in the game. You’re just noise.
Thank you!
If this edition sparked ideas, share it with a colleague or team member. Let’s grow the DCX community together!
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I didn’t create this newsletter to just push out ideas. I created it because I believe the people building experiences — the ones in the trenches, solving real problems — don’t get nearly enough space to think, reflect, and connect.
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— Mark
www.marklevy.co
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