CX Insights

 

2/3 execs cutting costs, impacting customer satisfaction

 

CX leaders face pressure to cut costs and show ROI, but no shock here: it’s backfiring. Accenture found two-thirds of executives are trading off customer satisfaction for cost efficiency, resulting in recent poor service experiences for 60% of customers.

With the rise of CX automations, some companies have limited access to human agents in favor of self-service tools, but when those fail, frustration grows and costs rise. The number of execs focused on creating customer value has dropped sharply since 2022.

Customer service automation and self service can drive great efficiencies, but they can’t solve every issue - especially sensitive or complex issues when consumers want and need human help. Think long-term before making cost-cutting decisions especially if your brand competes on service quality.

270,000 customer service tickets released to the public

A four-year-old set of stolen credentials led to the exposure of 270,000 Samsung Germany customer service tickets, highlighting a critical vulnerability in third-party access. The credentials, harvested via malware, were never rotated and eventually exploited by threat actor “GHNA” in 2025. The breach originated from Spectos GmbH, Samsung’s IT vendor.

CX leaders must ensure their vendors follow strict credential hygiene practice. Regularly rotating logins, monitoring for unusual activity, and scanning for leaked credentials are non-negotiable. Partner with your IT and security teams to ensure nothing like this happens to your customers!

Best and worst US states for restaurant customer service

Where are you likely to get the best restaurant customer service in the United States? CouponPi sought to find out, reviewing over 76,000 online restaurant reviews for those with the highest percentage of positive customer service mentions.

The top three states for customer service were South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Indiana while the bottom three were Maine, Hawaii, Texas. As for the restaurants: Dave's Hot Chicken and Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers tied for best customer service, while Dunkin' was rated the worst.

 

Tune In

Missed our spring webinar with all the latest updates on Kustomer? No problem! Catch the recording where head of product marketing Nupur Bhade Vilas, product manager Adi Subramaniam, and technical operations manager Erinn Nelson unveil the latest innovations across the Kustomer platform, designed to help you deliver smarter, more efficient support.

AI Insights

What do agents think about AI?

As AI changes the way customer support agents work, someone asked: what do agents think about them? A new survey shows top challenges include:

  • customer frustration with automation
  • AI’s struggle with complex issues
  • unreliable outputs

Agents do value AI for speeding up tasks and surfacing helpful information. The biggest unmet need? Sentiment analysis.

To unlock AI’s full potential in customer service, CX leaders must prioritize agent training, thoughtful implementation, and tighter system integration - not just tool adoption. AI is not a ‘set it and forget it’ initiative.

Virginia set to regulate customer-facing AI


Virginia is set to enact a sweeping law regulating “high-risk” AI used in customer-facing decisions like service automation, dispute resolution, and financial recommendations. The law, effective July 2026 if the governor signs the bill, requires businesses to disclose AI use, mitigate bias, and allow human review of decisions. It distinguishes between developers and deployers, each with distinct compliance obligations.

CX leaders should treat AI governance as a strategic priority. Work with your organization’s legal team to get ahead on risk management and compliance, especially if you’re based in Virginia.