June 19, 2026·
post
One small sentence disappearing from customer support calls reveals a much larger shift in…
One small sentence disappearing from customer support calls reveals a much larger shift in how companies measure and optimize CX in 2026.
Calls no longer end with:
“Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
That small sentence represented something larger and higher. The system was designed to solve all your problems completely, not just close your ticket.
Today, even reaching a human agent has become a herculean task.
First, you’re redirected to "AI chatbots", FAQs, emails, or self service channels. Then comes the IVR maze, where the option to speak to an agent feels less like a menu option and more like trying to find a hidden Easter egg.
IVRs were originally designed to route customers faster and reduce operational costs. Now, most feel designed to do something else: make reaching a human difficult.
Nobody in the system is necessarily making a bad decision.
The support team optimizes for Average Handling Time (AHT). Shorter calls look like better productivity. Less open ended conversation means lower risk of the interaction going bad as the call length increases. More tickets closed means healthier, impressive looking dashboards.
Those metrics roll upward. Dashboards always stay green. Efficiency is proven.
But the customer’s actual outcome quietly disappears from the equation.
The same thing happens with CSAT now.
A metric designed to measure customer experience becomes a KPI to manage. Agents often explicitly ask customers for a 5/5 rating because their job depends on it. If you rate an experience 4/5, some companies call you back asking what went wrong, not to fix it, but to explain why the rating is unfair.
The result?
The gap between what the dashboard says and what the customer feels keeps growing.
This is the trap of optimizing for a measurement (what gets measured gets better) rather than the mission.
Every organization eventually gets the behavior it incentivizes.
The dashboard says the customer is happy. The customer just stopped calling.
P.S. Yes, this is a classic example of Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."
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