Customer experience (CX) quality in the US dropped three years in a row and is now at its lowest point since the inception of Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™). Analysis of our annual study shines a light on four root causes: 1) leaders’ missteps on customer obsession, 2) the wrong employee experience (EX) priorities, 3) the failure of most chatbots, and 4) consumers’ economic and social concerns. We also identify practical actions that leaders can take to address each of these causes.