Dive Brief:

• Verizon “must shift to a customer-first focus” to help the brand capture growth opportunities, CEO Dan Schulman said during the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call Wednesday. Schulman took on the role earlier this month, replacing Hans Vestberg.
• The wireless carrier will take steps to strengthen customer loyalty, eliminate practices and processes that detract from the customer experience, and leverage AI to simplify offers, according to Schulman.
• “We will significantly elevate our game across multiple dimensions,” Schulman said during the call. “We will work relentlessly to serve our customers, ensuring that every customer is fully satisfied with their Verizon experience. We must make it much easier to do business with us.”

Dive Insight:

Schulman is making customer experience one of his top priorities as Verizon works to reduce customer churn.

“Our primary objective is to build loyalty and drive significant improvements in retention to optimize the lifetime value of our customer base,” Schulman said. “Verizon will no longer be the hunting ground for competitors looking to gain share.”

Churn is a major obstacle. Verizon Consumer reported 356,000 wireless retail postpaid phone net losses in the first quarter of 2025 following price hikes. That number has been steadily improving, first to 51,000 wireless retail postpaid phone net losses in the second quarter of 2025 and then to 7,000 wireless retail postpaid phone net losses in the third quarter of 2025, according to a company earnings report.

Friction is one of the top reasons that customers leave Verizon, according to Schulman. Eliminating that friction will be one of the levers the company can pull to further reduce customer churn.

“For years, our priority was clear: Build the best and most reliable network,” Schulman said. “With that foundation firmly in place, our next chapter is about serving and delighting customers by building the industry's best overall value proposition and the best customer experience.”

Former CEO Vestberg also made CX a priority. Under his leadership,  Verizon invested in AI to improve CX with tools like MyPlan, a service that suggests tailored products and plans, and Fast Pass, which connects subscribers who call customer service to an agent with relevant expertise for their problem.

While Schulman didn’t share specific plans, he did note that Verizon is just “scratching the surface” regarding how AI can improve customer satisfaction. One potential use case is detecting when a customer may have an issue and proactively addressing the problem before it happens.

Schulman plans to fuel further investments in marketing and customer experience by cutting costs across the business.

“We will be a simpler, leaner and scrappier business,” Schulman said. “This work is overdue and will be multi year and an ongoing way of life for us.”