A special MarTech, Data & CX Council-exclusive MMA India Café brought together leaders from McDonald’s, Google Cloud, Federal Bank, Exotel, WebEngage, AkzoNobel, TransUnion, Tata Communications and more. Outcome: the most actionable CX shift - where real-time signals, prescriptive analytics and “human-in-the-loop” design move CX from a score to a company-wide culture.

A Council-exclusive MMA India Café on When CX Drives Culture, Not Just Conversions concluded on LinkedIn. Members of the MMA India MarTech, Data & CX Council, a community focused on advancing martech, data and CX maturity for growth, education, and privacy-aware practice answered pressing questions. CX now differentiates brands beyond price and product - consistent experiences can lift spending and loyalty, while over half of customers will switch after a single bad interaction.

By convening practitioners to share playbooks, reports and forums that turn insights into action across India’s marketing ecosystem, the council helps facilitate business evolution, MarTech & CX maturity, capabilities, and data's importance in today’s dynamic world.

Participating council members -

Amitabh Pande (United Spirits) | Anang Pandya (TransUnion) | Ankur Gattani (WebEngage) | Anshuman Dhanorkar (AkzoNobel) | Indraneel Pandit (Federal Bank) | Jaydeep Deshpande (Google Cloud) | Madhur Goswami (Tata Communications) | Ranjeet Kumar (McDonald’s India) | Snigdha Gupta (Skewb Analytics) | Udit Agarwal (Exotel)

The Café Download: 9 Rules for CX that builds culture

1) Treat signals as service, not surveillance.
Real-time cues - what people search, skip, re-watch, or return to - should remove friction, not add content. Think proof-points when users binge customer stories; think context when someone explores “festive painting.” The brand should feel like it’s listening, not templating.

2) Personalize the moment, not the persona.

Timing beats targeting: breakfast nudges for breakfast regulars; weekend plans for weekend families; seasonal shade inspiration during festivals. Personalization works best when it feels like a concierge, not a campaign.

3) Move from personalization to contextualization.
Modern stacks pair real-time ingestion + predictive AI/ML + automated helpful actions. The test: does the next touchpoint solve a problem in the moment?

4) Blend data’s “what/when” with content’s “why/how.”
Data flags the stage (stuck mid-onboarding; browsing consultation but not booking). Content responds with checklists, explainer videos, painter stories, or customer proof - human, timely, non-salesy.

5) Build closed-loop CX with opt-in control.
Let every interaction feed the engine while giving customers agency to reset preferences, opt out, or choose their journey. Predictive analytics + transparent choice = trust.

6) Democratize decision-making.
Gen-AI front-ends can put complex analytics behind a simple “ask-a-question” bar so any team can simulate growth drivers, budget trade-offs or scenario plans - turning CX from a specialist sport into a company habit.

7) Redefine success beyond NPS.
Measure repeat behavior, share of wallet, and advocacy (do customers open doors for you, refer, or return when they change jobs?). Track micro-markets where CX over-indexes, and use mixed-modeling to link CX spend to brand and sales outcomes.

8) Turn feedback into advocacy assets.
Mine verbatims with NLP; fix the product/service and spotlight customers who nail onboarding or achieve outcomes. Gamify progress (badges, milestones), elevate stories (podcasts, videos), and let happy users carry the mic.

9) Design AI = human as one continuous experience.
AI does speed and memory (favorites, offers, routing). Humans bring nuance and reassurance. Keep a unified customer view so handovers are invisible - and no one repeats their story.

The CX Shift: From score to philosophy

Two inflection moments put CX at the center: the post-2008 reset from brand “talk” to customer feel; and post-COVID omnichannel reality where operations, tech and marketing unite around trust and safety. Leaders that link CX to value - retention, cross-sell, NRR - outperform on growth and shareholder value, with experience-led strategies lifting cross-sell 15-25% and share-of-wallet 5-10% when satisfaction jumps ~20%.

MMA India’s Martech, Data & CX Council exists to help marketers operationalize these shifts - through playbooks, research and convenings that mature stacks and skills across the ecosystem.

And the urgency is real: brands that deliver consistent, positive experiences see materially higher consumer spend, while the gap between what leaders believe they deliver and what consumers feel remains wide.

If your mandate is to move CX from metric to mindset - and from campaign to culture - join the MMA India Martech, Data & CX Council to build the next playbook with peers.