MUMBAI: At a time when the average consumer can scroll through 600 metres of content with a flick of their thumb, customer experience (CX) has become the new battlefield for brands. At Indiantelevision.com’s Media Investment Summit 2025, the panel titled ‘The Experience-Driven Commerce: Why CX is the New Brand Differentiator’ proved that tech, touchpoints and taste all matter-but timing is everything.
Moderated by Indiantelevision.com’s founder Anil Wanvari, the session brought together Sujay Ray (L’Oréal India), Anjali Dutta (Tech Mahindra), Namita Bohara (Hindalco Industries), Amruta Pawar (Hafele India), and Durgesh Singh (WebEngage), who revealed that when it comes to CX, the devil isn’t just in the details—it’s in the data.
Kicking off the session, Sujay Ray of L’Oréal India emphasised the need to create a “seamless experience across touchpoints”. Whether in a salon, an e-commerce app or an Amazon product page, Ray argued, “there has to be a value exchange”. From virtual hair trials using AI to beauty advisors guiding customers in-store, Ray believes true brand loyalty comes from creating consistent, context-aware moments.
“CX is not about adding glitter to one channel—it’s about synchronising the entire journey”, he said. And for L’Oréal, that meant building “Plus Plus experiences” across every brand interface.
Representing Hindalco Industries, Namita Bohara unpacked the duality of B2B and B2C engagement. “For a carpenter, it could be a sample kit. For the end customer, it’s about the finish and touch”, she noted. She called attention to Hindalco’s clear demarcation of ‘partner customers’ and ‘end customers’, urging brands to rethink standard definitions.
“For us, every partner is a customer”, Bohara stressed, adding that her organisation has instituted design centres and standardised brand touchpoints to ensure a coherent experience across product categories like furniture fittings and appliances.
Anjali Dutta from Tech Mahindra painted a broader canvas—marrying technology with empathy. “I want to get a small space in my customer’s subconscious mind. That’s what CX means to me”, she said. Dutta urged brands to go beyond vanity metrics and embrace ethical AI.
“CX isn’t only digital—it’s physical too”, she said. She cited scenarios where in-store agents equipped with purchase history can offer a personalised recommendation. “That’s the new CRM: remembering who walked in and when”.
At Hafele India, general manager Amruta Pawar believes that physical contact still trumps virtual bells and whistles—especially in the business of soft-close drawers and modular furniture. “Our industry needs customers to touch and feel the product. That can’t be virtualised yet”, she said.
Hafele’s CX strategy includes design centres, live demos, and QR-based packaging systems that allow customers to scan for specs instantly. “Digital helps nudge a customer down the funnel, but final conversion often happens offline”, she explained.
Durgesh Singh of Webengage added the sharpest edge to the panel, diving into lifecycle mapping and predictive analytics. “Every customer is on a different journey. Our role is to ensure each touchpoint adds value”, he said.
Singh highlighted how AI helps brands send the right communication at the right time—citing models that predict whether a lipstick buyer will next purchase sandals and when. “We use LSTM, next-best-action models and AI-driven time-of-day messaging to improve conversion by as much as 25 per cent,” he said.
All panellists agreed: AI can’t replace intuition, but it can scale it.
While all brands had embraced technology in varying capacities, the panel made it clear that customer experience isn’t a one-time campaign-it’s a constant calibration.
Ray put it best: “Today, you might feel like you’ve hit 30 per cent, but the next challenge resets the goalpost. It’s a journey, not a destination”.
And with the audience nodding along, it was clear: if you’re not obsessively refining your customer experience, someone else is doing it better.
