Churn propensity remains a critical challenge for telecom operators operating in highly competitive markets such as India. Although customer engagement and service experience have been widely studied, limited research integrates Net Promoter Score (NPS) within an explanatory engagement–churn framework. Addressing this gap, this study examines how service quality and customer experience influence customer engagement, NPS intent, and churn propensity in the Indian telecom sector. Grounded in service-dominant logic, relationship marketing theory, and the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) framework, a conceptual model is empirically tested using survey data from telecom subscribers. The conceptual model is empirically tested using covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) via AMOS. Results indicate that customer engagement has a significant positive effect on NPS intent, which in turn negatively influences churn . Service quality and customer experience indirectly affect churn through engagement and NPS. The findings position NPS as a theoretically grounded mediating construct, offering both academic contributions and actionable managerial insights for engagement-driven churn mitigation strategies..