The enigma of customer journey orchestration
Volume 1
/Business, Strategy, Faithfully
Writer: Jill Starett
/Art Direction: Alf Johansen
Journey mapping is dead. Long live journey orchestration? Since the early 2010's you've probably seen your fair share of journey maps...
...plotting the customer experience providing end-to-end context and identifying opportunities for improvement.
Thinking + Feeling
In recent years, the tech community has shifted their focus to Customer Journey Orchestration (CJO)...
...in an attempt to make mountains of accumulated behavioral data useful in targeting customers with more personalized messages.
My view of orchestration is that we should approach this like parenting. Different kids (customers) require different approaches and communication styles. It requires persistent inquiry and nurturing from the part of the parent (brand). It requires you to take the time and effort to know what works for which kid (customer). It requires an experimentation mindset because eventually you will fail and hopefully learn from it. You will have to adapt your approach over time as your kid (customer) changes and evolves.
If we don't fully understand the emotions and expectations driving the behaviors of our target audience, how can we engender loyalty?
Like parenting, this is a huge amount of work but it's all in the name of growing conversions, loyalty, and customer lifetime value while providing people with more personalized experiences. All good things worth pursuing.
The challenge is that journey orchestration is still in its infancy. No one has yet to realize the full promise of CJO because organizations tend to remain siloed in how they think and operate.
Data has supercharged our ability to understand user behavior. Journeys built from big data account for variations and scale in powerful ways. However, they tend to prompt more questions than they answer. Data is unable to provide insights into the ‘why' behind the behaviors. If we don't fully understand the emotions and expectations driving the behaviors of our target audience, how can we engender loyalty? Big data must be brought together with the human data to truly understand the full picture needed to orchestrate a journey.
Because journey orchestration is still a half-realized ideal, there's no glistening ROI statistic we can share. This is not something that's going to create a win next quarter. It is going to determine who's still playing in another fifteen years.
Another major factor to consider is that, faster than ever before, customer loyalty is changing. According to the 2023 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (by Brand Keys) the gap between customer expectations and the value they perceive from brand interactions is widening not closing. Identified drivers of this “massive” gap are largely emotional rather than. Consumers are raising the bar and brands are struggling to keep up. Every incremental step towards the ideal of orchestration will work to narrow that gap.
How can the promise of CJO be made reality?
Just because no one has mastered this yet doesn't mean it's not possible. Most technologies fail before they succeed. We see a few guiding principles for anyone on a quest of CJO mastery and the values it promises.
Organizational transformation is necessary to break down barriers.
If the experience for customers is to be unified, then the teams making that happen must act as a single unit. This will require an organization-wide strategy and governance (that includes strategic partnerships) to break down the barriers that so often emerge between pre- and post-conversion, products and services, technology and experiences. Silos can never truly be deconstructed so the focus needs to be on establishing drivers, standards, and constraints that stretch across all focused areas of delivery and outreach.
Consider digital evolution the cost of doing business in the future.
To speak to any customer at any moment on any channel in the way that most resonates with them, you'll need the infrastructure to support that. While some orgs are investing in a major overhaul of their back-end systems, we've seen more effective and efficient gains by implementing an API layer between existing back-end systems and the customer touchpoints. Examples include implementation of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) paired with AI to inform Next Best Offer and Next Best Action strategies and marketing automation in place to target different user touchpoints across an array of channels.
Stay endlessly curious about your audience and customers.
Don't settle for rational explanations of their behavior. There's something more beneath the surface and the brands that work to understand this will be the ones who can better connect with them. This will require getting close to users, an experimental mindset, and practicing in inference-based recommendations.
At the end of the day, it's about
- shaping the right mindset and values
- making sure you've got the talent, data, and tools
- and being relentless in your pursuit of rising above customer expectations.
On the Horizon
As Customer Journey Orchestration 'grows up', it will become increasingly sophisticated and integrated, offering more personalized, efficient, and seamless experiences for users. While the lion's share of benefits surrounding CJO will be for consumers and businesses, there are some aspects of society that we anticipate will reap ancillary rewards. By creating improved customer experiences, augmenting economic activity, and building a culture of trust and transparency, CJO can contribute to a more positive and vibrant society. Consider the following:
- Enhancing the Social Contract — Customer journey orchestration can foster trust and transparency by providing personalized communication and clear explanations for data usage, thereby improving the customer-business relationship.
- Using Blockchain for Data Security — Blockchain technology could be used to enhance data security and transparency and would provide users with a greater degree of control over their data. Evolving to a world in which the consumer has comprehensive control of their information is desirable from a human standpoint. Imagine being able to bring your cross-service viewing history to a new platform to enable more accurate personalization on Day 1.
- Personalization at Scale — Technologies will enable hyper-personalization even for large customer bases, allowing businesses to treat each customer as an individual at scale as part of a more relevant and thoughtful experience.
- The Demise of Channels — CJO has the potential to provide more seamless omni-channel experiences that could begin to erode the corporate construct of channels. Rather than viewing each channel discretely, companies will consider the entirety of the journey irrespective of the mechanism that satisfies the need. In this fashion, businesses may put greater focus on user need and come to recognize that users just don't think the way the business wants them to.
- Value Unlocked — Orchestration of technology, services, and support can be used to navigate the adoption and engagement hurdles consumers face, enabling them to reach higher levels of realized value from the solutions they engage to solve their problems.
Of course, it is important for businesses to remain mindful of ethical considerations and privacy concerns - and any reminder is a good reminder.