Understanding Customer Journey Orchestration

In previous articles we looked at getting the fundamentals right and the importance of customer centricity when it comes to undertaking a CX transformation project. Many of these principles will apply to any digital transformation. But to create the best possible experience for customers, it’s important to understand how all the elements fit together throughout the customer journey. Martin Browne, Contact Centre CX Chief Technologist at DigitalWell, explains customer journey orchestration (CJO) and the critical role it plays in CX transformation.

CX orchestration is all about how you unify and optimise channels, processes and touchpoints along the customer journey. It’s vitally important to consider this during the planning stage of your CX transformation, as it lays the foundations for how the customer feels throughout the entirety of the journey with the business. With so many organisations focused on improving efficiency, cutting costs and increasing lifetime value, putting the principles of customer journey orchestration into practice makes a lot of good business sense too.

Customer journey orchestration blends and strategically leverages data, operational processes and technology to deliver seamless, personalised experiences to the customer at every stage of their journey with the organisation.

As the number of channels and customer touchpoints have increased, so too has the need for a customer journey orchestration strategy. For instance, today, a customer might initially sign up over the phone, before receiving an email a few moments later directing them to a landing page to complete the process. This can lead to fragmented experiences and frustrated customers.

The purpose of CX orchestration is to make the journey more seamless, as well as add new opportunities for business success. That means examining and understanding customer behaviour across all channels and using data to map out personalised campaigns that help you engage with customers. Two key ways you can achieve this is through personalisation and automation:

Personalisation – Customer journey orchestration takes traditional segmentation further with real-time dynamic personalisation based on customer behaviour. By understanding how and when customers want to be engaged, you can tailor and optimise their journey across channels and touchpoints, creating individual experiences aligned with customer need. That results in enhanced conversation rates, reduced cost-to-serve and improved customer satisfaction.

Automation – Automating repetitive tasks and eliminating redundant ones are simple ways to enhance the customer experience by minimising customer effort, as well as reducing the workload on agents. Good examples here are bots and self-service options that help customers to help themselves.

Successful customer journey orchestration can be effective in many ways. It provides customers with more tailored and seamless experiences, streamlines user flows and processes, eliminating repetitive processes while also automating many others.

Flexibility – Compared to traditional customer service strategies, customer journey orchestration is versatile and can be adapted, as customer and business needs evolve. Businesses are more able to predict customer wants and can adapt products and services to meet customer expectations.

Efficiency – Clearly, automated processes save time and money. And tracking data points based on customer preferences can help business build a better picture of customer segments and behaviours.

Improved customer lifetime value (CLV) – Customer journey orchestration can help improve CLV by providing discounts and offers tailored to customer interests, so they’re more likely to come back.

Competitiveness – A US study found that 54% of customers cut their spending with a brand after a single bad experience. At a time when customers have more choice than ever before, bad experiences can impact competitiveness. Customer journey orchestration helps cultivate customer-centricity helping customers to feel more connected with your brand.

Adopting a strong CJO strategy ensures a cohesive and consistent experience across all channels, enhancing customer satisfaction and boosting loyalty. By leveraging data, businesses can deliver hyper-personalisation, anticipate customer needs and address pain points effectively. The ultimate result is better performance, increased revenue and a more customer-centric organisation.

DigitalWell are experts in business transformation. If you’re ready to put customer journey orchestration to work in your organisation, start by talking to us. We can offer all the advice and support you need to get the most from the latest CX tools.