The mantra ‘right message, right channel, right time’ is imprinted into every digital marketer’s brain. Understanding customer identity, behaviour characteristics and being able to respond to this, is the driving force behind journey orchestration.
With the rise in connectivity driven by smart devices and digital services, 84% of customers now say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, and more than two thirds (69%) expect connected experiences. That’s according to Salesforce’s ‘State of the Connected Customer’ research.
Understanding customer identity, behaviour characteristics and being able to respond to these, is the driving force behind journey orchestration.
By necessity, this framework transcends pure marketing comms. Every touchpoint – from web visits, to transactional app push notifications and call centre conversations – must be considered within each customer’s journey as part of the value exchange from the data that individual has shared. These interactions require centralised orchestration to deliver the consistent, hyper-personalised engagements that drive the connected customer experience.
The benefits of this approach also require a shift away from typical campaign-level performance metrics. Effective journey orchestration is best measured through increased customer value, driven by purchase frequency, loyalty and advocacy. At the same time, this centralised approach delivers operational efficiencies that help to generate ROI.
There are several fundamental challenges to true journey orchestration from both a functional and operational perspective.
Breaking down operational silos, as with almost any change management project, is the first and often most insurmountable barrier to delivering true journey orchestration. Traditional distinctions between marketing and advertising, digital and offline, and sales and service all impose critical handover points in the customer journey that should be invisible to the recipient but are made clear through inconsistent communications.
Effective journey orchestration is best measured through increased customer value, therefore its accuracy is absolutely essential.
Consistently identifying a customer across multiple touchpoints is a significant challenge for many organisations. This is before attempting to resolve that customer’s latest behaviour against their existing profile and deliver the most appropriate message for them at that time. Legacy data architectures and disparate systems make even identifying the customer journey a significant hurdle.
Defining a long-term, customer-centric communications journey strategy is a fundamental requirement for true journey orchestration and customer engagement.
Culture.Crane’s culture specific audience management platform is designed to support this by helping to maximize the experience throughout the customer journey, including the innovative, built-in Customer Value Thermometer (CVT) feature which reveals an individual’s high-value areas to the business.
Source:
marketingweek.com
