Customer journey orchestration is the process of delivering personalized experiences along the customer journey that lead to an optimal next step. The customer journey is the path users follow as they interact with a company from the prospect stage to an established customer and beyond.
What is Customer Journey Orchestration?
The customer journey is the path users follow as they interact with a company from the prospect stage to an established customer and beyond. It’s made up of all of the touch points that users have with the company, usually through the efforts of the company’s sales, service, and marketing automation teams.
Journey orchestration, also called customer journey orchestration, is the process of delivering personalized experiences along the customer journey that lead to an optimal next step. This process relies on robust customer data, deep analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the next best step as part of a smart journey design.
How Does Customer Journey Orchestration Work?
Customer journey orchestration works in real-time—leveraging real-time CDP capabilities—to provide a next step to a potential customer using an email marketing platform, website, mobile app, or SMS marketing service. It analyzes a user’s journey—whether that included filling out a form to download marketing content, asking a question through a website chatbot, or speaking with a salesperson on a call—to provide them with a new touchpoint, such as a link to related resources, an email with information connected to their interests, or a call from to answer questions they may have.
Whether the journey is driven by demographic, behavioral, or affinity-driven customer data, journey orchestration analyzes relevant data and uses predictive modeling to determine the next steps most likely to lead to the desired result.
Journey orchestration not only personalizes the customer experience, it makes the experience seamless across omnichannel touchpoints as well. While business operations may be siloed in different departments, the customer has one experience. If they recently signed up for and attended several product-focused webinars with the marketing team, AI-driven journey orchestration can determine that they have an interest in that product and send them a next step such as the option to sign up for an in-person, 1-on-1 demo for that product with the sales team. This better unites the efforts of all teams for a seamless customer journey.
Technology Used in Customer Journey Orchestration
There are two options for the technology to power journey orchestration: a dedicated customer journey orchestration engine or a broader platform with integrated journey orchestration.
An engine will connect to your customer data sources such as a customer relationship management (CRM) or customer data platform (CDP), analyzing the data to determine an optimal, personalized next step for each potential customer and their journey. It also connects to end-points to provide that step, such as sending an email or a push notification through a mobile app.
The other option is to use a robust platform like a CDP or CRM that has journey orchestration capabilities included. This can reduce costs associated with your technology stack by using one platform. It can also lessen the chance of inconsistencies or issues with the integrity of the data by eliminating the need for separate platforms to house customer data and perform journey orchestration.
FAQ
What is the difference between customer journey orchestration and marketing automation?
Customer journey orchestration uses real-time data and AI to dynamically determine the optimal next step for each individual customer across all channels, adapting to their behavior as it happens. Marketing automation typically follows predefined, rule-based workflows and campaigns that treat customers in similar segments the same way. Orchestration is more adaptive and personalized, while automation is more structured and campaign-focused.
How does AI improve customer journey orchestration?
AI analyzes vast amounts of customer data in real-time to predict the next best action for each individual based on their behaviors, preferences, and journey stage. It uses predictive modeling to determine which touchpoints, messages, or offers have the highest likelihood of driving desired outcomes. AI also enables seamless cross-channel experiences by connecting insights from marketing, sales, and service interactions to provide contextually relevant next steps.
What technology do I need for customer journey orchestration?
You can either use a dedicated customer journey orchestration engine that connects to your data sources (CRM, CDP) and activation endpoints (email, mobile apps), or choose an integrated platform like a CDP or CRM with built-in orchestration capabilities. The integrated approach typically reduces costs, minimizes data integration issues, and ensures data consistency by eliminating the need for multiple platforms to manage customer data and orchestration.
Related Terms
- Customer Journey Analytics — Analyzes journey data to inform orchestration decisions
- Lifecycle Marketing — Stage-based framework that orchestration automates across channels
- Next Best Action — AI-driven recommendation engine powering orchestration decisions
- Cross-Channel Marketing — Multi-channel execution layer that orchestration coordinates