If customer journey orchestration is the maestro conducting an orchestra of all points of contact with your brand, so AI is the tool that can make it a symphony.
With the overwhelming amount of information that people are exposed to every day, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to capture and retain their attention. This is why creating customer-centric messages and experiences is crucial to stand out from the noise and build a loyal customer base.
Matthew Camuso, product marketing manager for CRM software company Pegasystems says “Right now, marketing is failing more than it works. (…) And if you think about why this fails, it’s because most of what we push, and when we push it, has no real relevance to the consumers.”.
AI has something to say in this field, as there are intelligent AI tools to respond to customer needs, without just staying around pre-packaged messages to segmented clusters of customers. This approach carries a risk because many customers may find the messaging irrelevant and become disengaged with the brand. In short, brands that do not personalize their messages and respond to their customers’ needs are at risk of losing their audience’s attention and loyalty.
The risks of traditional Segmentation
In the traditional approach to marketing campaigns, the customer base is divided into groups based on demographic, geographic, and other categories, thus creating segments, sometimes even more refined, called micro-segments. Marketers then apply the rules laid down on what they know about the customer, such as their financial conditions or the interest they prescribe on a particular page. Finally, predefined messages are sent to this fixed group of customers.
But since this is a strategy that generates a low percentage of sales, typically in the 1%-2% range, for Caruso this can represent a problem, “That may hit your short-term campaign goals, which is great, but over the long term we’re so product-focused and sales-focused that it actually takes a toll on our customer relationships.”.
Where can AI help me with this?
To drive customer-centric messages and experiences, AI can be used to collect customer signals from all channels, update the customer profile, and then suggest the best actions to take that are relevant to these customers.
AI and machine learning working together to gather and analyze social, historical, and behavioral data is a game-changer for brands to truly understand their customers. Unlike traditional data analytics, AI is constantly learning and improving from the data it analyzes, allowing it to anticipate customer behavior. This enables brands to provide highly relevant content, seize sales opportunities, and enhance the overall customer journey. With this powerful duo, brands can now deliver personalized experiences that truly resonate with their customers.
AI-managed and authorized communications are revolutionizing the way brands interact with their customers. Rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach with a segmented list of customers, these communications provide personally tailored offers and suggestions that are highly relevant to each individual.
Using specific criteria, AI can determine the customer’s likelihood to take action (known as “propensity” or “P” value) and the value of that action to the company (“V”). This allows for more precise and effective next-best actions to be recommended.
The truth is that customers are increasingly demanding and expect a seamless experience with your brand, regardless of the channel they are using. This is where the importance of customer experience and effective marketing orchestration comes in. After all, no one likes to get lost in the middle of so many options, right?
Marketing Orchestration
You know when you walk into a store and you’re greeted by someone super friendly, who helps you find exactly what you need? That’s what customer journey orchestration can do for you but at all stages of the relationship between the customer and the brand.
Imagine that you are browsing a store website, looking for a specific piece of clothing. At the same time, you receive a personalized message on your mobile phone with an unmissable offer for exactly that piece you are looking for. This is customer journey orchestration in action!
And that’s not all, this strategy also helps companies better understand customer needs and provide a more personalized and satisfying experience for them.
to sum up, the customer journey orchestration is like a maestro conducting an orchestra. Except that the orchestra is made up of all the points of contact that a customer has with a brand, and the objective is to perfect this song to the last detail, from the first contact to after-sales service and AI can help us with that.
The potential of AI applied to customer journey orchestration
As new customer data flows in, the AI recalculates the score and sends relevant messages, such as a timely text or phone call from a live representative. This customer-centric approach also allows AI to build personalized web and mobile experiences based on updated customer profiles.
In addition, AI-driven customer journey orchestration offers a more effective and relevant approach. Unlike traditional journeys that follow basic rules, the AI can choose from a larger number of options based on a specific customer’s profile and manage complicated journeys with many variables. For example, the mortgage process in financial companies involves many personal data points and stages, which the AI can score according to propensity.
By leveraging the scale of AI modeling, the aim is to ensure that each journey or message is unique and tailored to the individual customer at that specific moment. As Camuso said, “(…) we never try to force them (customer) to the next stage. Instead, we look across all those journeys (from previous customers) and see where she is in the bigger picture, and then use real-time decisions and propensity modeling”.
If you are interested in understanding better where AI can help customer experience and customer journey orchestration, we invite you to visit this article.
Also, if you would like to explore a different approach to how to work on Generative AI, feel free to explore what Wise Pirates has been developing in 2023 regarding this topic here.
