Prologue: The Importance of Orchestrate
Make no mistake about it. In our world orchestrate is so much more than just another fancy-sounding 11-letter-word with tricky spelling and odd syllabication. It’s the foundation of our culture and client relationships and the basis of our strategy and business model that guides us in everything that we do both internally and externally. In a wider historical context, the word orchestrate, of course, descents directly from the wild world of classical music. The term can be traced all the way to the year 1825 when it was used on a book written by Sir George Smart, an English conductor, organist, composer and a friend and a colleague of a certain German music man called Ludwig van Beethoven. The original meaning of orchestrate was mainly to describe how classically trained musicians played together as a bigger orchestra. Subsequently, over the years, the term became almost like a synonym for the act of conducting but even today orchestrate also refers to that specific sound that is born when multiple classical instruments, each played by an individual musician following the same score and common goal, with unique tone colors and range of harmonics, sound as a unit. Here’s the catch. No musician, no matter how great, genius or virtuoso, can form a classical orchestra alone. For us too, to orchestrate equals to collaborate.
This orchestrate story is all about orchestration and orchestrating.
Chapter I: How we use the concept of orchestrate as a collaborative creative tool to make order out of complexity
In the business world, the word orchestrate is often used as a metaphor for planning and coordinating to achieve a common goal and desired effect. But just like with classical music, successful businesses usually require a group of large numbers of different kinds of people with various knowledge, talent, skills, backgrounds, interests and experiences to function ideally. Orchestrating is not always simple but it can also be a complex process of organizational actions that must include a deep understanding of both theory and practice accompanied with imagination and insight. And in most cases and projects, there needs to be someone in charge, a conductor kind of a leader or leaders, to guide orchestration to the right direction in suitable style, rhythm, emotions, ambition, space and objective.
We unite disparate elements into a coherent whole by listening, communicating, creating and co-operating
For us orchestration is a medium of teamwork that transcends traditional boundaries and gives space for safe and respectful creativity. We see orchestration as a tool in making sensible order out of complex chaos by uniting disparate elements into one coherent whole by listening, hearing, communicating, compromising, creating, designing and co-operating. As a term orchestrate is not only the second – and probably the most important – word of our new hero sentence but a concept and philosophy that defines and justifies our entire existence and expertise both as a group and as individuals. And of course, orchestration as a process is firmly integrated into all our services combining digital and analog solutions to benefit our clients in the best possible ways. After all, we don’t orchestrate automated customer journeys to perfection for us. We do that for our clients.
Chapter II: How feelings of uncertainty, vulnerability, hesitation and imperfection are the foundation of our orchestrating
Short recap for our long history: For more than 160 years we have challenged established thinking, institutional working cultures and traditional ways of communication through people and technology. Today – in January of 2022 – I personally believe stronger than ever that all great experiences are fundamentally based on the ideas of orchestration. I see orchestration as a glue that binds together analog people and digital platforms to create something innovative, impactful and scalable. In our approach orchestration turns visions into reality and that can no longer happen without solid communication and respectful collaboration between multiple parties. Most importantly elements of human connection are required in effective, pleasant and smooth user experiences. That’s why data and automatization alone is not the answer. At the end of the line, we don’t orchestrate anything for data but for people. There’s a massive difference.
Orchestration gives essential tools to live a more balanced and more enjoyable life
Orchestration is the art of making things happen but to be fair, it’s not always easy, effortless or pleasant. Sometimes orchestration, in fact, can make us feel like we are not in control anymore because there's so much going on around us that is difficult to crab, manage or change. But that’s normal, exactly the way it should be. Life is not perfect. The world is complex. Humans are defective. And even if you were not, others around you most certainly are. So yes, orchestration – much like life itself – can sometimes be messy but it doesn't need to feel disorganized, disrupted or lawless all the time. Still, uncertainty, vulnerability and a license to hesitate and even fail should all be considered as natural parts of the process of orchestration. That’s what happens when you play with chaos.
Chapter III: How we have accepted that our expertise in orchestrating will never be complete but there’s always room for serious improvement
Ok. Orchestration itself is not a revelational concept, previously unknown strategy or a brand-new marketing wonder term that was magically somehow just invented by us a year ago. The word itself – thanks to our classical musical buddies of Beethoven and Sir Smart – has been around for almost 200 years. Still, even if our industry has been familiar with the basic principles of orchestration, in practice it most definitely still is something that for criminally too long has been taken mostly for granted. Let’s be honest because honestly usually pays off. We as an industry like to talk about how “we can help clients better understand businesses through customer journey orchestration”. Too often that, however, is just empty words and shallow promises without vision, tools, talent, strategy or even necessary platforms. Rather ironically, the recent technological developments alongside with rapidly growing digitalization and all the endless super data talk all parties everywhere are preaching about have turned the majority of current customer journeys into badly automatize chains of average user experiences. Not always but often. That’s a problem. And for that, we have a solution.
Building global brands is faster than ever before and the existing customers should be seen as the most underutilized asset
Granted, as far as customer journeys go, it’s getting increasingly difficult to find real differentiation. Right now, superior user experiences, digital or analog, are wanted 24/7 and 365/12 all around this planet. Masses are wide, traffic enormous, demand constant. In every moment of any day given someone is having a customer experience somewhere. Having massive amounts of potential clients easily reachable brings volume and possibilities but also comes with multiple risks. There are no effective shortcuts to success. Therefore, understanding the importance of smooth user experiences should be at the very core of any business. All modern customer journeys must be inclusive, fast, friendly and reliable or customers will simply leave and go elsewhere. Alternatives to products and services are just a click away and as expectation levels are increasing, customer loyalty is declining. Customers are the ones holding the power. They need to be heard, respected, understood and served. Differentiation is required. So, challenges are clear but so is the reward. Building global thriving brands is faster now than ever before and the existing customers could be your most underutilized asset. But only if they are happy. That’s where we can help. To bring happiness to your clients.
We connect technology and data to the individual customer’s journeys insight to have a detailed view of user experiences
This hurts but I am gonna say it anyway. Most companies, local or global, that currently advertise their orchestrational approaches can’t even explain what they mean by it. This is not a targeted accusation towards anyone or anything but a kind reality check for some healthy self-reflection for all of us. Let’s face it, orchestrating smooth and effective customer journeys is not as easy as it sounds. To make a genuine and client benefiting change takes more than just adopting a couple of new terms and presentations.
And just to be clear, I am the very first one to openly admit that we are not fully satisfied or 100% ready with our own orchestrating processes and we never will. It’s not that we are not confident in our expertise because we are but there’s always room for improvement and I am well aware of the fact that our own customer journey orchestrating learning curve too has just begun. For us, orchestrating customer journeys to perfection means understanding the full picture of how someone interacts with you or your brand and then making it more personal by creating relevant experiences along that journey. We connect technology and data to the individual customer’s journeys insight to have a detailed view of user experiences. We orchestrate automated customer journeys to perfection by turning data friendly. Let me try to explain why.
Chapter IV: How we realized that the foundation of longer well-functioning customer journeys are shorter data-driven microjourneys
“We help you transform ordinary customer journeys to holistic happy paths through optimized channels and touchpoints.” That is the promise we give to our clients and the key sentence of our Customer Journey Orchestration Services category. We believe that an effective digital customer journey is always a holistic experience where actively open interaction between the different departments within the company is crucial and mandatory. Our approach based on insight, engaging and optimizing tools helps connecting the gaps between marketing, sales, service and product development so they can all better focus on providing the best customer experiences possible.
The detailed magic of precise monitoring, data-driven engaging and effective optimizing
Here’s the public secret. We never try to fix everything at once. Instead, we divide each and every customer journey into shorter microjourneys and optimize those one by one through accurate and detailed real-time data. This makes it possible to identify customers’ exact positions in any given touchpoints and provide required content, commands, messages, actions or services at precisely the right moment. The idea is to control the entire process of data-driven customer journeys through monitoring, engaging and optimizing. More about all that later, in the next part of this story series. February is coming. Stay tune.
In meantime, let’s keep on orchestrating in the free world.
Epilogue: Part 3/5 of "Our Hero Sentence Explained" story series is all about the word AUTOMATED. Out sometimes in February 2022. Be aware. Change is coming.