Editorial
The Gist
- Distinct functions. Journey orchestration focuses on real-time, tailored interactions, while experience management targets overall satisfaction.
- Asset shift. The new asset-class is "return on experience (ROX)," which replaces traditional return on investment (ROI) metrics.
- Tech evolution. Technology has evolved from being a mere tool to an enabler of human experience, now powered by AI and big data.
It’s easy to get caught up in big-tech’s alphabet soups and hype cycles; being a human experience practitioner for close to three decades has taught me this: Technology, in all its forms and shapes, was and will forever be, an enabler.
Fast forward to today, we have generative AI (large language models — LLMs) and utopian/dystopian futures with the advent of artificial general intelligence (AGI). I’ve made known my utopian views — in a world of abundance where humanity and (not or) AI, both species value/create exponentially to eventually reach the stars!
My objective here is to simply describe differences and nuances between the in vogue technologies of journey orchestration vs. experience management of today.
But before we can do that, we have to build on why HX = CX + EX, and that life-journeys bind trust and empathy to yield accretive/destructive experience equity, or return on experience (ROX) — which I argue is the new "asset-class," and one that replaces what we’ve come to know as return on investment (ROI).
It’s through these journeys, or life-journeys to be exact, that we navigate toward our North Star, activating a/our shared purpose. And it’s these exact same life-journeys that are orchestrated, automated and made more efficient and intelligent by tech platforms, two of which we will discuss in more detail.
Related Article: Will 2023 Be a Breakthrough Year for Customer Journey Orchestration?
Definition: Journey Orchestration & Experience Management
Journey orchestration and experience management platforms are both focused on enhancing human interactions, but they have different scopes and functions:
1. Journey Orchestration, or more popularly, customer journey orchestration (CJO):
- Journey orchestration platforms are designed to map and manage the end-to-end life-journey across multiple touchpoints and channels (omnichannel)
- They analyze customer behaviors and actions to trigger personalized interactions and messages at the right time and on the right channel.
- Journey orchestration focuses on real-time decision-making, adapting the human experience based on their current stage in the journey and data.
- The goal is to create seamless, relevant and consistent interactions throughout the life-journey/lifecycle.
2. Experience Management, or more popularly, digital experience (DXP) platforms:
- Experience management platforms are broader and focus on gathering and analyzing customer/ employee feedback, sentiments and perceptions across various interactions and touchpoints.
- They involve collecting data from surveys, reviews, social media and other sources to gauge customer/ employee satisfaction and sentiment.
- Experience management platforms provide insights into customer perceptions, helping organizations identify pain points and opportunities for improvement.
- The goal is to proactively identify areas for enhancing the overall human experience.
- Simply put, XM = XD + XI (i.e., Experience Management = Experience Design + (continuous) Experience Improvement).
Related Article: 4 Steps Toward Successful Customer Journey Orchestration
Final Thoughts on Journey Orchestration and Experience Management
In essence, journey orchestration is more about orchestrating real-time interactions to guide customers/employees through their life-journeys, while experience management is about understanding and improving the overall customer/employee perception and satisfaction across all these said interactions. They can complement each other to create a comprehensive approach to delivering exceptional human experiences.
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