Customer portals have grown increasingly popular with high-performing organizations across the globe. As clients show more interest in self-service to resolve minor concerns and access relevant information, businesses are turning to customer portals to streamline the post-purchase experience.
With the help of a portal, customers can log into their accounts, review their credentials, see past invoices and active services, and adjust options to tailor the service to their needs. All it takes is a few minutes, and there’s no need to sit on hold for hours. Busy customers seeking assistance from IT support in Utah want to have their questions answered quickly. Often customers can find their own answers through a well-designed customer portal.
But what makes a good customer portal? What do your clients expect to see? We’ll explore that below.
The Importance of a Customer Portal
The customer portal is how your customers control their experience with your business. It is the means through which they can access their profile data, their personal information, and other vital functions. Statistics show that 88% of customers expect a customer portal somewhere on your site.
Most importantly for you, customer portals give your customers a means of reaching out to you. Contact through the portal could be in the form of suggestions pages, helpdesks, or a simple review option. Regardless of how you set it up, the portal keeps your customers in touch with you, helping you improve your business.
The Benefits of a Customer Portal
Having a customer portal improves customer opinion.
As stated above, customers expect a portal to be on your site. Meeting basic expectations may not seem like much, but it goes a long way with most people. If your customers see you are doing what they want, they’re more likely to work with you and think better of you.
Portals provide a professional look.
Your site’s customer portal will add a professional design to its layout. They provide another means to utilize your branding or logos to further cement your business’s image into your customer’s minds. It also ensures them that you know what you’re doing.
They offer an easy method to manage customer information.
Giving customers access to their information gives them greater trust in you. It lets them keep everything updated should any of their data change, allowing them to use your business seamlessly.
They’ll be less tentative about doing so if they know it only takes a couple of clicks to control what personal data they have stored on your site.
They improve customer communication.
Issues arise all the time in business, be it with service or faulty software. Customers are likely to come back and be happy with your business if they can quickly and easily communicate with you and your team. Providing links within your customer portals to contact pages, message boards, and FAQ pages allows your customers to help themselves.
They offer a sense of community.
Having unique profiles and usernames allows your customers to make their presence on your site more unique. This presence then integrates into the general online community that forms there, creating a more solid connection between them all. Customers who feel they are a part of something are more likely to feel connected to your business and remain more loyal.
Core Aspects of a Good Customer Portal
A handful of things should always be available in a customer portal to provide a good experience. These include:
Secure User Profile
Not only should there be a brief profile for each customer, but it must be secure. Customers must trust data such as their names, dates of birth, addresses, emails, and bank details will be kept confidential. They must be able to trust that you are effectively protecting their data from thieves or breaches.
Broad Access
When a customer checks their portal, it is often the first step in a series of stops. They may be logging in to see what services they have ordered, the length of the service contract, or to check back on new features. Regardless, the journey should be smooth through your portal. Providing links to the various other areas of your site – such as supplementary software pages or FAQs – improves the user experience.
Invoice and Billing History
Another important page your customers will visit is their orders page. Keeping track of what purchases they have made and what their status is are two of the main reasons for returning to a store account. This information must be easily accessible, clearly understood, and linked neatly with other relevant pages.
Password Analytics
No one likes unwanted intrusions in their lives, but password attacks have become commonplace. A customer portal that enables people to examine advanced analytics behind user password attacks can help initiate damage control.
Customer Support
Even with self-service, there are times when customers need to reach out to you. Therefore, you’ll want to include a “contact us” option in the customer portal. Ensuring customers can quickly and easily find methods of reaching you and some troubleshooting suggestions can help alleviate negative experiences. It also puts you in a more favorable light with them if you are willing to help.
Great Service is an MSP catering to larger organizations looking to improve on the technological front. Our skilled team can help you set up a secure portal to serve your customers’ needs and keep the lines of communication open.
