As a business owner, you know that your customers are the lifeblood of your company. Without them, you wouldn't be able to make any money at all.
But your customers are more than just sources of income; they're also a key part of your business's success. You need to make sure that you're always providing them with the information and tools they need to make their lives easier, so they'll come back again and again.
So, you want to make sure that your customers are happy and satisfied. To do this, you need to give them the tools they need to run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. One way to do this is by creating a customer portal where they can access all of their information in one place.
As an added bonus a customers portal can also help to automate your business processes and make them as efficient as possible. It will save you time and money, but also allow you to spend more time on the important things.
In this article we will talk about the role a customer portal can play in delivering faster service, improving customer satisfaction, while reducing costs too. But first let’s see what are the main reasons why you should use a customer portal.
Customer portals are becoming more popular among B2B businesses because they offer many advantages over traditional websites:
A customer portal is a website that enables customers to access the content and services of your business. It’s typically password protected and is the customer’s own private area on your site, where they can go to manage their account, track orders and view details of recent purchases.
A customer portal can be used by businesses of any size, but it's especially beneficial for businesses that have customers who need to places orders regularly. For example, if you sell fresh produce products, your customers will probably want to place orders on weekly basis, check on the status of their orders, view their order history, update their billing information, and more.
The idea is not to replace existing sales channels but rather to extend your offering and provide a seamless customer experience by offering customers more options to engage with your business according to what suits them.
During times of growth, business may find it difficult to maintain the customer service levels of when they had fewer customers. Often companies are constrained by finances or physical space and cannot hire enough people to meet customer demands. This is where self-service can play a crucial role in allowing customers to interact with your company regardless of how busy you may be at that time.
Make it easier for customers to do business with you.
If customers find it easy to do business with your company, they are more likely to do so again in the future. By providing a customer portal, businesses make it easier for customers to login and view their account information, update their details, view their order history, track their current orders and even make new purchases.
This convenience will lead to customers develop a preference for your company over others and become long-term customers.
As customers browse through the portal, they may come across products that are related to what they are looking for or find new products that they were not aware of. This presents businesses with an opportunity to cross-sell
When your customers are able to perform their own self-service tasks using the portal, they become more autonomous and more satisfied. Customers are free to place order when it suits them and they are not bound by your operating hours or availability of staff member to assist.
In addition, offering a customer portal gives your business a professional look and feel. Customers will appreciate the level of sophistication and will view your company as being at the forefront of technology. This will result in an improved customer satisfaction score.
By providing customers with a portal, businesses are able to offer a more personalised experience as customers can update their preferences and account details themselves. This helps to build trust and rapport with customers
The convenience have having all the information you need in place.
With the help of a customer portal, businesses can provide customers with a wealth of information that can be easily accessed in one place. Customers can view product information, pricing, order tracking, invoices, delivery information and much more without having to contact customer service.
This saves time for both the customer and businesses as customers are able to find the information they need without having to wait for someone to get back to them.
Regular updates regarding the progress of their orders.
Customers can track their orders in real-time and receive notifications about the status of their order. This improved communication builds trust between businesses and customers as customers feel kept in the loop about what is happening with their order.
This is especially beneficial for businesses that have a long sales cycle as it allows them to keep customers updated at each stage of the process.
Self-service tools can help businesses to reduce their operational costs as it reduces the need for customer service staff. Customers are able to find the information they need without having to wait for someone to get back to them.
When customers can access pricing and place orders themselves, freeing your team up to perform other tasks that cannot be automated. Customer portals are often integrated into other software platforms that reduce the need for manual intervention and data capturing by members of staff.
Humans tend to make mistakes. The more humans involved in a process the higher the likelihood of errors. For instance orders placed over the phone might be be heard incorrectly or captured incorrectly by the person on the other end.
In many cases a customer won't receive a written confirmation of the order (or won't bother to check) and the error will only be discovered after time and money was spent to process and deliver the order.
The associated costs and embarrassment can be avoided when customers places their orders directly and receive written confirmation of their order immediately for them to check while it is still fresh in their memory.
When customers are able to capture their own data, businesses can be confident that the data is accurate. This is especially important for businesses that need to collect data for regulatory purposes.
The less time your team spends handling orders and customer queries the more time they can spend on processing orders. Collaboration between teams and with supplies is much more efficient when order information is received in digital format.
The services you'd want to offer may differ from business to business, but here are a couple of practical examples of what one might expect a B2B portal to offer customer:
Customer portals provide businesses with a unique opportunity to provide their customers with all the information they need in one place, reduce operational costs, improve communication with customers and even reduce the number of errors.
This increases customer satisfaction which ultimately leads to better customer retention and increased revenue.
Are your current systems and processes hindering your business from achieving its next growth milestone? Now there is a smarter way to get work done.