At Code Galaxy, we often find that when customers first contact us about creating a website they have a design and content in mind, but haven’t considered how their new website could also become a customer portal. They’re not only missing a trick for enhancing the operation of their business, but they’re also overlooking what customers really want. According to Microsoft (who know a thing or two), 90% of customers expect an online portal for customer service. So, if you’re updating your website, what are you waiting for?
Why have a customer web portal?
In a nutshell, we could answer this by saying, “to enhance your customer experience and keep them returning to you for great functionality, communication and service delivery”, but that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know!
Let us elaborate. A customer web portal provides a unique, personal experience for the customer by providing content, services and tools specific to their needs. Examples of customer web portals are booking portals for events, online banking, home services account portals such as gas and electricity and the web portal for your mobile phone.
Whether you are a B2B or B2C business, great customer portal software enables you to build a platform that serves your customers more effectively.
Sounds good? It is!
Benefits of a great customer portal
Online file access and productivity
Customer portals can store documents and provide a range of tools tailored to your specific industry and needs, that allow customers and colleagues to log in to access key documents and perform certain tasks and requests. This is particularly useful in light of the increased number of people, including your customers and colleagues, working from home.
Automation
Recording and accessing data can be automated through a customer portal. This can save a huge amount of time and resources. The data is pulled from the customer’s own in-house system which can be analysed and used to produce reports, thereby giving the customer meaningful insight into the activity of their customers and the performance of the business.
Flexibility and upscaling
A great customer web portal will be flexible to change with the needs of your business. We would always encourage our clients to think about where they see the business in the next few years. Will they want increased functionality? Do they envisage their customer base changing? Whether they have a strong vision for the future or not, we would always design web portal software that allows the business to upscale at any point.
Security
As with any software, the robust security of an online portal is a paramount requirement. Without adequate security, a web portal is at risk of data breaches and cyberattacks. That said, a customer portal can be set up with strict access rules and permissions for colleagues, clients and their customers. End-to-end encryption, two-factor authentication and audit trails can all be used as security protocols to keep data and users safe.
Get in touch
Code Galaxy is a website and software development agency. Contact us to find out how we can create a fantastic customer web portal for your business.
