A customer portal is a digital solution that is customized to your brand and delivers better customer service while reducing costs and increasing revenue. There are many customer portal features that contribute to your business in different ways. We’ve outlined the top 5 features of a customer portal that are must-haves for any business.
Improve customer engagement
Group forums, or online communities, are a great way to engage customers with each other and your service. Open discussions welcome collaboration and dynamic conversations around common topics of interest. Building a community via your customer portal also creates a sense of belonging for your customers and increases the number of people talking about your brand.
Resolve customer issues
Providing customer support can take a lot of resources. With a customer portal, you can leverage group forums dedicated to common customer support questions. Users will have the ability to ask the community for assistance and members of the community can share their solutions and experiences. Not only does this free up time for your customer service team but it also helps uncover any common issues that your business may need to address in order to help improve your product or service.
Create an online community
Customers don’t want to feel like they’re alone in a situation. It’s human nature to want approval and support from others, whether we know them personally or not. Providing a way for users to feel supported amongst others who have commonalities through your product or service can be a strong asset to any business.
A customer portal enhances customer engagement and can create a safe space for users to connect and support one another. Providing this platform also opens ideas for your business to evolve. This online community created within your customer portal can give you the opportunity to learn and understand what customers think about your product or service and can show you how your product or service may need to evolve to fit their needs.
Educate customers
After a customer has bought into your product or service, it’s your duty to ensure they are leveraging its full capabilities. Human to human training can be costly, time-consuming and can require more resources in general. Incorporating a learning management system (LMS) in your customer portal will provide customers with training on-demand. An online interactive environment that houses course materials in the form of videos, infographics, PowerPoints, and more.
An LMS is a tool that some businesses underestimate but is often very valuable in providing your customers with the resources they need to be successful. In addition, incorporating an LMS to your customer portal will also provide you with an avenue to share your business’ latest releases, on-board customers and provide updates, all done simultaneously.
Provide information with a digital library
All customers are different and because of this, your business needs to be prepared to provide users with the information and engagement they need in the formats they want. While group forums and training videos are one route to go, there’s another option that a customer portal can provide.
A digital library stocked with knowledge base resources, FAQs, announcements, blogs, and more, can supply users with all the information they’re looking for without the need of an online group or video. Having the ability to cater to the needs of all customers is a challenging task but this is where a customer portal solution would prove to be a great resource.
Whether you decide to implement a customer portal today, tomorrow, or a year from now, these features will always be valuable to your business.
Learn how other companies are leveraging customer success portals to enhance their businesses.