Self-service portals is the new, interactive way of maintaining a communication line between customer and business. Attached to your website, it’s a place customers visit for information, support, and automated service. As we’ll explore, the benefits a portal can bring to your company are amazing and almost endless.
In a world where it’s becoming more preferable to customers to receive goods and services while staying comfortably at home, businesses need to evolve around a powerful online presence as well. Buckle in, because at the end of this article, you may be considering a self-service portal for your company, too.
Is a Portal for You?
- 1) Your business model involves a great population of returning customers
- 2) You’re beginning to integrates a customer-loyalty program to out-match pesky competition
- 3) You offer a complex product which a dedicated consumer-base will benefit from forum of
An example that fulfills criteria one and two is chain pharmacy and convenience stores such as Rexall. With constant special deals and loyalty points, consumers can go to their portal and find information on products and special offers to look out for.
Don’t fit the top three criteria? Ho-ho-ho! IN this digital world, nothing is off-limits if you’re innovative enough! Take virtual healthcare, for example. The Covid-19 lockdown has proven that customers prefer serving themselves for an online appointment with their family doctor at home, because it means they get faster and more comfortable service.
In an industry where nobody’s made helpful customer service portals yet, it just means you could be the one to come up with the idea.
The Benefits of a Portal
1) Saving on customer service costs
Younger customers prefer to find answer themselves. FAQs product information and forums cam replace hundreds of hours of service calls a week, saving you money while saving everybody time.
2) Improve agent productivity
Even if your business doesn’t have a cell center, confused customers on the line are eating away the time your staff could use to complete other tasks. I’m pretty sure I can think of a few horror movies featuring call centers…
3) Teach customers new skills
Enlightening customer with tips and skills about your product can leave customers feeling inspired and confident, and therefore more inclined to stick around your site. If your company sells plumbing equipment, for instance, a short guide ob removing a faucet with a certain tool could solidify a purchase of said tool.
4) Boost Site Traffic
SEO is a temperamental beast, but a very strong one indeed if you figure out how to tame it. Site traffic is a core consideration for the SEO of your site. The greater the site, the more likely it is that you are what people are searching for, and therefore the higher the likelihood of an SEO showing you.
5) Leverage Personalized Information
Using cookies and user history, your portal can evolve from an information hub to a personalized marketing tool. Even simply gathering data on what consumers are interested in on your site can point to business opportunities.
6) I can create a Community
This applies mostly to businesses with a niche market, where consumers can answer each other’s questions in forums. Lively forums are a great incentive for customers to keep coming back.
7) Customer Satisfaction
Information, support, convenience, speed, community – what’s a customer not to be satisfied by? And happy customers are more likely to give recommendations to other potential customers.
Conclusion
Pandemics and the amount of time people spend on their phones are strong reasons alone to consider implementing a customer self-service portal into your business.
Whether you’re in commerce, healthcare, or manufacturing, there are ways to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through digital solutions.
If this article has sparked inspiration, or you want to hear more from us about the many wonderful forms and capabilities of portals, talk to us to bring a solid idea to life.
