What determines the future of your business is the first interaction you have with your client. Either it be via phone, your website, customer portal or in person. If your first interaction with your client is a pleasant one, you are more likely to retain them forever.
Today, with the increasing internet usage, all the businesses are striving to be ubiquitous by harnessing client portals to better serve their customers. When your customers sign in your portal – you give birth to a brand-new relationship with your customers.
Why Is Client Portal A Necessity?
Traditionally, the only way to deliver customer service was through a call or meeting in person. But nowadays, from shopping to healthcare, all the businesses have started using client portals to build deeper connection points with their clients.
The great advantage that comes with a client portal is that it gives clients the freedom to interact with you when and how they want. However, with changing customer expectations and the fast-paced, technology-driven world that we now live in, many businesses are looking at new ways to interact with customers and client portals are an excellent example of this sort of innovation.
With the help of a client portal, you can interact with your clients, share files, discuss, chat, plan, organize and manage tasks and events in a private online environment.
Some Common Client Portal Use Cases:
Client portals allow a streamlined flow of data between customers and employees. There are many ways a business can harness client portal depending upon their industry and purpose of use. Here are some of the most common real-world use cases of a WordPress client portal.
External File Sharing: This is the most common use case of a client portal. Many businesses have a hefty amount of paperwork to deal with. All of it should be in sync and accessible to both client and employees as and when required for everyone. With a client portal, users can upload their files into a structured folder system, like an intranet that is limitless. These functions eradicate the use of the outdated and complicated FTP system.
Project Collaboration: If you are in a business which requires constant feedback and comments from client to work efficiently, a client portal can be a great tool you can harness to make the communication hassle-free. A client portal makes it very easier for both the parties (you and your client) to download, preview or edit the files. This makes life significantly easier for you and your clients, especially if you aren’t based in the same place and work remotely.
Knowledge Repository: Customer Knowledge base is the best way to engage your customers and expand your business reach. With the help of a client portal, you can empower your customers and employees to find information regarding any aspect of your business without wasting their precious time traipsing around your office in search of the person with the specific information or document.
Benefits of WordPress Customer Portal:
Company Benefits:
- Optimized Total Customer Experience
- Enhanced Customer Lifetime Value
- Reduced costs on customer servicing, software, hardware, and human interface
- Identification of potential customers through clickstream analysis
- Service oriented architecture to enable scalability and zeroed maintenance costs
- Integrated web services for data integration across wider data network
- Improved Return on Investment with high customer value, satisfaction, and retention
Customer Benefits:
- Improved customer services
- Consistent, instant, and anytime support
- Rapid problem resolution
- Personalized interface and content-based information suited to individual preferences
- Secure access with the convenient single sign-on capability
4 Things A Business Should Consider Before Making the Plunge:
A Client portal can certainly help your business thrive exponentially in today’s rapidly disrupting marketplace. There’s not a single client-centric industry that can’t benefit from client portals. With a well-managed client portal in place, businesses not only look more tech savvy and professional, but they also showcase a deeper investment in their relationships with clients – and what business isn’t interested in that?
However, when it comes to integrating a client portal, there are some things that businesses should take care of before making the plunge:
1. What Do You Need Customer Portal to Do?
Each company has different reasons and requirements for implementing customer portal. For example, if you are a small accountancy firm you will need a customer portal to securely share sensitive documentation with individual clients. However, if you were a giant ecommerce business – you might need a customer portal to deliver great customer service. Hence, it is important to be clear about your goals and objectives before you choose your customer portal.
2. Personalized UX:
In today’s mad rush, personalization is what helps any business to build a good rapport with their end users. Imagine you are skimming through abyss of hundreds of emails piled in your inbox. While skimming, you simply glimpse at the opening of an email.
“Hello There, we are going to launch xyz today!”
“Hey here, check out our latest products and deals!”
“Hello Aditya, here are some things that you are passionate about!”
Which one from the above three emails you are most likely to open? If you are like the most, you will open the one with your name in it. Hence, it is essential for your portal to deliver personalized user experience to your most valued customers.
3. Consistency Across the Portal:
Along with personalization, customers also expect a consistent experience. The portal should be featuring your logo and work hand in hand with other brand features. According to Kayako’s customer service trends report for 2017, 90 percent of customers want a brand to have continuity across all channels. Having said that, because a client portal is like a digital office front, you should make sure it should deliver just as professional and personalized experience as a brick and mortar store.
Hence if you are choosing a client portal for your business, make sure it gives you the freedom of customizing it to deliver consistent user experience.
4. What if I Mess Anything Up?
Mistakes are part of human routine. You can only never make any mistake if you are a robot. As per my guess, you aren’t. So, there might be a time when you mistakenly mess anything up. Then what? Will the software company be there when you really need them? How friendly are they?
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
If you know that the company you are dealing with, will be there when you need them – you won’t be worried even if you mess anything up.
How to Find an Ideal Company for Your Project?
Finding an ideal company to help you in integrating WordPress Customer Portal with your CRM is indeed challenging. It is quite tricky to find an ideal solution that works with all major CRM solutions like Salesforce, SuiteCRM, SugarCRM & Dynamics CRM. You must make sure that the company you are working with, is adroit, techno-smart, and collaborative.
While we have been serving this industry since a decade now – we feel extremely proud to have a privilege of serving the giants of the industry. We believe in offering robust web solutions that has the potential to help you grow your business beyond any limits.
If you are seeking for an ideal wordpress client portal, give us a call and we will be on your marks to help you turn your idea into a blazing reality!
