Salesforce is a well-known name in the world of CRMs, portals, and communities. We can’t deny that their products are world-class and provide organizations like yours an upper hand. And sometimes that can raise further questions like which portal to invest in? Should you be going with a portal or a community?
We’ve already written a well-researched article on Salesforce Customer Portals Vs. Communities. Hence, in this article, we are going to discuss its two well-known portals i.e. Customer portal and Partner portal. And help you choose the right solution for your organizational needs.
What is Salesforce Partner Portal?
Salesforce partner portal allows partner users outside of your organization to login to Salesforce. It helps companies by empowering their indirect sales channel and this increases their ROI. Users of the partner portal have limited access to Salesforce and can only see the data of the modules for which they are granted access. With the help of partner relationship management (PRM), companies can create multiple portals to manage, track, and handle their indirect sales.
Let’s talk about three main benefits of having a Partner Portal:
Increased efficiency of your channel sales funnel
With the help of partner portals, you can provide your partner a platform to collaborate with your organization for any and every sales activity, task, lead generation or capturing, nurturing, conversions, etc. and thereby increasing the efficiency of your channel sales, and marketing.
Increased ROI
As you provide your partners with easy-to-setup tools to track, manage, and analyze their marketing campaigns with Salesforce partner portal, you will directly see the effect on your ROI. Additionally, you can provide them with exclusive access to your content which will help them align the strategy and marketing around your brand.
Access to data from anywhere anytime
Your partners will be able to access the data and its insights on the go. You can easily share reports and documents from anywhere and help them understand KPIs and other sales opportunities.
What is Salesforce Customer Portal?
Salesforce customer portal is an interface that is useful to provide support to your customers, help them solve issues about your products/services thereby better overall user experience. As a company, you can create a personalized customer service portal including features, sections, information, modules based on your requirements to streamline communication with your customers.
And here are the top three benefits of using the customer portal:
Omnichannel support
According to research, 51.3% of people use the internet via mobile. In such times while developing a customer portal, you need to make sure that you make it accessible for your mobile users via mobile application or just making it mobile compatible. This will help you provide omnichannel support and be present wherever your customers are. This makes it more user friendly and an easy to access platform for them.
Easy integration
Salesforce customer portal is easy to integrate with your web pages or the entire website. This can help your users have easy and simplified access to your knowledge base.
Online forum
Customer portals help your customers solve problems more effectively by letting you create online forums, various group learning, informative articles, and more. This provides them a much needed 24/7 customer support without you having to spend extra resources and also eliminates the drawbacks of having customers in multiple time zones.
Now that we are clear on both of their concepts, let’s try and understand their differences.
Salesforce Customer Portal Vs Partner Portal
There is a thin line difference between both the portals but each has its own uniqueness and functionality to serve.
| Feature | Customer Portal | Partner Portal |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Users | Customers and End-Users | Partners (e.g., Resellers, Consultants) |
| Access to Data | Limited to personal account details, support cases, etc. | Access to leads, opportunities, joint marketing materials |
| Collaboration Tools | Basic collaboration on support cases | Advanced collaboration on sales opportunities and deals |
| Customization | Moderate customization for branding and user experience | High customization to align with partner business processes |
| Analytics and Reports | Customer-facing reports on cases, orders | Partner-focused reports on sales performance, pipeline tracking |
| Integration with CRM | Standard integration with CRM for case and order management | Deep integration with CRM for partner relationship management |
| Purpose | Solving issues independently without interacting with representatives | Shows leads and opportunities to partners |
| Audience | End users | Channel salespeople or other third-parties |
| Access and Cost | Limited access to CRM features, typically less expensive | More access to core CRM features, typically more expensive |
On the basis of your company’s requirements, you make your choice. If you are looking for a portal that helps you to manage your customers then having a customer portal is the right decision. Whereas, if you want the portal to manage your partners then opt for partner portals.
About us:
CRMJetty is a hub of innovative customer relationship solutions. Our tools ensure that you can render enhanced interactions at each stage of your customer lifecycle. So, if you are searching for the right portal solution for your company, then you can choose from our wide range of solutions for Salesforce, Dynamics, and more. We have served in this industry for a decade and have built many Salesforce portals like customer portal, self-service portal, non-profit portals, etc. Get in touch with us and we’ll help you kick start your journey towards communicating better.
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