Many businesses benefit by deploying applications internally to help manage and drive workflows and data integrity. By creating a secure customer portal for your software, you can provide your customers considerable value by giving them visibility into the work you are doing for them and by facilitating communication. This portal provides a single place for customers to access their accounts, communicate with your team, and self-serve their support issues. So, what is a secure client portal?

What Is A Secure Client Portal?

A client portal is a single place for your customers to access all aspects of their accounts with your business. The portal may be on your website or a mobile application (app). Any client portal we develop must employ the latest cybersecurity best practices, including strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and role-based access.

What Should Be In A Customer Portal?

Consider the time required by your employees to provide your clients with updates, information, payment processing, support, etc. Anything that is creating log jams in your processes could potentially be handled by your customer portal. Here are a set of common features and functions that should be in a client portal:

• Dashboard: Provide a snapshot of all key account information in one, easy-to-read dashboard.
• Communication: Make it easy for customers to communicate with your team. This could be in the form of phone calls, chat, email, forms, or tickets.
• Branding: Your portal should carry your brand. That supports your marketing efforts, and it creates confidence with your customers that they’re in the right place.
• Documentation and Policies: This makes it easy for your clients to find help on their own and to set expectations in doing business with you.
• Collaboration: Create a central location for clients to share files and resources with your team.
• Community: Provide a space for your customers to solve each others’ problems. That will reduce the workload for your support team and create brand loyalty.
• Training: A customer portal is a great way to provide access to and pull results from your Learning Management System (LMS).

The Benefits Of A Customer Portal

When you empower your customers with the tools and resources mentioned above, you also set your company up to realize real benefits from a secure customer portal. These benefits include the following:

• Better Customer Experience: This is your opportunity to create raving fans who recommend you to others, buy more from you, and leave great reviews for others to see.
• Team Efficiency: When customers are able to self-serve through a portal, that leaves your employees more time to focus on whatever it is they do best. That will create efficiency and better performance.
• Marketing Feedback: When clients voluntarily provide information and share desires and behavior, that can result in invaluable marketing data. That’s not to mention feedback left deliberately through a feedback form, survey, or chatbot.
• Business Intelligence: You can generate and monitor real-time analytics and reports based on user activity within your portal. This information will help you make key business decisions in a timely manner.
• Visibility: We could also say “transparency” here. When you close the communications gap between your market and your company, you build trust, confidence, and a cooperative effort.

Your Secure Customer Portal

There’s so much that can be accomplished for your business through a secure customer portal. When you’ve built custom software and integrated software across your organization, a logical next step is to make it easier for your customers and your employees to access that functionality.

Have questions? Set up a time to review your software plan with your engineers.