Why your customers benefit from a customer portal

A customer portal is a website where supplier and customer collaborate and exchange information with each other. It contributes to strengthening the customer relationship and provides a transparent, secure and unambiguous surface for information exchange.

Most companies want to exist for their customers and for the customers to experience a benefit and a value with the company's services and products. If they don't, it's only a matter of time before they're no longer customers.

It may sound like a cocky claim that customers benefit greatly from a customer portal. How can you say something like that? One way to implicitly interpret benefit is to look at what customers actually expect. "In fact, surveys have shown that 70% of customers expect self-service applications on a company's website," writes SupportBee, for example.

Main benefits

If it is the case that our customers expect some type of customer portal, then it is not a far-fetched conclusion that it is because they have learned that they benefit from and appreciate that type of support function from a vendor. But if we scratch the surface, where does the benefit consist at a higher, more conceptual level? The benefit can be described with:

1. Availability
   Today, the customer is used to high availability of information. The expectation is that it is possible to reach or leave information around the clock 24/7 at a time that suits the customer. The customer also expects to be able to do this from any location where there is a network connection.
   
   
2. Security
   The knowledge that even if the computer breaks or is stolen, my important documents remain in the customer portal, builds security and reduces anxiety. The same applies to physical documents such as important agreements. A burglary or a fire does not have to mean that important information is lost.
   
   
3. Validity
   Who hasn't wondered if it is the last version of, for example, the quote, the agreement or the drawing that you have in front of you? Is there someone who is more current perhaps? Customers have gradually gotten used to the fact that by logging into the customer portal you can always take part in the latest information, which means that you dare to act on the information in a clearer way.

Further reading on customer portals
We have produced a page that highlights 10 reasons to use a customer portal. You can find the page here and it is also possible to download the page as a PDF.