A customer portal is a private online channel through which you can provide support and information to your customers. You may also have heard it called an extranet – where information is shared securely with named external parties, or an intranet – where information is shared internally with employees.
Customer portals allow you to interact and collaborate with your internal or external clients and share information such as schedules, data records and documents. You can also use a portal to allow your customers to view, download and upload private information such as invoices and much more. Customer portals are simple to access but secure. All you need is an internet connection and a web browser.
Customers can get answers to their questions as well as have access to whatever information a business wants to share with them. The benefit for customers is access to the information they need when they need it; the benefit for a business is reduced queries which frees-up the time of customer service and sales staff, as well as improved customer satisfaction which can help with customer retention. When it comes to sharing information, customer portals trump email, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Businesses won’t have the worry and costs that go hand in hand with supporting complex VPNs and customers will benefit from:
The ability to securely exchange information, including financial information;
No file size limitations;
Self-service access to a private repository;
The ability to upload and manage larger files;
Version control functions;
A structured folder system (unlike FTP).
There is no right or wrong way to use a customer portal. It’s uses will vary greatly depending on your industry, your organisation and what you’re trying to achieve, store, edit and share documents and files, download or preview files or data records, manage your key meetings and events via an events calendar.
Clients each have their own private window into their account where they can see the status of their orders and generate whatever reports they need.
G-Byte Techno rovides a secure customer portal that offers fast access to projects, calendars and the ability to self-serve.