A customer portal is a personalized website offering customers a single point of access to relevant company information and self-service options.
When problems occur, questions arise, or issues related to your products or services need to be addressed, your customers depend on you to provide reliable service and support options. Contact centers and support agents can help ensure fast and effective remediation. However, sometimes the effort of picking up a phone, sending off an email, or even reaching out through social media can end up negatively impacting the customer experience. After all, customers want low-effort solutions, and often, that means handling things on their own.
Customer portals place the customer in the driver’s seat, offering a single, personalized location where they can access the entirety of your business’ self-service functions. Through the customer portal, users can view and update account information, submit and review cases, access your knowledge base, interact within your community, and submit common requests from a catalog of service and support options.
Gone are the days of the passive customer; modern customers are capable, informed, and tech-savvy, and they want answers on their time and are comfortable using self-service options. In many cases, customers who reach out to support agents only do so after attempting their own troubleshooting and online research. These customers want fast answers and straightforward solutions that will not require them to stay on the telephone or wait for an email response.
Today’s customers expect a certain level of self-service availability. At the same time, they expect consistency and ease-of-access, regardless of the channel (or channels) they use. Successful businesses are those that are able to consistently meet or surpass customer expectations, making good customer self-service a competitive necessity.
Customer portals take self-service further, eliminating barriers, bringing resources and channels together in a single location, and personalizing experiences for individual customers.
By providing a centralized location from which customers can conduct their own service journeys, customer service portals provide several business and competitive advantages:
Self-service options deflect issues that would otherwise become the responsibility of service agents. This frees agents to focus more of their time on new, more complex, and work-intensive problems.
Although implementing a customer portal is an investment, it is one that can quickly pay for itself. Self-service portals allow businesses to continue to provide customer support resources even during non-business hours, and to easily scale to meet changing needs. This means fewer support costs overall.
Customer portals that include community forums and social-media functionality connect customers with others who share their interests. These communities of customers can share ideas, troubleshoot issues, make suggestions, and more, creating a more engaged customer base in the process.
By incorporating digital workflows into customer portals, businesses are able to automate many important processes. This includes not only automatically creating and managing cases, assigning resources, and providing updates; it also includes automating transactional types of common customer requests such as changing an address, applying for a loan, or upgrading a plan.
Customers who pursue their own research away from your platform can offer you no additional insight into their needs or expectations. By providing a secure customer portal website, you can track their journey and analyze how effectively you are meeting their needs, allowing for ongoing improvement of your essential business processes.
The end goal of employing a customer portal is simple: increasing customer satisfaction. By meeting customer expectations and allowing them to address issues of how, when, and where they are most comfortable, you enhance the customer experience.
There are many kinds of customer portals across nearly every industry, each with their own focus, functionality, and processes. That said, there are certain elements that are common throughout the most effective customer portals.
Comprehensive and easily searchable, knowledge bases provide clear access to content to assist customers and agents in resolving service issues. Knowledge base articles could include guides, FAQs, troubleshooting tips, manuals, tutorials, downloads, and other helpful information.
A service catalog provides customers with a virtual storefront where they can submit common requests for products or services. This allows customers to engage directly with relevant departments with workflow-driven solutions, empowering them to do even more through self-service.
A major step up from keyword-search knowledge bases, AI-assisted chatbots allow users to use natural language to explain issues. The chatbots can then retrieve relevant information or automatically perform other appropriate tasks.
Self-service does not necessarily mean handling everything on your own. Built-in community forums allow customers to reach out and connect with each other for added support, troubleshooting, and collaboration.
Customer portals are designed to improve the customer experience, which makes customer feedback absolutely imperative. Built-in feedback and suggestion features ensure that when your customers have something to say, they have a reliable voice with which to say it.
With such a clear focus on providing customers with a comfortable set of processes for self-service, it would be counterintuitive to ignore the fact that many users now prefer to use smart devices rather than desktops or laptops when interacting online. As such, the portal should also be mobile friendly; it should function effectively and intuitively regardless of the device the customer prefers to use.
The most satisfying customer support is not only accurate and timely, but also extremely low effort on the part of the customer. An omnichannel customer portal solution allows users to access important information and resources from the channels they are most comfortable using. Omnichannel incorporates messaging, web chat, telephone, email, social media, and more, allowing customers to move seamlessly across channels.
Self-service is an important option, but it should not be the only option available to the user. When customers cannot find answers or implement solutions on their own, customer portals need to be able to seamlessly loop in live agents to take over the conversation or case. These agents should have access to all relevant search activity, chatbot conversations, case, product, and customer information, so that they can help without any disruption or lull in service.
Customer portals are versatile tools that offer a wide range of features to further support the customer journey. These features enhance the user experience, streamline interactions, and provide customers with more control over their interactions with a company. Key additional features commonly found in customer portals include:
User authentication and security
User authentication ensures that only authorized individuals can access the customer portal. This feature often relies on secure login methods (such as two-factor authentication) to protect sensitive customer data and maintain confidentiality. By implementing additional security-enhancing measures, customer portals can instill trust in users and promote a sense of confidence when interacting with the company.Personalized user profiles
Every client is different, so every client should have the option to customize their experience to better address their needs and fit their circumstances. Personalized user profiles allow customers to manage their preferences and account settings—customers can update their contact information, communication preferences, and other relevant details, enabling a more tailored experience. Personalization enhances customer engagement and enables businesses to deliver targeted content and services based on individual needs and preferences.Document sharing and storage
Document sharing and storage features in customer portals enable users to access important files and documents related to their interactions with the company. This typically includes access to invoices, contracts, service agreements, product manuals, and other relevant documentation, reducing the need for physical paperwork and making it easier for customers to retrieve information whenever they need it.Task management and workflow
With task management and workflow capabilities, customers can track the progress of their requests, orders, or support cases within the portal. The feature provides transparency, allowing customers to see where their request stands in the process and anticipate timelines for resolution. Automated workflows also streamline internal processes, improving response times and overall efficiency.Billing and payment integration
Integrating billing and payment options into the customer portal empowers users to view their account balances, make payments, and manage billing preferences easily and conveniently. Customers can access past invoices, set up automatic payments, and receive notifications for upcoming payments. This integration simplifies the payment process and reduces the likelihood of late or missed payments.Information and resource center
An information and resource center within the customer portal can serve as a centralized hub for educational materials, FAQs, tutorials, and guides. Customers can quickly locate valuable information to troubleshoot common issues, learn about product features, and maximize their experience with the company's offerings. This self-help repository reduces the need for direct support interactions while allowing users to resolve their own issues on their terms.Appointment scheduling and calendar integration
Appointment scheduling features within customer portals facilitate the booking of services, consultations, meetings, and other interactions with company representatives. Customers can view available time slots, book appointments, and receive confirmations and reminders. Integrating these features with external calendars ensures seamless coordination and prevents scheduling conflicts.
While customer portals can be a major driver of customer satisfaction and empower service and support agents to accomplish more with their valuable time, there are several hurdles that may stand in the way of customer-portal success. Addressing these challenges is crucial for ensuring a seamless and effective self-service experience for customers. Below are some common challenges organizations may face during the implementation and adoption of customer portal software:
Implementation can add unnecessary friction
Deploying and integrating a customer portal requires careful planning and execution. If not handled properly, the implementation process can introduce unnecessary friction and complexity for both customers and internal stakeholders. Poorly executed implementations may result in extended downtime, data migration issues, or problems with existing systems.Poor data organization will create a dense and slow business platform
Customer portals rely on accessing and managing large volumes of data related to customer accounts, interactions, and preferences. If the underlying data is not correctly classified or is otherwise disorganized, outdated, or duplicated, it can lead to a slow and unresponsive platform. Poor data organization may hinder customers from finding the information they need quickly, causing frustration and discouraging them from using the portal in the future.There is low adoption of new customer portal
Even with a feature-rich and well-designed customer portal, low adoption rates can hinder its success. Customers may be accustomed to other service and support channels or may not be aware of the benefits of using the portal for self-service. Proper communication, education, and incentivization (through special promotions or offers) may be effective at encouraging customers to give the new portal a try. Businesses should actively promote the portal's advantages and highlight its convenience and time-saving benefits to drive higher adoption rates.Navigation path might not be intuitive
A customer portal that is difficult to navigate can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction among users. The portal's layout, menu structure, and search functionality should be intuitive and extremely user-friendly. A well-designed user interface will guide customers seamlessly through the portal, making it easy for them to find the information they need or perform specific actions without unnecessary clicks or confusion. Conducting usability testing and gathering feedback from customers during the development process can help identify and address any navigation challenges.
ServiceNow provides the essential tools and infrastructure your business needs to create satisfying self-service options and effective customer portals. This best-in-breed solution encompasses a range of anytime, anywhere capabilities:
Service Portal allows customers to personalize the self-service experience across every channel. They can keep track of products and cases, check statuses, and easily and directly access all other available self-service options.
AI-enhanced search provides customers with intelligent search suggestions and results summaries. Knowledge management also helps organizations identify gaps in their knowledge base, triggering workflows for new content curation.
When customers visit your site, the last thing you want them to experience is inconsistency. Engagement Messenger allows organizations to natively embed self‑service into web applications and third-party portals for an in-context, consumer-grade experience.
Natural language understanding and integration allows virtual agents (AI-powered conversational chatbots) to intelligently answer customer questions, direct users to relevant informational resources, complete requests on their behalf, and identify (and automatically redirect) issues that require live-agent support.
The ServiceNow Service Catalog gives customers the power to bypass customer service and take their cases directly to the most relevant departments. Simple online forms powered by ServiceNow workflow ensure that the cases are being routed to the right experts. And workflow not only handles case routing; when combined with integration, it is capable of handling a large portion of the work itself. Workflow can collect relevant information to trigger actions within the system or with a separate department, allowing you to automate effective solutions to common requests.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM) is revolutionizing customer self-service. Built on the industry leading ServiceNow AI Platform, CSM improves support efficiency and effectiveness, and gives customers the expanded self-service options and support they crave.
Watch our on-demand webinar to learn more about how to connect with your customers through customer self-service, and then give ServiceNow CSM a try, and see for yourself just how far the right customer portal can take you.