Three Reasons You Should Start Using a Client Portal for your Business
As an esteemed business, you will need to get a secure, password protected portal to store and access your important financial documents as well get your clients to access the information relating to your business from anywhere at any time. Whether you're at work, home, or on vacation you always have access to your tax returns, financial work papers, or accounting database. This portal also allows you to work together efficiently by securely exchanging working documents, scanned receipts and very large QuickBooks files.
So What Exactly Is A Client Portal?
Also referred to as Extranets, Client Portal is an intranet that is partially accessible to authorized persons outside of a company or organization. With a client portal, specified company information, data and applications are made available to clients, customers, and partners. For many years, businesses have not been opportune to enjoy the benefits of a company intranet in terms of improved internal and external communications, alongside joint workings. But with Client Portal, that has been resolved. Organizations now acknowledge and enjoy benefits gotten from Client’s portal. With the use of Client Portal, businesses can be enhanced by enabling external clients and partners to access parts of the company intranet.
Client Portal allows for a greater flow of two-way information and collaboration for organizations looking building stronger relationships with their clients, customers, investors or even, partners. Client portals give companies a significant competitive edge by allowing them save money through reduced overheads and streamlined business processes. In this article, we give three compelling reasons as to why your business needs to introduce a client portal.
Client Portal Increases Productivity
Automating and streamlining business processes can increase your bottom bills. Just as the intranet would do to your internal business functions, that’s exactly what Client Portal would do for your external ones. Vital information such as contracts, proposals, quotes or project plans could be accessed via the client portal by both internal staff and external partners and clients or customers, thereby providing a single source of truth. The headache of your documents getting lost in the mail or in the sea of email traffic is gone with the use of Client Portal. And the margin of error will be reduced as the intranet will have the up-to-date version of those important files or documents.
Every business wants an avenue to increase employee efficiency while maximizing customer satisfaction. Client portal will do this. In addition, company’s activities that were previously completed manually will now be automated. For example, placing orders with suppliers will be accomplished through the client portal rather than by phone or email.
It Will Increase Clients’ Responsiveness
Granting direct access to applications and information for customers and clients improves flexibility and responsiveness for you, your partners and your company in general. Your Customers will be able to interact with you outside of standard business hours any time that is suitable for them. Moreso, collaborative working with clients and partners will be made easier as everyone can operate when and where it’s most comfortable for them. Time and resources will be saved as there will no longer be the need for face-to-face meetings or numerous emails involving lots of personnel. Instead, personnel will be able to log on to the client portal and work in the collaborative workspace at a time that is best suited.
Portals give customers access to many basic tools used by agents. In the past, customers have to wait and rely on the customer service in the company to answer any of their problems but with the use of Client portal, it allows customers to chat with agents directly via the portal, engaging in real-time conversation over any question they have concerning your company’s product or service.
One very useful by-product of shared workspaces on the client portal is that improved oversight and visibility is provided for all involved. And given that many clients will be spread over large geographical areas and multiple time zones, this ability is a great bonus. Key staff contact lists for both organizations and shared calendars for events, key milestones or deadlines are additional tools that will enhance flexibility and responsiveness in working relationships with customers and partners.
Client Portal Will Improve Clients’ Loyalty
The ability to make timely, accurate information available to your client and being seen to be attentive to clients’ needs gives you an edge over your competitors and makes it seems more likely that you will retain the customer’s business. Centrally located online forms in the client portal like about us, contact us, support requests, requests for quotes, acceptance of quotes or work orders and many more, make it much easier for your clients to perform transactions with you rather than your competitors.
We are much aware that the emailed newsletter is now an outdated mode of communication. So instead of that, you could make use of a shared news page on the client portal which allows for you to keep abreast of relevant news from your client and vice versa. Also, the client portal enables much quicker dissemination of information and news about your company’s new products or current projects out to clients and customers. Taking new products to market, therefore, becomes a much more defined process. You could also invite your clients to propose product enhancements or amendments through the discussion forum available on the Client portal, which in turn, will inform your R&D processes.
Because of the perceived costs of implementing a client portal, Organizations have been put off setting it up for their companies but the essence of a Client portal can never be over emphasized as it brings all of your self-service support options into one easy-to-use location. Because all clients wants a self-service medium, a client portal will make customers to promote your business among their peers through word-of-mouth referrals. Client portal will provide more opportunity for your company with a bespoke intranet and on-premises server amongst your competitions. So for improve communication, customer’s collaboration and responsiveness as well as maintaining a cost-effective solution for your business, Client Portal should be introduced to for businesses.
It has always been the best thing to do