Client Portal is a web-based application whereby business information can be shared with clients. Through this software, businesses can securely reach out to their client base.
This software could be a web or mobile app-based and can be accessed through both means. Client portal software streamlines and protects information sharing between clients and business owners. Several business activities can be conducted through this portal.
There are several benefits of client portal software, but in this article, we will focus on three important self-service benefits of Portal Software.
1. Portal Software anticipates and solves future Problems
Every budding business aims to ensure top-notch customer support. Excellent customer support encourages customers to pay more towards its success, while poor customer support risks losing over 60 percent of your customers to other competitors. This is one of the reasons why you cannot afford to have poor customer support.
Aside from having the right staff handling your customer service section; you also need to anticipate customers’ needs and provide self-service answers to their pertinent questions rather than allowing them to go to search on Google for answers.
According to a recent survey report on the customer, it noted that about 73 percent of customer’s first search online for answers to questions pertaining to a company.
However, with the secure portal software for small business, proactive support can be offered to customers.
With this portal, customers can assess a pool of questions and answers to common concerns they would have searched for online. When customers search on Google, the result will be indexed to pop up at the top pages of the search result page.
With the aid of customer portal software, customers can be swiftly attended to as they search for answers online through a simplified self-service option.
BOTTOM LINE: If you have issues with meeting up with your customer’s needs and you often get bogged down with frustrating mails and calls; then I believe it’s the right time to think about introducing a portal software to help your business anticipate responses and enhance self-service support.
2. Improves User Experience
Somewhere between the increasing amount of wait time and the exorbitant cost of accessing healthcare, you will find the reasons why most people are reluctant to visit the doctors these days. In fairness, the issue is not with the doctor; instead, it’s the staffs in the hospital and other processes before a patient gets to see the doctor.
A 2018 report reviews 35,000 online responses of people who have accessed healthcare facilities and the result shows that only 4 percent complained about the quality of care received while the rest 96 percent is customer service related.
As a small business owner, how can you mitigate this trend? Is it by hiring more or well-trained staff? No, that is not the best solution. The article on Fit Small Business has some clear tips about how to hire and trained your employees.
The best solution is to minimize staff processes and focus more on customer portal software. Lots of businesses have joined the bandwagon of technology users to enhance the customer experience.
The customer portal software improves user experience in two significant ways. Firstly, it removes the shortcomings of human interaction, in which communication breakdown can cause annoying errors in data entry, which is fast becoming a menace in the complex healthcare process.
Secondly, patients are given the liberty to perform related tasks or read about information related to their health at the comfort of their home without having to visit the hospital and spend time waiting to be attended to. In order words, it brings about flexibility.
This has resulted in several patients with access to the portal, choosing to handle lots of care process individually.
If this portal process is well implemented, it will significantly help to increase patient or customers satisfaction. You may read this blog for more support about why customers support is much important for any business.
BOTTOM LINE: the list of businesses likely to benefit from client portal software is numerous. As a business owner, the client portal software is the right tool when you notice dissatisfaction with your customer staff or too many queries received daily. Through implementing this, you will develop a closer relationship with your customer base.
3. Portal Software creates more time to do other Important Task
Let’s use the HR department as a case study. They are tasked with an enormous amount of responsibility in a business set up as they oversee every employee of each department. They often deal with lots of paperwork, which gives them less time for other initiative processes and company policy formulation.
However, all these can be lessened if some of these tasks can be transferred to the staffs through employee portal software. This software enables each employee to fill out forms for various purposes and send to the HR, thereby reducing paperwork.
For example, employee health insurance or updating of information can be done through this portal connected to the HR department. By reducing the workload and transferring it to the employee portal, the HR department can maximize their time for other strategic plans that will benefit the company in the long run.
BOTTOM LINE: aside from end-users benefit such as employees and customers, the portals ability to offer a self-service option to users help staff focus on other productive aspects of the business.
Conclusion
The benefit of portal software for businesses cannot be overemphasized as it allows interaction between customers, employees, and other partners. One of the positives in portal software is its self-service option which enables business owners to solve complaints of customers while fostering a healthy relationship with clients and staff.
To fully utilize the fantastic potential in the client portal software, you need to choose the software that offers you the desired functionality.
One viable option is to choose a central business system with a portal attached to it. For instance, most CRM systems integrate a customer portal, which adds to its core functionality. This is also found in employee portals and HR platforms. Ultimately, the effective use of the client portal software will increase the business bottom line and give it an edge against competitors.
