Keeping customers happy is a full time job for a business. Customers switch the brand if they do not enjoy the experience. So, it is part of the business to make customers’ journeys memorable. One thing you can do to improve the customer experience is leverage a customer portal. Customer portal development will have a solution to all the problems that a business usually faces, like unsatisfactory customer service, no online services, late responses, and the list goes on. The customer portal is loaded with amazing features that add so much value to a business and its offerings. Let’s explore some amazing features that an ideal portal should have.
Unified Dashboard
Portal is the platform where customers can find all the information. But to keep all this information organized and easy to find, portals must have a unified dashboard. The dashboard will show the details like the status of the tickets, you can sort the list and add filters to find only the required information. Dashboard works as a central location for your customers to access anything, from tools to information to manage their account. The customers can access their bills and invoices, personal data like address and contact information, customer support in case of any query, knowledge base which we will discuss in the next point, and other relevant information. Customers like using it because it offers them a way to interact with your business. These days people do not like static information, they want to search and learn more about the things they are looking for.
Knowledge Base
Many customers say that they need to contact customer portal development because the information available on the portal was not enough to solve their issue. Customers find it frustrating when they try searching for the solution themselves and they cannot find the answer they need. With portals, you can centralize all the information in the form of FAQs, chatbots, knowledge bases loaded with articles and videos, etc. If the customer is stuck somewhere they can ask the AI chatbot about the issue. Based on the keywords, it will suggest FAQs for them to find answers.
The other thing is users can directly find the articles and videos that explain the same. Also, having complete information helps as the reader will get the full view on what they were looking for. Thus, a knowledge base is the key to reduce the number of incoming tickets. So, try building it in a way that it actually reduces the number of tickets and not increase the questions of your customers because they cannot understand the content on the knowledge base. Long story short, it should not defeat its own purpose.
Community Forum
The community forum is a place where you can invite your customers to conduct discussions. A community forum can benefit your business and your customers in many ways. First, let us see how it can benefit customers.
The customers can use the forum to share their doubts, ask questions, share experiences and knowledge about the product or services that you’re offering. The other customers can answer questions if they have previously faced the same issue. Forums can also initiate discussion of the ongoing trends in the industry and customers can share their views with like minded people.
For a business, community forums work as a platform to increase engagement with the customers. The other factor is the ongoing conversations on the forum. These conversations can help you understand what customers think about the current products. You can also get hints of customers’ expectations, whether they like the ongoing trend in the market or not. These things will give you an idea on what new you can do to your product that your customers will like. All this information is really important to understand customers’ point of view. Because ultimately this will help your business to grow and gain more customers.
Feedback
The best way to know how the customers feel about your product or service is by directly asking them. Asking for feedback everytime a ticket is closed and conducting surveys every few months help in collecting data about things that need a fix. This data can be analyzed, helping you to learn about a lot that needs immediate attention.
To keep up the good rapport with your clients, such feedback helps in winning customers’ hearts. The customers will also feel good that you considered their suggestions. Such a positive response from you will motivate them to share their honest opinions in future as well. One added advantage of this is it helps in increasing customer retention rates as well. They will be more satisfied with your customer service. All these small things help a business grow.
Payment Options
If you offer all the facilities online, then online payment is a mandatory thing. You can add multiple payment options for your users. Adding all the possible ways to pay like credit and debit cards, wallets, internet banking, etc. gives your customers the convenience to pay. You can also tie up with the payment platforms and offer your customers a discount if they choose that particular platform to make payments. This will attract more customers to use your services as you will have all the options for them to choose from.
Ticket Submissions
When you offer a lot of features, there are chances that your customers will have confusions or doubts on how to use it. It is not possible to provide solutions to complex queries in the knowledge base. It is also possible that it is the first time you are discovering the issue that your customers are facing. Such situations need one on one contact and for that you need a place where customers can contact you.
Mostly customers use this service when they are not able to solve the issue so your agents should also be prepared in a way that they have knowledge of complex situations. If after a new launch or update, the number of incoming tickets increases then it means it is high time to update the knowledge base. Updating the knowledge base can save your support reps against overflowing tickets.
Conclusion
Customer portal development can solve the problem that businesses are facing these days by improving customer satisfaction and retention rate. Portals have all these features that will convince a customer to stick to your business. Your engagement with the customers increases with portals. The features discussed above are the must haves, so do not forget to add them during customer portal development. They definitely benefit a business in enormous ways.
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