Providing customers with the option of using a self-service customer portal is a great way for businesses to improve their capabilities in regards to billing, as well as reducing the strain on their internal resources and gain a large array of additional benefits that can help to drive company revenue.
Perhaps the most important reason why a customer portal should be used is that helps businesses to better engage with their customers and give them a superior overall customer experience.
However it is important to make sure that you choose the best customer portal for your particular business, and there are a variety of different factors that should be taken into consideration in order to be able to do just that.
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The importance of integration
The majority of businesses will likely already have software and solutions in place to meet their customer’s needs, which makes it important to keep in mind whether or not a customer portal you are considering using will be able to easily integrate with existing software solutions and systems.
The best solution for a business is to choose a customer portal that will have the ability to effortlessly configure and connect to your current platforms, including the likes of:
- CIS
- AMI/MDM
- Online payment service
- OMS
- Billing
- eBilling repository
Self-service customer portals should also be able to integrate with any systems that you may be considering implementing in the months and years to come.
Customisability
It is of crucial importance that self-service customer portals serve to reflect the unique characteristics and needs of your business. The best solution will be one that can provide functionality straight out of the box while also enabling for customisation in the future to make sure that your business can continue to make improvements to the customer experience.
A self-service customer portal should be capable of being customised to:
- make use of a visual design that fits your brand and thus provides a seamless customer experience
- offer customers an interface that is simple to navigate
- make use of intelligent and unique automated workflows and smart flows
When a business has complete control over the appearance and feel of their self-service customer portal, this means that they can present their customers with simple tools that can easily use to gain access to any information they require. The result will be a self-service customer portal that will improve both customer engagement and the customer experience as a whole.
Reducing strain
The best customer portal for a business will allow employees to be freed up to deal with other issues such as:
- IT being able to test solutions and further improve the customer experience
- The billing department can engage in better queue management and ensure the quick processing of any customer billing changes
- Lower call volumes for the customer service department will reduce wait times and enable better customer service
The best customer portal for your business will provide clear and less tangible benefits by allowing customers to gain access to their own details and cutting down the costs associated with mailing, faxing, and the need for physical copies of bills, reports and invoices.
