The power of Customer Portal: A guide for workspace providers

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, more companies are discovering the significant advantages of self-service solutions, and this trend is on the rise. Customers increasingly want to take control of their service experiences, seeking quick and easy answers to their questions without waiting on hold for a support representative. Self-service comes in many forms, and customer portals offer a powerful way for individuals to access information and solutions independently.

In this article, we’ll explore the key benefits and the growing importance of self-service portals in enhancing customer experience and boosting operational efficiency. We’ll highlight how customers increasingly prefer to resolve issues on their own instead of relying on customer service representatives, supported by statistics that illustrate this trend. We will emphasise the numerous advantages of self-service portals, including improved resource allocation, reduced pressure on support teams, and enhanced communication. Finally, we’ll outline the essential features that a customer portal should include to effectively meet both business objectives and customer needs.

A customer portal is a secure online platform that provides members with direct access to your business’s self-help resources, service requests, collaborative spaces, and more. It serves as a central hub where customers can check the status of their open support requests, review important information, and view their account history. By enabling customers to complete tasks on their own, self-service portals empower them to resolve issues without needing assistance from your customer service team. This makes it easier for customers to interact with your business in real time.

Why does your business need a Client Portal?

There are several reasons why you might need to implement a customer portal for your office or lab workspace. Implementing a client portal for your office or lab workspace can address several key challenges including the following:

Repetitive enquiries: Is your team frequently addressing the same inquiries via email, consuming valuable time each day?

Manual document management: Are you finding that sending documents such as invoices and guides manually leads to inefficiencies and delays in service?

Informative communication: Do you wish to keep clients updated without the risk of spamming their inboxes with excessive newsletters?

If you relate to any of the these scenarios, it may be time to consider a client portal implementation.

What are the benefits of customer portals?

The benefits of self-service portals are pretty tangible, it drives down your costs spent on support, empowers your customers to solve their problems independently as they want it.

• Enhanced customer experience and time savings: With 24/7 access to self-service tools, customers can complete routine tasks at their convenience, leading to higher satisfaction. Prioritising your customers’ time and making it easy for them to find solutions fosters loyalty and enhances their overall experience with your brand.
• Streamlined daily operations: Self-service empowers customers to handle routine tasks independently, reducing their dependence on your team, accelerating service delivery and boosting overall operational efficiency. 
• Better resource allocation: By reducing the volume of routine inquiries, self-service portals allow businesses to allocate resources more effectively. Support teams can concentrate on high-value tasks and strategic initiatives, resulting in better overall service delivery and improved operational efficiency.
• Boosted support team efficiency: Self-service enables more customers to resolve common issues on their own, enabling your team to concentrate on more complex issues that require personalised attention.
• Less strain on your team: Self-service portal reduces the volume of routine inquiries, allowing your team to focus on complex issues that require their expertise. This not only alleviates stress and prevents burnout but also enhances job satisfaction, leading to increased productivity and improved customer service.
• Faster resolution of issues: With reduced internal email traffic, customers can quickly raise and track support tickets, leading to faster resolution of maintenance issues.
• Enhanced communications: Improved communication and collaboration with customers, teams, and contractors across all functions.
• Secure data sharing: The customer portal offers a secure environment for storing and sharing sensitive documents, ensuring your clients’ data are protected by best-in-class security measures, adhering to stringent compliance standards.
• Elevated professional image: Offering a branded client portal elevates your professional image by highlighting your commitment to quality and attention to detail, creating a lasting impression on both existing and potential customers.

Do you think your customers value self-service resources? They increasingly do! More and more customers prefer resolving issues independently rather than waiting for a customer service representative. Here are some statistics that illustrate this trend and highlight the importance of self-service options:

• According to the Harvard Business Review, 81% of customers across industries attempt to take care of issues themselves before reaching out to a live representative.
• A Nuance Enterprise survey found that as many as 67% of customers find it inconvenient to have to speak to a customer service representative, and would rather find the answer themselves and get on with their day (Zendesk).
• People are more and more familiar with the concept of self-service; 77% of consumers report having used a self-service support portal (Microsoft). 
• 90% of customers globally expect organisations to have an online self-service customer support portal (according to this report from Microsoft).
• 90% of customers prioritise having an “immediate” response when it comes to a customer service question. And for 33% of customers, waiting on hold is the most frustrating part of customer service help (HubSpot).
• 77% of customers say they view brands more positively if they provide self-service options for customers (Vanilla Forums).
• 91% of customers would use a knowledge base if it were available and suited to their needs (Zendesk).
• 60% of customers have used the help centre or FAQs on a company’s website (Forrester).
• 73% of customers say valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online service (Forrester).

Do you need some inspiration on what should a customer portal include?

Given the trend towards self-service, you may be curious about what features your customer portal should include. The design and functionality of your portal should cater to your specific business objectives and your customers’ needs. There is no one-size-fits all when it comes to building a client portal for your clients, so it’s up to you to determine how you want your clients to use and interact with it.

With CLARITY CORE, you can elevate your clients’ experience through its Customer Portal. This web interface is specifically designed for your tenants and members, acting as a centralised interaction point that empowers them to take control of their service experience. Members can easily schedule, edit, and cancel meetings or shared spaces, manage visitor bookings, submit maintenance requests, and report faults. They can also stay informed with centre news and access essential services, all from a single, seamless online platform.

A well-designed portal not only empowers customers to take control of their service experience, but it also scales with your business. As customer demands grow, the portal adapts, allowing you to provide consistent, high-quality service without increasing support costs. By streamlining communication and reducing the strain on your support teams, a customer portal helps you foster stronger engagement and future-proof your operations.

References:

1. Kick-ass customer service: Harvard Business Review discusses innovative approaches to customer service.
2. Self-service: do customers want to help themselves: An infographic by Zendesk that explores customer preferences for self-service.
3. State of global customer service report: Microsoft’s report examining evolving customer service practices.
4. Is Customer Service Still Important? On A Scale Of 1 To 10, It’s An 11: Forbes article.
5. 15 Customer Self-Service and Experience Stats To Know: from Exploratory Research Study: Customer Experience and Customer Self-Support. 
6. Customer Service Trends: How Operations: Become Faster, Cheaper — And Yet, More Human: Forrester’s research outlining trends in customer experience.
7. Your Customers Don’t Want To Call You For Support: Forrester’s research.
8. Live Chat Exposes a Fatal Flaw in Your Go-to-Market: Hubspot article.