Summary: While customer portals may not sound like revenue generators, their potential may surprise you. When used properly, customer portals offer much more than convenience. Learn how customer portals can improve revenue, efficiency, and overall customer satisfaction.

Also known as B2B portals or extranets, a customer portal provides a secure, customer-only area on your site where customers can purchase products, submit support requests, update account information, access product updates, and more. But, they’re much more than a customer convenience. When used properly, they improve business efficiency and boost revenue.

How? Here are a few ways that customer portals help a business.

• They create a 24/7 revenue stream: If your company currently takes in orders manually, you limit your revenue-generating window to your business hours. With a customer portal, you create a 24/7 revenue window, as customers can place orders whenever they wish.
• They free your support staff for mission-critical tasks: Without a customer portal, your support staff must manually address customer concerns and handle new orders. With the self-service options offered through customer portals, your customers handle many of these tasks themselves—freeing your support staff for more mission-critical tasks.
• They improve customer satisfaction: We live in an “instant” world, where customers expect 24/7 self-service options. Giving them a customer portal lets them meet their own needs, on their own schedule—which improves overall satisfaction.

Real-life example of a customer portal driving business

Here’s a great story that illustrates the effect a customer portal can have on a business. Raleigh bicycles moved from a manual, support-desk process to an automated customer portal/extranet. The result: Revenue skyrocketed and internal efficiency increased. To find out how, read the whole story right here.

Demo of a customer portal

Want to see a customer portal in action? Here’s a live demo portal that lets customers log in, place orders, and view past orders. Of course, there’s no limit to the types of applications you could put in a customer portal. For instance, you might include a reporting section, or a helpdesk section where customers can submit and manage requests. It’s up to you.

If you’d like to build your own customer portals that integrate with your existing systems or applications, we’d love to help. Let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll show you what you can accomplish with m-Power.