A portal for customers and partners: fewer emails, more self-service

When a portal makes sense

• the customer service team answers repetitive status questions every day,
• customers or partners regularly need documents: invoices, certificates, manuals,
• orders or requests arrive by email and are retyped into the system,
• the company works with a network of partners, distributors or subcontractors.

What a portal can include

• order and job statuses,
• downloadable documents,
• placing orders and submitting requests, for example service requests,
• the history of the business relationship,
• communication tied to a specific order instead of scattered across emails,
• separate accounts for the customer’s employees with different permissions.

The portal must be connected to the company’s system

A portal where someone retypes statuses by hand quickly goes out of date. It works best as another role in the company’s system: the customer sees their own part of the same data the team works on.

Portal security

• each customer sees only their own data,
• permissions for the customer’s employee accounts are assigned by the responsible person on the customer’s side,
• user logins and actions are recorded.

Where to start

Count how many emails and phone calls a day concern questions customers could answer for themselves. That is the best measure of whether a portal will pay off, and a hint as to which features to start with. If you want to check this in your company, book a consultation.