Web Portals - The Best Way To Add Value To Customer Experience

By Author: Maulik Shah
Total Articles: 140
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Ever thought about how convenient it is that you can get all the details of purchase history when you log in to your account on any e-commerce store? If you had to drop an email every time you wanted to track your purchase, look at past orders or exchange a product, it would be cumbersome, to say the least. And this applies for both, the customer as well as an e-commerce storeowner.



If you are a student and you want to access all your attendance records or assignment grades, would you rather email your professor or the institute? Alternatively, simply have all the details in one place, ready to access whenever you need?



This is where portals come into the picture.



These are two of the most common scenarios for which web portal solutions are already being used. There are plenty of other industries where web portals are used to enhance customer interaction with the brands.



Web portals let a specific group of people or individuals get a specific type of access ...
... to the CRM modules through these portals. The web portals help the customers to get the right information at any time and the best part is that it won’t require your involvement. By adding portals you are adding value to your customers’ time and their journey with you.



Whether it is customers, students, or patients, everyone has questions. And these questions will never end. Generally, these questions are about where their shipment is, or if you marked them present in a lecture from three weeks ago, or what their dietary restrictions are.



When you have web portals integrated with your CRM, it gives the right people, the right access so you don’t have to spend time hunting for answers and writing back to them. Nor will you have to have dedicated staff to answer these questions.



Now that we have established the importance of having web portals, let’s walk you through the in-depth understanding of portals for different industries.



Industries that Could Highly Benefit from Web Portals:



Educational Institutes:

Imagine you run a large-scale educational institute with over 1000 students, spread across multiple disciplines. It will require you to have a connected database of students, faculty, your infrastructure, and various other modules. With a web portal solution, you can assign each student and member of the faculty their own access to the information. This way they can see the necessary data and perform the necessary actions they need without having to contact multiple personnel of your institute.



E-commerce Stores:

Another industry that can be greatly benefited by web portals is the e-commerce industry. After your customers make a purchase with you, they would want to track their shipment; once it arrives, they might want to exchange or return the item.



It would be easier for you as well as your customer if they have access to your database. Not entirely, but limited to certain CRM modules. That way, they can do all of these tasks without you having to make any effort.



These are of course just a couple of examples where a custom portal is used. There are a number of other industries that can be benefitted. If you run a business, a hospital, an educational institute, e-commerce store, or a pharmacy, investing in a good web portal can be one of the best decisions for your business.



These portals are an extension of your company and your brand. So of course, a generic web portal solution would not do it justice.



And what do you do when a generic solution is not good enough for you? You look to customize it! A customized web portal that will match with your brand. Getting a custom web portal is simple enough. Look up various companies that provide custom portal development, if the solution they provide works for you, then you can hire them to make a portal for your company, or institute or hospital.



Customization is necessary for the smallest details like printouts. If someone needs to take a print out of an invoice or a mark sheet, your logo should be on it as a watermark and a good web portal development company will pay attention to such small details. You can easily find a decent company that has experts in the field and they will be able to provide the best solution crafted according to your needs.

Mr. Maulik Shah is the founder & CEO of CRMJetty, hub of innovative customer relationship solutions, provides ready to CMS integrate portal solutions for SuiteCRM, Sugar CRM, Salesforce customer portal, and Dynamics CRM including WordPress Customer Portal. Maulik is a tech enthusiast and writes about the various aspects of ecommerce technology.