Customer satisfaction is an essential factor for the success of any business. Unfortunately, keeping customers satisfied is not an easy task today, as most become increasingly volatile and demanding. This drives companies to look for resources capable of providing users with more immediate answers. Resources such as the self-service portal.
A self-service portal is an ideal tool to give customers immediate access to answers to simple questions about the services you offer.
This not only provides benefits to users but also allows the company, among other things, to reduce costs related to customer support and reduce the volume of tickets handled. In the end, this translates into more satisfied customers and more productive companies.
Do you want to know all the advantages of a self-service portal, as well as some tips to create the best? Read on and find out more.
What is a self-service portal?
Self-service is a concept that has existed for several years and is related to ideas such as self-care. This philosophy is born from the need for customers to play a consumer role that is much more active and independent. The self-service portal can be considered as the transposition of the self-care concept to the level of the customer relationship.
In short, a self-service portal is a space where companies make available tools, resources and automated services, so that the user can find by himself the answer to a specific question, or the solution to a problem related to the services that the organization offers.
As a result, the customer can satisfy their demand immediately and without the need to contact an agent.
What are the advantages of offering a self-service portal?
For customers
More speed, less frustration: If they don’t quickly find what they want, customers can easily become frustrated. A self-service portal prevents customers from wasting time and gives them quick access to the information they are looking for.
Whether it’s to reset their password, or to solve any other technical issue, the customer no longer has to go through the traditional customer support stages of contact, ticket creation, and ticket resolution, to meet their demand, but can access the answer they want. Self-service portal
For the company
A more positive perception of the brand: By optimizing customer satisfaction, your company sends a message to your customers. It tells them I’m efficient, I’m always available, and you can trust me whenever you need to. As a result, users get a more positive view of your brand and their level of loyalty increases exponentially.
Greater operational efficiency: The creation of a self-service portal significantly decreases the work of the customer service team. How? Well, with the portal employees not only save time-solving simple problems of users, they also get access to:
- A centralized and well-organized database.
- Record of exchanges with customers.
- Best practices such as ITIL and COBIT.
As a result, the customer support team can standardize its processes, avoid the spread of duplicate information, and gain greater productivity and better response times for more complex problems.
How to create an effective self-service portal?
#1 Establish clear objectives
Self-service portals do not necessarily work the same way for all businesses. Some of them may have special features that others do not use. Everything will depend on the business objectives and type of organization.
Before creating your portal, we recommend that you establish your company’s goals and order them according to priorities. For example,
- Increased sales.
- Improved customer experience.
- Reduced support costs.
Based on this, you can then choose the self-service modality and the tool that suits you best.
#2 Build quality knowledge base
The best technology will be insufficient if you do not provide the customer with information that is truly useful.
Your company probably already has a manual that is only available to employees and that talks about the processes and actions to follow, in case of a series of specific scenarios. An excellent idea is to make some of this data available to the user, especially those focused on solving simple problems.
This allows you to create a standard that helps customers meet a demand in the same way a support agent would.
#3 Get the right tool
Technology is your primary ally in building strong customer relationships. So try to make the most of it by acquiring the right tool.
Helpdesk solutions offer functionalities capable of giving you all the resources you need to create a high-quality self-service portal. They can also help increase the overall performance of your customer service team.
An exceptional option in this case is Freshdesk, a help desk with high-level functionalities and a simple-to-use interface.
Don’t wait any longer, start now to transform your interactions with customers and create with them the longest-lasting relationships.
At GB Advisors, we offer you all the tools you need to achieve your business objectives, and we also help you adapt them to your requirements so that you can easily carry out all those projects you have in mind. Contact us now and start seeing what you can achieve with the help of the right software and professional advice.
