10 Problems you’ll solve with self-service portals for customers, employees, and partners

A self-service portal offers end users a quick and easy way to access your products and services. 90% of consumers expect brands to provide them with 24/7 online self-service solutions.

We’re used to the digital experience provided by e-commerce platforms. And we expect the same simple method of accessing product catalog and of post-purchase support. Below, you will find a list of issues you can solve and areas you can improve with a self-service portal for your clients, employees, and business partners.

1. High support staff costs

Problem: Traditional methods of support (like phone calls and emails) can strain your support staff, leading to long hold times. To avoid that, you have to maintain a large customer support team—and use a large percentage of your budget.

 Solution: Self-service portals allow customers to resolve the most frequent queries and issues on their own, reducing the need for direct support interactions. By offering options like FAQs, knowledge bases, and troubleshooting guides, companies can significantly reduce the need for an extensive support team; this leads to substantial cost savings.

2. Sales, upselling, and cross-selling

Problem: Traditional sales methods can be resource-intensive, requiring the attention of a dedicated sales employee for every customer interaction. Maximizing the potential for upselling and cross-selling requires targeted interactions, which increases the sales team size.

 Solution: Online sales portals can include personalized product information, pricing details, and recommendations; these enable clients to explore the catalog and make purchase decisions independently. Analyzing customer behavior and preferences to suggest relevant additional products or services can increase the likelihood of cross-sales without the need for the sales team’s direct involvement.

3. Inconsistent information across channels

Problem: When you have many sales channels, it’s increasingly challenging to provide consistent and accurate information. This may lead to confusion for both staff and customers, negatively impacting your brand image.

 Solution: A self-service portal can serve as a hub, ensuring that customers receive uniform and up-to-date information. Properly managed and maintained content within the portal can be used as a reference—not just for your clients, but also for employees. It can also serve as your business presentation online, reducing misinformation and enhancing users’ brand experience.

4. Growth and scalability costs

Problem: As your company and customer base grow, managing an increasing volume of customer inquiries becomes more challenging and time consuming. Proportionally adding more support agents can be expensive and logistically challenging.

 Solution: Self-service portals can accommodate larger user volumes without a corresponding increase in support staff, resulting in a cost-effective way to scale operations. Digital portals grow quickly, adapting to a larger user base without proportional increases in support staff. This improves efficiency and maintains service quality.

5. 24/7 Availability requirements

Problem: Your customers, providers, or business partners might require assistance outside of regular business hours. You have two options here: create an expensive 24/7 support line, or delay problem resolution (and risk customer frustration).

 Solution: Self-service portals enable customers to find solutions and information independently at any time, ensuring round-the-clock availability and responsiveness. You can also employ additional solutions like chatbots that will reduce the workload of your support team.

6. Educating customers

Problem: Complex products require a lot of knowledge. Sometimes a client might find it difficult to choose the item/variant they actually need. In such scenarios, the client would often require support from an employee.

 Solution: Customer portals can offer comprehensive tutorials and guides, reducing the need for extensive support during the purchasing process. Customers can use the centralized platform to find answers and access relevant resources at their own convenience and pace. At the same time, your customers require quick and easy access to information, support, and resources related to your products or services.

7. Low brand loyalty and customer retention

Problem: A negative initial contact with your systems can drive away clients before they finish what they want to do. Even if they finalize the purchase or action, it still might cause them to look for a different channel or provider for their next purchase—resulting in lost revenue.

 Solution: An effective client portal can enhance customer satisfaction by providing quick resolutions to common issues. Whether a client is making a purchase or managing their account, a user-friendly self-service portal improves customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Ultimately, it increases profits.

8. Technical debt and lack of competitive edge

Problem: Companies need to differentiate themselves and provide unique value to customers. A growing business must implement new solutions to stay ahead of the competition and avoid too much technical debt.

 Solution: A well-designed self-service portal can set a company apart from competitors, especially in sectors with low levels of digitalization. Transferring purchases and services to an automated client-facing portal instead of traditional, in-person contacts enhances the overall customer experience and offers a competitive edge.

9. Increased employee workload

Problem: A growing company requires extensive support for clients. On the other hand, for support staff, it means managing a lot of repetitive tasks. This increased workload can cause employee frustration and decreased overall productivity.

 Solution: With a well-prepared digital portal, you can offload the most daunting and repetitive tasks. Customers often prefer using a self-service solution that’s available immediately instead of contacting support. Your employees may therefore focus on more complex tasks that actually require their creativity.

10. Complex business processes for contractors

Problem: Not all services or products you offer are readily available and managed by your own team. In certain cases, you have to involve multiple people outside of your company (i.e., partners or contractors) to finalize an order.

 Solution: A self-service portal can offer a solution to even the most complex business processes. You can, for example, set up a procedure that gathers all the required information from the client and automatically passes it along to the contractor with data from your systems, thus reducing the risk of errors (and unnecessary workloads) on both sides.

How to implement a self-service portal for your customers, employees, or partners

A high level of online self-service has become a goal in virtually every industry, and client-facing portals are a sure way to achieve it. They offer significant quality-of-life improvements for your clients, employees, and contractors. In consequence, they improve the experience of contacting your company for everyone involved.

With over 25 years of experience in building tailor-made software solutions for our Polish and international clients, e-point has gathered expertise in creating self-service portals for even the most complex products and services. Let’s discuss how a client-facing portal can improve your business.