Did you know that 88% of customers in the United States prefer companies to have a self-service support portal? Customer expectations have evolved with time. Hand-holding walk-through is no longer needed, as people prefer a DIY-experience. To meet the need of the hour, companies have started creating customer portals to facilitate a self-service experience rather than relying solely on the service representatives to cater to customer queries.
There are many definitions floating over the Internet of what a customer portal is. To put it simply, a customer portal is a secure platform that facilitates clients to interact with the brand or service they’re using. A customer portal can serve as a knowledge-base to help customers familiarize themselves with the brand, a community to interact with other customers, and a platform to get all the help that they need.
In this guide, we will show you how to create a customer portal with uShare in 8 simple and easy to follow steps.
The Need for Customer Portal Solutions
Technology has always had a huge impact on customer preferences. Today, nobody wants to be put on hold for several minutes just because it’s a busy day at the support center or prefers to write long emails – trying to explain the concern to the customer service representative. Thankfully, technology has changed the way customer service is now provided.
A study revealed that 91% of the respondents preferred an online knowledge-base that facilitates a self-service customer service experience. According to another survey, around 80% of customers consider customer experience to hold the same value as a product or service. Moreover, 57% of the sample said they will gladly switch to the alternatives if they offer a better customer experience.
Why Growing Companies Prefer Online Customer Portals
To meet the evolving expectations of customers, companies have been transitioning from traditional customer service tools – phone and email – to modern web-based “customer portals”. Furthermore, we live in the era of the cloud where customers seek solutions on-the-go. No one wants to play phone and email tag to get someone to resolve their concerns. Customers of today want instant solutions and an experience accustomed to their needs.
Frankly, there can be a number of reasons for a company to prefer an online customer portal – based on industry best practices, customer interactions, use-cases, and other factors that drive customer experience strategies. We have listed down a few prominent ones for you:
- Customization and scalability
- Self-service
- Cost reduction with respect to customer support
- Ability to serve as a central hub of information and tools
- Document safety and security
- Ability to serve as a community facilitating interaction with other customers
- Ease of information access
- Customer service solutions on-the-go
How uShare Serves as the Best Web Portal Software
uShare is award-winning software that enables your customers to interact with you via chat, text, audio, and video conferences. Since uShare is a web-based customer portal solution that requires no setup, your clients don’t need to download any additional apps, plugins, or tools to interact with you. With uShare, you can optimize your customer experience by empowering them to get in touch with you from anywhere in the world. Here is why uShare is the best web portal software:
- Audio and video conferences with clients
- Group chat feature to serve as a community
- Unlimited channels for different customers
- Share or receive files from clients
- Receive queries via email and mobile messaging
- Enterprise-grade security
- No setup required
- Compatible with all leading browsers, desktop, and mobile operating systems
- External app integrations
Steps to Create a Customer Portal via uShare
Step 1: Go to uShare.to and click on ‘Free Trial’.
Step 2: Fill the required details and then click ‘Sign Up’.
Step 3: Confirm your email to get started.
Step 4: Click ‘First, A Little About You’ to fill in your information.
Step 5: Provide the required information and click ‘Conferencing Setup’.
Step 6: Check your microphone by clicking on ‘Let’s Start Microphone Check’.
Step 7: Test your camera by clicking ‘Let’s Give the Cam a Spin’.
Step 8: Congratulations! Your customer portal has been successfully created.
To explore the functionalities of the web portal software and how it empowers your clients by facilitating self-service, click on the disk-shaped icons.
Personalized Customer Experience
With uShare, you can elevate your customer experience by creating personalized channels for each of your clients – we call them ‘Shares’. There is no limit to the number of Shares created. By letting your customers have their personal communication channel, you can:
- Keep all your conversations and information shared with clients in one transparent and persistent space.
- Answer questions and have ongoing conversations with customers.
- Have intensive interactions through audio/video conferencing along with screen sharing.
- Share and receive information such as learning material, official documents, invoices, and contracts, etc.
- Coordinate schedules and share event updates.
- Invite product experts or other stakeholders to join the channel when needed.
uShare keeps everything shared or received organized to facilitate users’ access – tasks, contacts, links, events, notes, and documents.
Here’s how you get started. Click ‘Create New Share’.
Now, give your channel a suitable ‘title’.
Select the channel’s ‘access’ to be public (can be joined by anyone) or members only (invite only).
Specify your customers’ actions by granting ‘permissions’.
Invite your customer(s) or team member(s) to join the channel by sending email invites.
And just like that, you can create unlimited channels for your customers.
With uShare, you’re not just giving them a communication platform, you’re collaborating with them at a personal level with – on-boarding product experts and key stakeholders when needed. This significantly boosts customer experience and takes you to new heights of customer success.
