From doubts to actions: the power of a customer portal

Imagine a business that operates with the harmony and precision of a symphony orchestra. Your customers can place orders and get answers to their questions on their own without waiting for a manager. Your employees do not make mistakes in quotes and don’t spend hours on phone calls or emails answering the same questions. Customers are happy, processes are streamlined, and profits are growing.

Sounds like a dream or an advertisement, doesn't it? A customer portal won't solve all your problems at once, but it will bring you much closer to this dream. But what is stopping you from taking the first step? Questions, fears, doubts?

During our work, we encounter a range of questions about Customer Portals that often become obstacles to improving work processes and business as a whole.

That's why we asked our CPO, Yurii Nabochenko, to either confirm or debunk some of the common claims we often come across in our work and conversations. Let’s see how it turned out

(1) My business does not require a portal.
A Customer Portal is needed for every business, especially service-based ones. In a time when banks operate without branches, stores without cashiers, and taxis without drivers, not having an online hub for collaboration with customers is unacceptable.

Here are the main advantages of using the Portal.

• Enhanced Customer Experience: A customer portal provides customers with a convenient and accessible way to interact with the company, 24/7. They can access information, request services, and track progress without needing to contact support directly.

• Improved Communication: A portal centralizes communication, making it easier for customers to send messages, track support tickets, and receive updates all in one place. Customers can see real-time updates on their service requests, project progress, and account information, fostering trust and transparency.

• Increased Efficiency: A portal can streamline data management, allowing companies to store and access customer information efficiently, reducing errors and improving service delivery.

A customer portal is not just a competitive advantage. It is your superpower.

(2) Creating a portal takes too long.
To build an effective portal, it's crucial to gather and analyze information about your industry, business, pain points, and expectations. This ensures that the portal is efficient for your employees and meets your customers' expectations based on industry standards and benchmarks. Once the analysis is complete, requirements are gathered and the design is created—a typically time-consuming part of portal development andintegration with your ERP and CRM systems.

However, with Xpand Portal, this step can be minimized or even completely avoided. In particular, we in the team understand the value of time, so we offer simple modular components. Thus, with Xpand Portal, you can set up your portal very simply and quickly. You can see how it works in a series of videos.

(3) Portals are expensive.
Considering that our Xpand Portal is used by many customers, purchasing a license means you only pay a fraction of the cost compared to developing a similar portal from scratch. Additionally, by subscribing to the yearly enhancement plan, you gain access to security updates and new features that our team releases regularly. This allows you to continuously upgrade your portal to the latest versions.

(4) A portal requires maintenance and support.

Xpand Portal offers two installation options: on your server or in a private cloud.

• Own Server: The first option is suitable if you have your own IT team that can maintain the environment.

• Private Cloud: The second option is for those who want to focus on their core business activities and not be distracted by servers, tools, and their support and licenses. Focus on what you do best and love most, while our team handles your portal, hosted on Microsoft Azure, along with its maintenance. Meanwhile, our support team ensures that all customer issues are successfully resolved.

(5) Integrating a portal with existing systems can be challenging.
For integrating Xpand Portal with Business Central, we have developed a Portal Connector that allows you to select the synchronization direction, entities, and their fields with just a few clicks. It also provides filters for maximum control over the data that needs synchronization. This makes integration with Business Central straightforward and eliminates the need for any development. For integrating with other ERP and CRM systems, Xpand Portal includes an API.

(6) Your Xpand Portal does not fit my business
To evaluate the simplicity of integrating Xpand Portal with Business Central, the speed of data synchronization, and the ease of configuring the portal, you can take advantage of creating a demo environment. In just a few minutes, fully automatically, a demo instance of Xpand Portal, already configured and integrated with Business Central, will be created for you. This is completely free. Additionally, you can request a demo session with our expert. They will hear your request and professionally present the capabilities of our portal with a focus on your specific needs.

Still have questions?
Contact us: https://www.xpandsoftware.com/page/contact-us

We will be happy to answer, help, and advise.