THE IMPORTANCE OF PORTALS
If you don’t have customer payment portals, it’s time to get on board!
Customers expect to see one on your website. The days of offering only a contact email or customer service phone number to call for payment are long gone. Your company isn’t meeting client expectations as a service provider without any form of customer self-care and card-not-present payment options. Even businesses without much prior need for a digital presence were forced to create one to survive during lock down, making client portals the rule, rather than the exception.
Customers like the ability to take care of their own “basic” needs without the help of anyone else. The convenience of 24/7 access for payments helps you to get paid faster. Customer service reps are freed up to help clients with more pressing matters which can’t be solved by the clients themselves. Important self-service tasks in the portal should include:
- Paying bills via credit card or ACH.
- Signing up for autopay.
- Viewing invoices.
- Updating contact information, including emails for bill delivery.
- Assigning names to corresponding DID’s.
- Activating/Deactivating DID’s.
- Downloading call records and running traffic reports.
Another benefit of the portal is more exposure for your website. The portal will inevitably drive more traffic to your site. Customers will go to your website more often, giving you the opportunity to showcase additional services that you offer. Plan to include the portal web address and instructions on how to sign up in your invoice messaging to get the word out quickly to your customer base.
SBS believes that portals are such an integral part of your business that all clients who sign up will have IntegriClient for a reduced monthly fee.
-Jeff