Every type of business will be responsible for completing and providing a certain amount of paperwork; these will be required for a range of purposes, such as issuing estimates or invoices, or maintaining tax records. It may also be necessary to maintain records in relation to their customers, which may mean that these customers will need to have access to the information.
This is where a client portal comes in.
In addition to creating a system where customers can access documentation that relates to them in a hassle-free manner, there are a number of other positives that can be taken from it.
Understanding what a client portal is and the purpose of it will help you to figure out what benefits it can offer you and your business.
What is a Client Portal?
A client portal is a type of software that makes it possible to give your clients access to an online portal. This will allow them to send you documents securely, and for you to give them access to documents that you want to provide.
It can be utilized by companies of any size and within any type of industry in order to help ensure their documents are in order and to transfer them safely.
The software provides a practical and efficient way to maintain contact with customers directly, providing a link to the extent required by the company be that limited or wide-ranging.
What Benefits Does It Offer?
A high-quality portal can prove beneficial for your company as well as your clients due to the number of advantages that it offers.
It can be easily integrated into the existing systems of a business, allowing existing documents to be used through it in order for them to be transferred elsewhere. As a result, this helps to maintain good organization within a company that wants to keep up professional practices.
It provides an effective way to engage with customers by them being able to view documents, and respond to a company’s requests for documents. It enables this to be undertaken in a secure manner without the risk of any documents falling into the hands of those who are not authorized to access them.
This level of security in dealing with documentation is likely to help a company meet regulatory requirements in respect of how they handle their customer’s data. Besides this, it can give customers peace of mind when interacting with a company. This will help to create loyalty from clients who will be more inclined to trust a company that puts efficient security features in place.
Are There Any Negatives?
Not really.
It will be necessary to determine the best software to use and to implement this within your company, but this will not take long and will be no great hardship.
Once it is in place, it will be a different way of doing things so there will be a different process to learn, but good software is easy to use. Once people get comfortable with using it, it will become the norm and will not create any issues.
Before being able to use the software, there will be a small outlay required, but this can be considered an investment as you will then have full use of the system. Just think of the cost that will be involved in rectifying the situation if private information is accessed fraudulently.
Why Should I Bother?
The power of a client portal should not be underestimated – it is an important tool that can benefit any business for a number of reasons.
While it might be easy to send documents by email, this method is far from secure with many instances of cyber hackers stealing passwords from major internet providers being reported in the news.
Further to the security issue, problems can also arise in the process of trying to email large documents that use a significant amount of data. Some providers will not send large documents at all, while others do but the process is so slow that it becomes frustrating and can cause delays.
Use of a portal for clients also helps to reduce unnecessary work as there will be no need to provide hardcopy paperwork. For example, if you need to inform your customers of an official change to the business, for example, you do not need to worry about mailing out letters, you make the letter available on the portal and inform them that it is there to be viewed. This will ensure that they will only ever be accessed by the intended recipient and would only be able to be edited by the original sender or any other authorized parties.
The software is adaptable to enable a company to make the portal their own, ensuring it is clearly linked to the firm and that it works as they want it to. Part of this adaptability includes the ability to rectify a mistake you might make, such as sending a document to the wrong person or giving a particular person access. Both of these examples can be reversed by retrieving documents that have already been sent and ceasing access to someone who previously had it.
This type of confidential, organized way of creating interaction between a company and its clients will help build a company’s reputation, which will encourage customers to do business with the company and make recommendations to others. In the process of maintaining a professional business that your customers can rely on, you will want to take advantage of processes that can help you work efficiently. A client portal is one such process that will enable a sensible company to implement a technique that will enhance working practices and the relationship with their clients, be they internal, national, or international.