Self-service options aren’t new. As a matter of fact, we’ve have been helping ourselves for years. In its youth, we had few options, such as ATM kiosks, self-service gas stations, vending machines, etc. As technology has advanced, we now have a multitude of options.
Self-service solutions have been empowering us to resolve our issues without getting impatient waiting on a technical expert’s recommendations. One of such solutions is a self-service portal.
What Are Self-Service Portals?
A self-service portal is typically a website or app, encompassing self-service and self-help capabilities, that empowers customers to request services, search information, and register as well as resolve issues. It can be considered as the “electronic front door” to the IT enterprises’ “store” from which the consumer can access services or products. A portal can be employed to simplify processes, freeing technical support or IT teams to handle more complicated requests.
Organizations can integrate these self-service portals into the existing system to allow customers to have instant information access, promote personalization, and save time as well as resources. Though there are many vendors that offer self-service portals either as a stand-alone product and a component of an integrated solution. By all means, self-service portals powered by modern integration platforms enable a customer to resolve issues by themselves and adapt to the disrupting environments, on their own time and convenience.
Self-service portals also provide an efficient way of connecting to new customers, strengthening communication and relationships with customers. And since these portals help customers take power in their own hands and not rely on IT teams, time-to-value and productivity increase. Additionally, IT gets more time to focus on control and monitoring to kickstart innovation initiatives. The process of using this technology can improve communication between departments or provide customers or suppliers with documentation (such as invoices or policies).
Different type of self-service portals allow users to:
- Promote internal communication between departments and employees. For example, it enables tasks like updating customer and employee details and holiday requests.
- Proffer suppliers and customers with information along with documentation e.g. policies, invoices, payment transactions, and more.
- Simplify processes such as customer service. For example, it allows customers to raise and monitor their own support tickets.
How Self-Service Portals Can Support an Integrated Business Ecosystem?
A robust self-service portal provides tangible benefits to customers and integrated business environments as a whole. Here are some benefits.
- Improved Customer Experiences: Organizations can deploy self-service portals powered by data integration solutions to give total access to their customers for finding solutions to problems, processing requests, and accessing information with confidence. Portals also expand clients’ skills and help them solve future issues on their own. And since customers can solve their issues, they enjoy delightful experiences that foster loyalty and satisfaction.
- Better IT Productivity: Portals diminish the need for technical or IT teams to intervene. Customers can execute many tasks and also eliminate errors without over-reliance on IT. In fact, IT just need to monitor the tasks, which gives them the time to focus on more important tasks. As a result, IT productivity witnesses an upward curve.
- Improved Opportunities for Personalization: Personalization can prove to be an important tool when combined with self-service technology. The moment users log in, they can be furnished with a personalized experience. The self-service portals can keep a record of customers’ previous transactions and display information that seems relevant. This ensures clients that they are valued.
- Higher Revenue: Self-service portals have a direct impact on traffic. Beyond offering power to customers to process requests and track them, these portals lend credibility to business as a trusted voice and authority. This boosts traffic and streamlines revenue generation, making organizations easy to do business with.
Self-service portals can help integrated business environments to deliver better value to customers. Powered by modern integration solutions such as Adeptia Connect, these portals can be used to deliver 24/7 self-service access, real-time visibility of critical business information, higher customer satisfaction and more.