Customer Portal Development: What Businesses Should Plan
As businesses grow and their operations become more complex, keeping track of customer communications, requests, documents and account data becomes more challenging. A customer portal can consolidate some of these functions into a single accessible online location, streamlining the experiences for both the business and their clients.
While a portal is more than a login page, companies must think through what features customers need, what information will be accessed, and how it will connect to existing systems and processes
This article will provide a list of considerations for organizations looking to build a customer portal.
1. Understand What Your Customers Need
The first step in building a customer portal is defining the types of needs or requirements that it must address. Some typical examples include:
Customers checking the status of a request
Customers managing account details
Customers downloading or reviewing documents
Customers submitting questions or service requests
Customers updating their contact information
Customers viewing a history of their account activity
Not all of these functions are applicable to every business, and some can be prioritized as more or less important than others.
The best approach is to list out the most valuable ones to your customers and ensure that they are represented in your portal.
Customer feedback can be a good source of inspiration for your portal requirements.
After defining your requirements, you can move onto developing your portal feature list.
2. Determine the Portal Features
Now that you have a list of needs that your business's customers might want to fulfill online, you can begin compiling the set of portal features that will enable them.
Some of the most common functions that a customer portal should offer include:
Customer accounts: Provide an online space for customers to access account-related information and functionality.
Request management: Enable clients to submit, review and track any submitted requests.
Documents: Allow clients to review and download relevant online documentation.
Notifications: Keep customers informed when specific actions take place within the portal.
Communication channels: Ensure customers can reach out to a support team or relevant business function.
Account management: Enable customers to update account-related data as needed.
It is important to distinguish between what are considered to be essential versus desirable features. Focusing on a set of simple, focused and effective features is likely to result in a more appealing and easier-to-maintain online portal.
3. Design the User Experience
The user experience (UX) should be designed with an emphasis on ease of use, intuitive navigation and general accessibility. Customers should be able to accomplish whatever tasks are needed using simple actions and minimal steps.
Some key factors to consider when designing or updating the UX for a customer portal include:
Login experience
Overall navigation design
Use of text and instructions within the portal
Consistency and layout in terms of page design
Confirmation and feedback throughout the portal
Accessibility and responsiveness across devices
It is often helpful to outline the customer journey within the portal, such as what will take place after they submit a request. This helps to identify what the customer will see and what actions they will have to take.
4. Determine Business Intelligence Requirements
A customer portal solution will likely need to pull in data from a number of online services and business systems. It is critical to identify what information will need to be accessed through the portal, such as:
What information will be displayed or accessed?
Where is the information stored currently?
Are there specific systems that need to exchange data?
Who has access to what types of information?
How will information be handled or updated?
These types of requirements can often dictate the scope of an entire development project, and should always be discussed in detail before beginning work.
5. Plan Around Security and Access Controls
A customer portal often contains sensitive account-related information, which means that special care must be taken with regards to security and access controls.
Some of the considerations that must be made in this area for a customer portal include:
Secure login procedures
Access control lists
Data security and storage
Account management security
Technical support options
Maintenance and security requirements
In most cases, a customer should only have access to the information that they are permitted to see. There may also be situations where a business employee needs to have access to a customer's account in order to address a specific request.
The exact requirements around account access and security will depend on the needs of your business and the type of information that will be exchanged through the portal.
6. Define the Development Approach
There are a number of approaches to developing a customer portal. In some cases, an off-the-shelf product or a modification to an existing customer portal product may be sufficient. In other situations, there may be a need to build an entirely new web application that fulfills specific requirements.
A web development company can work with your business to review your website and portal requirements, determine options, and explore your website and portal development options.
Custom application development can be a viable option when a specific approach to the customer journey, specific functions, or special requirements are needed.
When evaluating different web development companies, it is important to ask about their approach to planning, design, development, testing, deployment and ongoing support.
The right approach should reflect the actual requirements rather than focusing on more complex approaches that may not be needed.
7. Determine Project Scope and Costs
The amount of effort needed to develop a portal will vary widely depending on the features, design, data requirements, security considerations and ongoing requirements. Preparing a project brief for your development partner is an important step before any cost estimates can be prepared.
A portal project brief should include:
The business requirements that need to be addressed
Who the intended users are
The essential features that will be provided
Any integration requirements
The information the portal will display or handle
Any security requirements that need to be addressed
Any launch requirements or considerations
Any ongoing support requirements
Custom software development can involve more expenses than just the cost of development, such as ongoing hosting and maintenance. It is therefore important to request detailed quotes, outlining what will and will not be included in the proposed costs.
When comparing quotes from different vendors, it is important to look at the details of what is included and what assumptions need to be made about the proposed project scope.
Request clarification from a vendor when a quote does not clearly outline the scope of work that will be undertaken.
8. Establish Testing and Acceptance Criteria
Portal testing should focus on making sure that the software does what it is intended to do and that customers are able to complete all of the required steps successfully.
Test scripts should be created for any important or essential functions, such as:
Customer portal login and logout
Viewing account information
Submitting a request
Updating account information
Receiving notifications
Accessing the portal with a mobile device
Testing should also include ways to handle invalid data, missing fields and other special conditions.
These test scripts should always be focused on the most important portal elements and functions in order to minimize the risk of errors following a portal launch.
9. Establish Maintenance and Enhancement Requirements
It is important to consider how the portal will be maintained, supported and updated on an ongoing basis.
A portal maintenance checklist should include:
Ongoing technical maintenance
Security updates
Account access updates
Support desk requirements
Monitoring and backup requirements
Portal enhancement requirements
Some businesses may identify a need to invest in custom software development solutions if their system requirements outgrow the capabilities of an existing system. This is a forward-looking consideration that should be made with an eye towards future requirements.
Enhancements should always consider the requirements and feedback of the business and their customers in order to ensure long-term value.
FAQs
Do all businesses need a customer portal?
No, not all businesses require or benefit from a customer portal. These types of solutions are typically reserved for businesses with complex requests and recurring needs.
A simple website or other customer support processes may be sufficient for other organizations.
What should be included in the first version of a portal?
The most critical aspects of the customer needs should be prioritized and built into the initial version of an online portal solution.
In some cases, this may include customer accounts, the ability to submit requests and check their status, and the ability to access relevant documents.
Should a customer portal be mobile friendly?
Yes, as long as the customers are likely to use the portal on a smartphone or another mobile device.
Menus, forms, text size and account information should all be accessible on a mobile device.
How do I know whether custom development is necessary?
It is important to identify the requirements, and then determine whether an existing product or platform will address them.
Custom development should always be pursued when there are important requirements or functions that need to be fulfilled but are not available elsewhere.
The Bottom Line
A customer portal can make interactions much more streamlined for a business and their clients. Prior to development, the purpose, features, UX, data requirements and maintenance should be identified in order to create a comprehensive project plan.
This enables businesses to have realistic discussions about what they will need to invest in order to develop and maintain an online portal solution for their customers.