Does Your Organization Need A Customer Self-Service Portal?

By Jim Wenninger, CEO, WennSoft, www.wennsoft.com

Online self-service portals are the norm in consumer-focused industries today — here’s how to determine if you should be considering one for your business.

Imagine you’ve gone to a local credit union to open a new account and the customer service representative casually mentions that they don’t offer online banking. Whether or not you use online self-service technology, you’d probably shake your head in disbelief and take your business elsewhere. In many industries today, businesses simply can’t compete without offering an online customer portal.

Many field service organizations see launching a self-service portal as a good way to stand out from their competitors and provide better customer service. Consumer portals and apps make it look easy, but the process can be quite complicated. Ultimately, organizations must strike a balance between client expectations and the expense and difficulty of creating an online customer self-service portal.