B2B Customer Portal: The Modern Competitive Advantage

B2B customer portals ensure that every client receives efficient, personalized service. They solve many of the common challenges that leave B2B customers feeling dissatisfied with their service experience or underserved by their product as a result of their lack of customer education or troubleshooting information.

The following table shows some of the most common customer challenges in the B2B space and how customer portals address them.

B2B Customer Challenges B2B Customer Portal Features
Lack of knowledge on setup or use of product/service Easily accessible knowledge bases, FAQ pages, video training, and/or quick start guides
Need for repair, maintenance, or upgrade Self-service options for submitting support tickets, contacting the vendor, or accessing aforementioned educational materials
Auditability of invoices, payments, and delivery timelines Self-service monitoring of invoice and order history, as well as delivery timelines for easy bookkeeping
Clunky purchasing processes Co-browsing functionality to help customers seamlessly purchase, track, and obtain service for any product they purchase with the vendor

How do B2B Customer Portals Improve Post-Sale Relationships?

By providing solutions to many of the most common challenges of B2B customers, businesses can make a lasting impression on their clients, leading to more contract renewals and referral business. This is done by ensuring that every client has the power to access the information they need quickly, as well as provide feedback to the vendor to ensure that they can continue to adapt to the needs of their market.

Customers return when they feel taken care of, which is why 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service. This is especially relevant in the B2B space, where support hangups can cause tangible issues regarding the ROI of the product or service and the client business’s core operations.

As a result, post-sale relationships rely heavily on the accessibility and quality of education and support they receive, and B2B customer portals improve both.

What is the Long-term Value?

Providing a comprehensive and personalized customer experience has exceptional long-term value. In fact, the vast majority of its value in the B2B space is realized over time due to the longer business cycles than B2C markets. This means that the various benefits, like referral business and increased contract renewal rates, will take months or years to impact a business’s bottom line significantly. B2B customer service portals are a tremendous long-term investment for this reason.

They also provide better up-selling and cross-selling potential by implementing a refined structure for recommending complimentary products and services. This can be done through educational resources and customer service ticket responses to issues that may be aided with an add-on or upgrade. This also makes these cross-sells and upsells feel more personalized and consumer-focused than just another sales pitch.

Additionally, self-service portals mature over time and become even better than they were when created. This is due to a few factors:

  • Adaptation based on client feedback
  • Customer contributions to knowledge bases, FAQ pages, and forums
  • Referral business gathered magnifying both

This means that, not only will the portal provide more value to the vendor in the long-term, but to their clients as well.

How do Businesses Create a B2B Customer Portal?

The most efficient and comprehensive way to build a B2B customer portal and service infrastructure to support and complement it is to partner with a quality CSM software platform provider. By implementing a software platform based on industry best practices, businesses can maximize the value, and the ROI, of their B2B customer portal.

Otherwise, businesses are left with the tall task of developing the customer portal and the infrastructure required to build out the knowledge base, training content, and CSM ticketing system needed to achieve the portal’s goals. By partnering with Vivantio, these processes can be made far more straightforward, faster, and more comprehensive.

Offer a Cutting Edge B2B Customer Portal with Vivantio

While each of the benefits listed in this article works wonders for businesses, they won’t help if managers choose a platform that doesn’t offer all of the necessary features. Vivantio offers a cutting-edge customer service software platform that offers everything listed and more, including:

  • Endless integrations to make implementation easy
  • Automatic ticket routing to ensure every ticket gets to the proper agent
  • Workflow designer tool that allows managers to customize the framework of their CS operations without any technical knowledge required
  • White-label service portals so businesses can maintain a cohesive brand throughout the service process
  • A holistic view of each client to ensure that no agent is left without vital information
For more than two decades, Vivantio has been helping clients optimize their service organizations by offering a B2B customer portal. To find out how Vivantio can help you improve ticket lifecycle management, contact our team today or register for a free demo.

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