Portal power opens new doors

A new web based customer portal solution, which provides a cost-effective way for service-focussed organisations to integrate customer advice and pro-active marketing activities with existing support systems, has just been launched by CRM specialists Interchange Group.

Designed to help companies maximise every opportunity to retain their customer base, and boost two-way on-line communications, the portal delivers a cost-effective solution for on-line service and marketing.

David Burrows, Interchange's director of research and development, said: "In today's tough business climate, the relative value of retaining one’s existing customers has never been higher”.

"Businesses are therefore looking for new ways to add value to those relationships, and retain their customers. The launch of the new customer portal module enables them to do exactly that, whilst keeping web development costs to a minimum."

By integrating with existing corporate systems, the customer portal module means organisations can now provide access to a wide variety of online content for their customer base.

The possibilities are almost endless. Service providers can include self-help tips and advice for individual products prior to (or instead of) logging a call, helping to cut call centre costs whilst monitoring the topics that customers are most interested in. Sales managers can accurately target campaigns into the customer base, automatically pushing information to those contacts that have registered an interest in (or previously bought) that product family or service type.

Burrows added: "Getting customer dialogue right means making sure the information you send is correctly targeted.  The portal's inbuilt 'ticker' uses a customer’s own interests profile, and selects only material relevant for the person browsing, such as upgrade announcements or new marketing campaigns in a related area.

"This not only avoids 'information overload' but also allows customer’s preferences and marketing information to be synchronised to current events and other marketing/support activities, thereby boosting opportunities for cross-selling."

The portal, backed by Interchange Group’s experienced on-line CRM consultants, uses industry standard integration technology tools, but does not require web development expertise to maintain the content. Information can be accessed from a variety of existing systems, and new content added via a web-based administration tool. This helps keep development costs down, whilst still enabling businesses to update and refresh the portal regularly.

"The portal is based on industry standard web technology and can inherit the look and feel of an existing website, essential when maintaining corporate branding. This whilst still pulling together, and presenting data/documents from a variety of back, and front, office systems into a single user interface," added Burrows.

As experts in CRM and change management, Interchange Group has a track record in the successful implementation and integration of customer portals across a wide range of businesses.