What is a customer portal, and does a small business need one?
A customer portal is a login page where each customer sees their own jobs, quotes, invoices, documents or bookings. It can take routine questions off the phone. Many small businesses do not need to build one: a few emailed links may be enough, and some business software already includes one. If you do have one, each customer needs a separate login, access to only their own records, and a password reset through a route you can verify.
What a portal does
A portal is a place customers sign in to, instead of calling or emailing you, to find out what is happening or to do something themselves. Typical jobs include seeing the status of a job or booking, approving a quote, paying or downloading an invoice, uploading photos or documents, and updating an address or phone number.
Which calls it can take off the phone
Look at last month's calls and emails. Questions such as where is my appointment, can you resend my invoice, or did you get my payment are the kind a portal can answer without anyone at your business. If most contact is a one-off request and a quick reply, a portal may add little.
When a few emailed links are enough
If customers deal with you rarely, or need only one thing, a link in an email to that one item is often enough: the quote to approve, the invoice to pay, the booking to change. A portal asks customers to remember another login, and many may never use it. It starts to earn its place when customers return often, when jobs come with documents or several stages, or when your staff spend real time resending the same things.
Check whether a product already has one
Some business software includes a customer page. The related answer on field service software notes that two such products describe a page where customers can look at their own work. Before paying for a build, check whether the tools you already use offer one, and what customers would see. The related answer on buying or building software has a plain test for that choice.
What it must do safely
A portal holds customers' details, so it is worth getting right. This is general advice:
- Separate logins: every customer has their own, never shared between people or staff.
- Only their own records: ask the builder to show that one customer cannot open another's records, including by guessing a link.
- A reset through a verified route, such as a link sent to the email or phone number already on file. Staff should not change a customer's contact details on the word of an unverified caller.
- Keep payment details with the payment provider and do not hold full card numbers in the portal.
- A way for customers to report a login they do not recognize, and a plan for what you do when one is reported.
What to ask before building one
- What exactly should a customer be able to do, and which calls will that remove?
- Could the tools we already use do it with a link or a setting?
- Who answers when a customer cannot sign in?
- Whose name are the accounts in, and can we export everything it holds?
- Who looks after it once it is live? The related answer on keeping custom software running lists what that upkeep involves.
Related answers
- Is field service software like Jobber or Housecall Pro worth it for a small service business?
- Should you buy off-the-shelf software or have something built?
- What does it take to keep custom software running after launch?
Custom software and apps
Off-the-shelf tools get you most of the way. When the last stretch is where the time goes, we build the part that fits: the dashboard, the portal, the internal tool or the app.