Online shopping is nothing new. We are seeing more and more retail businesses move from storefronts and shopping malls to online only. With the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, bringing business online is no longer just for the retail B2C (business to consumer) types. Granting your customers access to your business or organization via the web isn’t limited to filling up a virtual shopping cart. More and more, Not-For-Profits, Industrial/Manufacturing companies, B2B (business to business) Sales and more are discovering the need to provide virtual access to their customers/members is necessary for the survival of their businesses. From Customer Portals, Sales Portals to true eCommerce integration, making your business webtelligent is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. We’re taking a closer look at industries that typically do not have interactive web options on their website.
Not-For-Profit: While community organizations such as assisted senior living, homes for the intellectually handicapped or other member organizations typically aren’t thought of as needing an online presence, many of these organization’s needs to manage programs and services can be done online. Activity scheduling and registrations, member management and of course, donation management are important aspect of these organizations. Having web portals that allow your donors and members to access their membership information, account balances, member activity, donation receipts, and the ability to see the history of their involvement with the organization at any time, gives members a sense of connection and provides a level of transparency that otherwise is not possible without significant effort by staff members. These web portals can be designed so donors can only see the activity you want them to see. This not only gives members and donors the ability to easily access information on their accounts, but also will alleviate some of the work load on your staff.
Commercial: Industries such as manufacturing can up their game beyond just a website by accepting inquiries and quote requests and orders online (if they don’t already). Once quotes or orders are placed, a customer web portal can allow the customer to see the progress of their orders or turn an approved quote into an order automatically.
Online portals that allow clients to log into their own accounts and track the production of their order not only provide a new level of insight to the customer, but also strengthens your client relationships.
With web portals such as these, you decide what you want your clients to see; however your production is being tracked, you decide what data will be shared with your customers.
You can also choose to have auto-generated updates available to your customers as well, taking your online communication to the next level. These communications can also be very specific to the customer. Web portals and automation tools today are designed to include any piece of customer information you want, keeping interactions completely personalized.
B2B Sales: Distribution companies and other businesses that rely on a sales force, mobile or otherwise, need to keep their sales people fully informed of customer interactions. Sales web portals allow for easy online access to placing orders, seeing sales figures, client lists, territories, customer history, and more. An online sales portal that facilitates selling is a great way to empower your sales team. Sales web portals can be key to increase productivity without increasing overhead, allowing your salesforce the freedom to work from anywhere, anytime and on any device.
When we talk about adapting to the times, we need to examine how people are accustomed to communicating as well as making purchases. Communication today happens mostly in “text” type conversations. Consumers and businesses now expect immediate responses to their inquiries that can usually only be accommodated by text or chat versus verbal communication.
How we engage with businesses that we deal with has changed. The autonomous way we log into our accounts, check the status of an order, the balance of our account, our account history and activity, even creating a profile with pictures and preferences have become more prevalent over the past several months. Why not adopt these practices to gain efficiencies for our businesses and organizations? If we believe that these conveniences offered by customer web portals enhance our personal online experiences and increase online engagement, then it stands to reason that the same benefits will be realized when businesses adopt these tools.
Evaluating what parts of your business can be taken online takes some thought and some professional assistance. Often, we are so entrenched in the daily minutia of what we do that we have difficulty making the time to think beyond our day to day tasks. Here are a few concepts you may want to consider to enhance your business online:
- Evaluate your website: Can your website receive inquiries, quote requests, or orders? Do you have a customer web portal or sales web portal? Is your website easy to navigate and allow your visitors to easily connect with you?
- Staff time: How much time does your staff spend answering customer inquiries that could easily be answered by your customer themselves (becoming an expectation by customers) if you offered a customer web portal?
- Customer relationships: How much brand loyalty exists with your customers? Do you have a handle on your attrition rate? Having better online communications with your clients can add value every time they access your website, or hear from you via email, helping to build that brand trust.
- Rate your efficiency: How efficient is your business or a particular department? Having more online capabilities can mean a significant improvement to your order process, shipping, customer queries, receivables, customer loyalty, and more.
At North49 we help our clients first understand, then implement effective online strategies and capabilities to help better run their business. We work closely with our clients to make these projects a reality.
Bringing your business online is nothing new, but current circumstances have created more urgency and importance than ever before. If your business does not provide your customers with some form of online self-service capabilities, you need to seriously consider adding it. The market and our current situation demands it.
If you'd like to discuss your situation and how we may be able to help, book some time on my calendar.
About North49
North49 is a Sage Authorized Partner and Sage Development Partner. Our integrated ecommerce solutions, Webtelligence and the North49 Customer Portal, allow businesses using Sage 300 to provide a deeply integrated web store and self-serve portal for online payments and account management.
www.north49.com| +1 (888) 599-1115 | solutions@north49.com