How much does a single negative experience cost your business? Research has shown that people are willing to pay on average $1,506 to cancel contracts early, due to a single bad experience. In order to help you avoid this occurring in your business, Liferay has helped out by listing the best 5 examples for customer portals to deliver great customer experience for 2019 below - highlighting why each portal is great for CX and what Liferay features they’re using to achieve this.

Customer Experience and Customer Portals

Technology is changing communication and how customers are engaging with brands, with more options than ever before, today’s customers prefer- and increasingly expect- personalised self-service experiences.

But a rise in expectation doesn’t mean these needs are being met. Chris Pemberton, a contributor for Gartner says, “brands fail to deliver the basic information and experiences that customers expect and need”.

What was your last negative experience with a brand where your expectations weren’t met and more importantly, what did you do? Research has shown that 25% of people will switch providers after a single negative experience.

The impact for businesses is their brand, 30% of people are likely to share a bad experience - a single negative experience can be shared up to 357,000 times by one person. From a consumer perspective, the expectation and outcome desired is easier - the challenge for brands, is not just identifying the problem but understanding how to deliver the best outcome.

A recent study showed that 67% of respondents preferred a customer portal for self-service over speaking to a company representative. This will only become increasingly higher as familiarity with technology becomes more and more prevalent in society. Which is why it’s paramount that you have the best CX solution in place.

Best Customer Experience Portal Examples

1. Spire

“This solution delivers an engaging user experience and homogenises our complex back-end systems.” Deborah Banks, Director at Spire

Key features:

Role-based access control, web content management, customer application development, mobile-friendly design, enterprise integration, single sign on, identity management, online user dashboard

About Company:

The fifth-largest publicly traded gas utility in the US, serving 1.7 million customers.

How the customer portal delivers on CX:

• One-stop customer portal where users can access energy usage charts, online bill payment, and a number of self-service tools for payment arrangements and paperless billing.
• Modern, unified user experience

Challenges that had to be overcome:

Before Spire redesigned their online customer portal, they were challenged by a disjointed user experience consisting of two separate legacy portals. Their back-end systems also contained a high amount of complexity- containing two ERP systems, two payment processing systems and two mobile workforce management systems.

Read More on Spire Customer Portal Here

2. Airbus Helicopters

Key features:

Content management (themes, pages, resources, etc.), role and permission management, online services, responsive design

About Company:

Over 3000 helicopter operators depend on the Airbus customer portal to service and operate their helicopters. At the end of 2018, Airbus was able to rollout their newly redesigned customer portal, “Keycopter”, to 3,000 companies and 24,000 users.

How the customer portal delivers on CX:

• Airbus has shown that operational efficiency and customer satisfaction can and often do go hand-in-hand.
• 24/7 availability of the portal across multiple devices means that operators are able to help themselves more quickly and easily than ever before.
• Intuitive, modern user experience that enables users to view up-to-date technical documents, manage warranties, submit questions, and order parts.
• Operators are even able to track the usage and health of their helicopters through integration with sensors on the aircraft themselves.

Challenges that had to be overcome:

Before redesigning their customer portal, Airbus found that their current site was outdated and didn’t match the journey and use cases from their own customers. Like with many companies today, there were also a number of older legacy systems that they needed to integrate.

Read More on the Airbus Customer Portal Here

3. Bosch Smart Home

“I would like to focus on customer satisfaction and not have to deal with any technical problems." Dr. Uli Schmidt, Director of Business Operations, Robert Bosch Smart Home GMBH

Key features:

Content management, online services, collaboration, Invoicing & Payment, e-commerce

About Company:

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. The online shop for Bosch Smart Home products was developed with the goal of realising a consistent and seamless customer experience for users and customers through many touchpoints.

How the customer portal delivers on CX:

Using Liferay, Bosch was able to build a robust self-service experience, allowing customers to shop online, handle returns, process warranties, chat with a service specialist, access installation videos and more. On the back-end, a number of systems (such as SAP for handling sales and other processes) have been integrated into the shop.

Bosch’s solution has been successful not only because it is highly functional, but also because of its personalised, language-specific accessibility across borders. With an online presence in Germany, Austria, Great Britain and France, Bosch has been able to rapidly bring its useful site to new audiences as they have grown.

Challenges that had to be overcome:

• Langauge localisation to cater to a broad market across Europe
• Integration of multiple systems to enable a seamless customer journey

View the Bosch Smart Home Customer Portal Video Here

4. Philadelphia Care Foundation

“With Liferay, we built an accessible and personalised single portal for all communication”. Claire Dubelaar, Senior Online Communication Advisor, Philadelphia Care Foundation

Key features:

Single Sign On, Unified Data Management, Collaboration, Web Content Management

About Company:

The Philadelphia Care Foundation exists to help people with intellectual disabilities be their best selves.
How the customer portal delivers on CX:
With Liferay, Philadelphia was able to create “My Philadelphia”, a site that acts as a communication hub and provides individualised resources for employees, volunteers, and clients. In addition, they have been able to better personalise the experience in a dynamic way for their unique stakeholders with various needs and at different points in their customer journey.

Challenges that had to be overcome:

In 2013, Philadelphia realised that they needed a portal to connect disparate systems in a single site. The foundation had many requirements to meet, including:

• Integration with existing applications
• Tailored experiences for different audiences
• Highly accessible across users and devices

Read More on Philadelphia Customer Portal Digital Transformation Here

5. Suez Australia

Key features:

Invoicing & Payment, Services Scheduling, Reporting, Mobile Responsive

About Company:

Suez is a global resource management company providing a wide variety of services for businesses and households around the world.

How the customer portal delivers on CX:

Leveraging customer feedback and a number of other metrics, Suez was able to design and implement a customer portal that allows for real-time invoicing and payment options, self-service scheduling, requests for new services and even reporting on metrics like environmental impact.

By giving customers the power to manage their own account digitally, Suez was able to improve customer satisfaction while also improving the delivery of their services and the accuracy of their data.

Challenges that had to be overcome:

The challenge for Suez was to provide new functionality and a modern user interface while also retaining a large number of underlying legacy systems.

Read More on the Suez Australia Customer Portal Here

Conclusion

Companies that are able to create a modern, personalised customer experience are often able to increase customer engagement and satisfaction while at the same time improving operational efficiency through self-service features and anywhere/anytime access.

Expectations surrounding self-service and customer experience have never been higher. Whether your company is one year old- or one hundred years old-, the reality is that the businesses that will thrive today and in the future are the ones that are able to deliver experiences  to their customers wherever and whenever they choose.

Click here for more information for Customer Portals on Liferay DXP