As a writer, I like writing about portals and how self-service changes how we approach business. As a customer, I like that we have a self-service option. It’s not that I have any problem asking for help from support reps. Waiting on calls for hours or a reply email is too much for me. I prefer solving problems on my own with the help of knowledge base articles, videos, and more. While it gives me complete control over my activities, it also challenges me to learn and grow by tackling complex problems independently. If that’s not a success for me as a customer, I don’t know what is!

I am not the only one who prefers self-service. According to Statista, 88 percent of customers prefer self-service over talking to customer support representatives. What would you do if customers don’t want support reps as their first line of support? How will you provide effective support?

The answer is a customer success portal. This tool makes it easy for customers like me to find solutions in a way that’s convenient to us. It helps businesses deliver services efficiently and enhance customer experience without increasing business costs. In this article, we will learn what a customer success portal is and how you can turn your customers into loyal ones with it.

• What is Customer Success Portal?

A digital solution that anticipates customers’ challenges and problems and provides proactive answers and solutions to them. Customer portal provides self-service via a knowledge base to help users with relevant information. It focuses on customer support and thus helps customers with help centers like Zendesk, Freshdesk, and DeskXpand.

Plus, it’s a digital gateway that manages customers’ relationships with businesses and provides new opportunities to connect, share, and grow through communities. Examples include the Hubspot community and Drift community.

Apple Support is one of the examples of the self-service that we are talking about. They provide search tools with personalized workflow options for customers to click on. They have links to provide support via community, knowledge base, and social media underneath workflow options.

Customer success is about providing value to your customers and increasing loyalty and revenue.

Customer Success V/s Customer Support

Customer success and support are intertwined. Together they result in customer satisfaction and are often confused as being the same. They are not.

• Customer success offers support proactively. Here, businesses stay with customers throughout their journey and improve their overall experience.
• Customer support works on solving customers’ problems after they reach out for help.

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