Automate your service platform with a service portal and a CRM

As a result of the commercial and social constraints applied to address the health emergency, the need to move from a face-to-face to a digital service has accelerated.

A key aspect to achieve this is the automation of the service platform through a CRM and a service portal.

The new consumer habits of the population now demand a 24/7 service, without having to go to a physical branch and these consumers are now wondering if they can obtain services or make their transactions through digital channels, without time restrictions and get the same result without having to go directly to a branch.

To meet this challenge, some companies have been developing strategies and implementing platforms and solutions to help them enable this digital service arm, it is clear that companies that do not do so will be at a serious disadvantage to their competitors who are doing so, and this will directly impact sales and annual results.

As I mentioned at the beginning, there are two components that are the basis for the automation of the service platform (CRM + Service Portal), with the clear objective of meeting the demands of this new consumer, to provide services outside office hours and even serving people in distant locations.

These two elements form an ecosystem that works together in such a way that it facilitates the service to the consumer or customer and allows companies or organisations to have an offer of services and products with a much wider market reach.

Advantages such as not depending on the physical location of a branch or the office hours of a customer service executive are the key points that an ecosystem of this type will bring to companies to achieve at least two objectives:

• Increase sales or placement of services by a certain percentage.
• And build customer loyalty with a good digital experience.

Now let's talk a little about each of these two components, first the service portal.

The service portal is a system that is implemented by means of specialised tools such as Liferay, which allows you to model the management processes of companies, with a vision of the customer, that is, the customer journey.

Let us clarify that it is not a simple web page, it is a system that enables the processes of your company, to be consumed by these digital customers and some of the most important features are:

• They offer digital processes to users, allowing them to carry out all E2E management for customers.
• They enable integrations with other platforms for the management of payments, account statement queries, invoicing, quotes, available services and other transactions controlled in other systems.
• They manage a process workflow, in such a way that the system itself follows the flow of the different steps or stages required to complete a transaction (request, review, approval, etc.).

• They are multi-device, i.e. they are responsive so that they can be accessed from different devices: smartphones, computers, tablets, etc.
• Highly secure. In addition to complying with security schemes such as the use of SSL certificates, the portal enables User Sign In functions to guarantee data confidentiality.
• They allow the management of each user's profile: preferences, associated email, password management and personal data, among others.
  
  
  

The second component is CRM (Customer Relationship Management). One of the aspects that this type of system deals with is precisely that of service. With a CRM like HubSpot we will be able to complete the ecosystem of the service platform, adding functionalities such as:

• Generate a ticket number for each procedure that is being handled on the platform, allowing the tracking and association of all actions related to the procedure at a single point.
• Create automations that allow communications to be made to those involved in the process and thus achieve a more efficient and fluid service process.
• Manage the different stages of the procedures. In this way, the service platform is provided with an easy and orderly way to see all the tickets in process and the status or stage of each one.
• Omnichannel communication. All communications with the customer will be centralised and related to a procedure or customer management. So with a 360º vision, we have all the interactions with the customer: emails, calls, WhatsApp, forms, meetings, notes and scheduled tasks.
• A Bot to create tickets automatically, is the ideal partner to work 24/7, because it allows the user to be served at all times and collaborate greatly in that service experience.
• As CRM is adopted in the company's processes and as the information that is handled in it increases, the knowledge base grows, an aspect that will be of vital importance to generate analytical reports that support continuous improvement.
• The procedures are not associated to people, but to the process. By having the process flow in the CRM, as well as all the information related to each step, any authorised person can follow up on the following tasks and not depend on a specific person.
• Pre-established email templates, so that communication with the customer is faster and under a standard format, always in function of the best service.

The integration between these two components, Service Portal and CRM, represents the perfect ecosystem for the automation of the service platform.

While the portal is the face with which users interact digitally, the CRM is the component that supports the processes and information that are managed in the portal.

In short, an ecosystem such as the one we have described allows companies to enable the service virtually, without restriction of time or physical location, obtaining a 360-degree view of the customer, which contributes to the improvement and optimisation of the processes that support all customer management.

Schedule a consulting session with one of our experts and let us take your company to another level of service.