Investing in the company's customers and introducing a customer portal should pay off. But there are many investments for the company that needs to be prioritized, how should you know just how important it is to make this particular investment? Is it possible to calculate the benefits and profit with a customer portal and, based on this, get an ROI calculation?
What is the customer's benefit with the customer portal?
The purpose of introducing a customer portal to the company's existing customers is to facilitate their everyday workday. Instead of having to create the structure to keep track of your commitment to you as a supplier, the customer gets this served in the customer portal.
The customer's easy access to updated information, placing orders, registering tickets, etc., reduces their resistance to interaction with your company. This also gives you the opportunity to promote news that can lead to new business and renewed confidence by your customers.
The customer benefits with the customer portal can be summarized as:
- Increased control of their commitment
- Easier routines
- Access to relevant information
Churn rate, a measure of lost customers
It is natural for B2B companies to lose existing customers while winning new ones. Growth is the difference between won business and lost.
The actual measure of how long the customers stays is calculated in terms of churn rate, ie the percentage of customers leaving the company during a year.
The fact that customers leave is natural, especially in competitive B2B markets. But by increasing customer satisfaction and hence the loyalty of the customer, the rate of customer drop can be reduced, which means that the opportunity for growth is improved.
What does a lost customer cost?
Engage your customers and show that you are engaged in them
In surveys, the results indicate that the main reason customers leave their supplier is not the price or the product, but they state that they lacked the commitment of their previous supplier. To engage more in customers is sometimes difficult, especially if there are no ongoing projects or similar where the supplier can prove his effort.
Giving customers a vip login to the customer portal where they have access to all information, case management, etc. will be a way of showing that the company wants the customer to get a full service even when there are no ongoing projects. The customer's activity and the ongoing reviews they make allow you to follow the customer's satisfaction index to detect changes in time and insert actions that extend the customer relationship.
Method of measuring activity, satisfaction and engagement.
Put marketing efforts to recruit new customers instead of replacing old ones
By keeping customers longer, marketing and sales efforts will result in the company gaining more customers instead of working to replace old ones. Often, in-depth customer relations provide a better prerequisite for successful collaboration, where both the customer and the supplier earn on the productive cooperation that works when there is a high level of trust.
Increased profitability as a result of loyalty
Suggested calculation method
- Based on the company's current figures regarding sales, customer turnover, sales and marketing costs.
- Based on customer turnover, how long does a customer on average stay with the company? How would the churn rate change if this average time is increased by 12 months?
- How many more customers will this result in when sales and marketing efforts are being used for growth instead of replacing old customers. Is there also evidence that the company has a better overall margin for existing customers than when it enters a business with a customer for the first time?
- What are the ongoing costs of running the customer portal when all customers have started using this?
- Are there other running costs for, for example, customer service, which decreases with the introduction of the customer portal?
- What initial investment is required before all customers are starting to use the portal?
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