Imagine someone telling you that disco is making a comeback. As someone who's recently taken up the hustle, I find the idea exciting. While disco's revival might be met with mixed feelings, Customer Portals are stepping back into the spotlight with a new name: Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs).  

‍

There was a time when Customer Portals were seen as the perfect way to connect businesses with their customers, offering an easy and personalized experience that added real value. But then cloud solutions came along, promising more flexibility and easier integration. Many companies quickly switched their focus, especially because Customer Portals were expensive. Businesses were paying high licensing fees for features they didn't always need or use, and in many cases, these features benefited other companies more than their own.  

‍

As technology advanced, these customer portals were left behind and replaced by newer solutions that often didn't work together as well as promised. This left many companies feeling frustrated because they had paid a lot but didn't get the results they expected. But now, as we look back, it's clear that the idea behind Customer Portals still has a lot of value.  

‍

Focus on the Customer, Not the Custom  

As we consider bringing customer portals back, we should always remember that the primary focus is on the customer and the business value you deliver, not on creating highly customized solutions. While the temptation to build something unique and tailored might be strong, the objective measure of success is how effectively your portal meets your customers' needs and drives value for your business.  

‍

If you have an innovative idea, the best approach is to quickly test it with your customers. Rather than investing heavily in custom development upfront, start with a solid foundation—a platform that already includes the essential features you need. This allows you to focus on experimenting with your ideas and gathering customer feedback without getting bogged down by the complexities and costs of custom-built solutions.  

‍

Built-In Advantages: Elevate Your Customer Experience  

Customer Portals come with built-in features that help businesses engage with customers and improve their operations. Think of these features as tools designed to make your business run smoothly and efficiently, allowing you to focus on delivering what truly matters—value to your customers.  

‍

• Simplified User Management
Modern Customer Portals have built-in tools to manage user access securely and efficiently. Instead of spending time and money developing custom security features, you can use these pre-configured tools to ensure that the right people can access the correct information. This reduces security risks and saves you the hassle of building these controls from scratch.

• Easy Content Management
Managing content can be complex, but Customer Portals simplify this process with intuitive, out-of-the-box content management systems (CMS). Unlike custom-built solutions that often require development resources for every change, Customer Portals allow you to easily update and manage content without involving your development team. Additionally, changes can be made securely through built-in workflows, ensuring that updates are reviewed and approved before going live. This not only keeps your messaging current and aligned with business goals but also reduces the time and effort needed to make adjustments, allowing your team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine content updates.

• Faster Development and Deployment
Pre-built structures in customer portals act as a head start for your development process. Instead of coding everything from the ground up, you can use these ready-made frameworks to get your portal up and running quickly. This approach speeds up deployment and frees up your team to work on more important tasks—like enhancing the customer experience—rather than reinventing the wheel.

• Personalized Customer Experiences
Customer Portals come with built-in tools for personalizing customer interactions, allowing you to offer a tailored experience without the need for costly custom development. By using these existing features, you can deliver a unique experience to each customer, increasing satisfaction and loyalty, all while saving time and avoiding the complexities of custom-built personalization engines.

• Seamless System Integration
Integrating various systems can be a major challenge, but Customer Portals are designed to connect seamlessly with your existing tools and platforms. This built-in integration capability saves you from the costly and time-consuming process of developing custom integration solutions. It ensures that critical data flows smoothly across your business, helping you deliver value to your customers more efficiently.

‍

‍

Achieving Better Velocity and Speed

By taking full advantage of these built-in features, your business can move faster and more efficiently without the need for expensive custom solutions. This approach leads to quicker implementation, lower costs, and a faster path to realizing value. In future articles, we'll dive deeper into how to define, capture, and monetize customer value—but that's a conversation for another time.  

‍

As we bring Customer Portals back into focus, we'll make sure we get it right this time. By leveraging built-in features, focusing on value, and delivering a seamless experience, we can deliver on the promise of Customer Portals.  

P.S. If you're in Florida and interested in Disco Revival clubs, feel free to contact me for more information. I guarantee you’ll love it!