Support Workflows
Lowering Your Support Overhead with a Customer Billing Portal
A self-serve mechanism for customers to view and manage their subscriptions is a necessity for most products. Most products today provide traditional, manual processes for managing their billing and payments. This causes the need for manual support overhead for exchange of standard information.
Customer needs change over time and giving them visibility into their subscription details with your product demonstrates confidence. This can be achieved through customer portals that enable self-help workflows to relieve your support team. These workflows include updating payment information, downloading invoices, reviewing payments and usage.
What is a Customer Portal?
A customer portal is a secure interface that allows customers to access, manage, and interact with their billing information. This self-service feature gives customers the autonomy to perform various tasks, such as viewing invoices, making payments, updating personal information all through a single, user-friendly interface.
Benefits of a Customer Portal
- Reduced Support: With a well-designed customer portal, many of the common queries that customers have such as checking the status of a payment or updating billing information, can be resolved without the need for direct support. This self-service capability reduces the volume of inbound support calls and emails, allowing your customer service team to focus on more complex issues.
- Trust Building: Transparency and control over the billing process fosters trust between your business and your customers. It also highlights anti-dark pattern approaches from your business by showing the avoidance of manipulative practices.
- Streamlined Payments: Enabling customers to update their payment information, especially if they have expiring cards or new payment methods can drastically streamline payments. This flexibility not only saves time but also reduces the risk of missed payments and late fees, contributing to a smoother and more efficient billing experience.
Key Features of a Customer Portal
- Flexible Payment Options: Provide mechanisms for customers to input multiple payment methods, including credit card, direct debit, and digital wallets.
- Account Management: Enable customers to update their contact information, payment methods, and billing preferences.
- Invoice Management: Allow customers to view, download, and print their invoices, especially when they need access for accounting purposes.
- Plan Management: Allow customers to manage what plans they are on with ease and quickly adjust the number of seats or quantities. Also enable friction-free cancellation processes for the customer to foster trust.
How Maple Enables Self-Help Workflows
A billing customer portal is much more than a convenience — it is a powerful tool that adds significant value to the customer experience. By providing easy access to billing information, streamlined payment options, enhanced security, and a personalized, self-service experience, a customer portal meets the evolving needs and expectations of customers today.
Reach out to learn more about how you can seamlessly leverage Maple to embed a customer-facing billing portal into your product to reduce your support operational burden.