The Lowdown on Client Portals

Firstly, what are they? Client portals are online platforms which allow businesses to interact and share information with their clients in a centralised and organised space. Client portals tend to include features such as document sharing, transaction mechanisms, communication tools and account information. All of this allows users to receive updates on activities and monitor progress, delivering a seamless and transparent experience for the client. 

Some of the key benefits of a client portal (although not necessarily just for clients, we’ve built many portals for employees and external stakeholders too!):

Easy Access, Anytime, Anywhere

It’s outside of office hours and your client suddenly decides they need to check on a project. With a client portal, they can log in and get the information they require, no matter the hour or their location. 

Communication and Collaboration

Client portals can replace endless email chains, and allow you to communicate with your client effectively using fit for purpose comms. Whether it's sharing ideas or sharing documents, adding comments to projects or just chatting on messaging channels - putting your client comms through portal software maximises effective communication in a centralised space. 

Tailor Made Content

With custom client portals, you can add a personal touch to your client engagement. Whether it’s white labelling solutions, curated news feed content or personalised dashboards, a bespoke portal can make your client feel special, while delivering on-brand messaging for your business. 

The Benefit Of Hindsight, And The Luxury Of Foresight

Insights are possibly the best loved feature of client portals. Giving your client access to data analytics allows them to make informed decisions, in real time. It can also cut down on admin time within your business, ending countless hours of reporting by account managers to present to clients. Win win! You can also use portals to gather intel on your own clients and track their interactions and behaviours within the portal, providing you with upsell opportunities. So it’s win, win…win!#

If you’re still on the fence about whether or not a client portal can elevate your business offering, check out some of the businesses we’ve helped below:

Muirfield Riding Therapy 

Muirfield Riding Therapy—a Therapeutic Riding and Hippotherapy charity, approached Bad Dino to help design and develop a complete end-to-end back office solution to run all aspects of their organisation. Part of this build included a portal for volunteers and riding coaches to organise classes, schedules and communicate with parents and schools. Building the portal was part of a much wider digital transformation project we carried out for MRT, which you can read more about here. 

The Lang Cat

The Lang Cat is an insight, marketing and communications consultancy specialising in financial services. We created their Analyser tool, designed for their clients (Financial Advisors) to compare financial platforms as part of their regulatory due diligence practice. Users can run comparisons which produce a bespoke comparison table of platforms against services and product types, with a heatmap for assessing their compatibility with their own business model. Users can save and export search results within the platform, and can access a document depository of bespoke market insight reports generated by The Lang Cat as part of their subscription offering. Click here to learn more. 

Bad Dino

We have built our own bespoke client portal, called Comet, which all Bad Dino clients use once their project is underway. Tools include access to the product backlog, a live feedback tool, contract sign off, updates on project timelines, and the ability to purchase more time for support and maintenance. Comet has transformed how we work with our clients, adding a tremendous amount of transparency to our process, and saving valuable time within the business on admin tasks which are now largely automated. Here's a sneak peek of what our clients access to oversee their projects: