Let us move one step ahead. You understand the concept of a self-service portal. You are also aware of these digital platforms’ key features and benefits.
What’s next?
Now, you should be conversant with the fundamental steps for building robust self service portals. In this section, we will explain the three major steps that skilled developers follow to build an all-inclusive self service portal.
Identify User Requirements
To build a successful self service portal, you need to know the needs of your target audience. You can follow these points to develop a solid document:
- Define user groups: Are your users new or experienced? Does the self-service portal cater to your employees? Do you also want the portal to be accessible to external users?
- Collect data in depth: Conduct interviews, send questionnaires, analyze raised tickets, or evaluate search queries to understand the pain points
- Analyze and prioritize: Gather the insights and finalize the most relevant aspects. Create a final document laying out the prioritized points
Once you identify all these parameters, deciding the content, features, and other technical components of self service portals becomes easier.
Develop the Essential Features
Your self-service portal can have endless features. However, an overloaded platform will not be necessary in every case. So, you should focus on building the elements relevant to your business and target audience. You need dedicated developers who can use the best tech stack to build a robust self service portal. Also, ensure that your platform is scalable, customization, and with software integrates like CRM or other third-party tools.
Use Relevant and High-quality Content
Understand this – content is the heart and soul of your self-service portal So, in addition to hiring a talented Content Writer, you should also take care of the following aspects:
- Create content that aligns with your user needs
- Use various formats like text, videos, etc.
- Avoid fluff and unnecessary information
- Ensure proper structure of your content with headings, sub-headings, and bullet points
- Connect relevant blogs and articles by hyperlinking at proper places
- If your customers/employees are diverse, provide the option of translating the content into different languages
When you take care of this step, your self service portal will be ready for the final launch.
Tips to Promote and Maintain Your Self Service Portal
Promotion raises awareness about your self-service portal. Also, users can solve common issues themselves. This aspect reduces costs and enables your staff to focus on complex problems. Here are two main segments of promotion and maintenance that you should consider.
Focus on User Adoption
For widespread user adoption, you can divide the promotional aspect into the following sections:
- Internal communication: Inform your employees about the existence of a new self service portal. Conduct relevant training sessions to explain the features and encourage them to use the portal
- External communication: Use your official website, social media channels, and emails to advertise your self-service portal. You can even offer small prizes for customers who create an account on your platform in the early stages
After the preliminary launch, you can monitor user behavior and work on the feedback to improve the portal’s quality. Do not forget to send personalized emails about any new updates or a word of appreciation for using your self service portal.
Update Vital Portal Aspects
Finally, you need to take care of your self-service portal’s technical side on a regular basis. Refer the table below to understand some crucial elements.
| Type of Update | Main Activities |
| Content | Focus your ‘most-used’ section .Update the dynamic information monthly |
| Data | Analyze engagement and drop-off rate. Rectify sections with low user engagement |
| User feedback | Use surveys, suggestion forms, or polls. Create new sections as per the requirement |
Remember, ensuring timely updates helps maintain relevancy and offers valuable content to your target audience. So, always invest in maintaining your self service portal.
