Self-service has become a standard for all kinds of businesses in the UK, and it’s easy to see why: they streamline the support process, take unnecessary burdens off of human agents, and reduce email and phone traffic. On paper, a well-designed client portal should make life easier for both your customers and your support teams. But what if it doesn’t?
In everyday practice, engagement can be surprisingly low for client portals. Customers might still resort to sending emails or calling phone support, even when a portal is readily available. Why does this happen? Surprisingly, the problem usually isn’t the technology itself, but how the portal feels to use.
Why Customers Don’t Use Client Portals?
The Expectation Disconnect
From a business perspective, a customer portal makes good sense. It means fewer repetitive queries for human agents, better workflows, and cleaner tracking of customer requests. The whole purpose of a customer portal is to save time and improve efficiency.
But customers may not necessarily see it that way. They don’t care about efficiency or workflows. They want speed, simplicity, and convenience, and if using a portal seems less painless and intuitive than sending an email or picking up the telephone, they’ll take that path of least resistance.
This is a mismatch in expectations, and one of the biggest reasons customers might not be using your client portal. What feels quick and efficient within your organization might look like extra work to your customers.
Common Friction Points
So, more specifically, what tends to turn customers off client portals and drive them away? Here are some of the most common causes.
Login Fatigue
Most customers are already juggling ten or more online accounts, and if your portal requires they make yet another one, complete with username, password, and verification, they might not bother and may never return.
Poor UI
A cluttered dashboard, confusing menus, and weak (or worse, nonexistent) mobile design can quickly frustrate your users. If customers have to deal with a poor user interface, it’s likely they’ll just abandon the portal and go with something familiar.
No Clear Added Value
This leads into a bigger point, that of added value. A portal needs to do more than just be a more involved method of sending email. Customers want to see ticket status, access useful resources, or handle tasks on their own. Without these features, they won’t see any advantage to using the portal. This is especially true if responses such as ticket status updates are slower than they would be with email or telephone support.
Weak Onboarding
Often, businesses will make the mistake of inviting or encouraging customers to use a portal, but they don’t explain why this is helpful or how to use it effectively. Customers who are merely dropped in the deep end may try it out once, get frustrated, and never return.
Designing a Client Portal Customers Enjoy Using
The good news is that poor customer engagement is a fixable problem. When it comes to customer portal software, this is usually a matter of designing around the customer’s experience, not the company’s efficiency.
Top priority should be speed. Logging a query should be quick and straightforward. Real-time updates help reassure customers that their request is being handled (and thus that they’re valued as customers).
A good client portal should also reduce friction whenever possible. The login process should be simplified, navigation streamlined, and the interface clean and user-friendly.
Mobile design is also essential. Many UK customers manage accounts on their phone, and neglecting mobile design is a great way to ensure they’ll never use your portal.
Self-service is another key factor. Customers like being able to handle tasks on their own without having to contact human support if possible, which makes including things like help articles, knowledge bases, and communication history.
The Human Touch
A final word of caution: even when your digital tools are well-designed and usable, there are still those UK customers who value speaking with a real person, especially if the issues at hand are complex, sensitive, or otherwise extraordinary.
Just as it’s a mistake not to have a customer portal at all, it’s equally mistaken to use it to entirely replace human support. Your portal should complement your human support agents, not supplant them. Having clear escalation paths, easy ways to contact a person, and transparent communication reassures customers that help is always available.
When customers know they can switch from digital or automated tools to human support without a lot of fuss, they’re more likely to start their customer journey in the portal.
Ultimately, customer engagement comes down to perceived value, and client portal software is no different. The portal should save time, provide useful insights, and feel easy to use. When it does, businesses will benefit from the reduced overhead, and customers won’t feel frustrated or undervalued.
