What Customers Like and Dislike About Client Portals

Client portals have become one of the cornerstones of the UK’s digital service ecosystem. Whether it’s banking, utilities, e-commerce, or some other field, customers want — and increasingly expect — a secure online space where they can access support, track requests, and get the information they need at their convenience.

However, not all customer portals are created equal. While a clean, functional, well-designed portal can significantly improve the customer experience, a poorly implemented one can do the opposite, frustrating your users and damaging their trust in your brand. Knowing what customers like — and, more importantly, what they strongly dislike — is key to building a client portal that’s an asset to your company, not a liability.

Client Portals: What Customers Like

First, let’s delve into what a great customer portal looks like. What do customers want from it? Here are the top features and capabilities:

24/7 access and autonomy

UK customers, much like the rest of the modern world, expect on-demand digital services they can access outside of normal business hours. Ideally, a client portal should have 24/7 access, meaning they can use it evenings, weekends, and bank holidays. They expect to be able to check information or complete tasks whenever it suits them, and they want a sense of independence and autonomy while doing so. Not having to ait in a phone queue is one of the biggest perks of a client portal.

Self-service

Modern customer behavior consistently shows most people like to solve problems on their own before contacting human (or even AI) support. Studies indicate customers find self-service faster and more efficient. Popular self-service features include:

• Tracking orders or service requests
• Viewing invoices, making payments, accessing account information
• Downloading documents
• Submitting support tickets
• Managing subscriptions.

The more customers can do this themselves, the happier they generally are.

Mobile-friendly

Over 90% of UK adults own a smartphone now, and there’s no reason for any piece of online software not to be mobile-friendly. An ideal client portal should load quickly, be easy to navigate, and integrate with mobile features like Face ID or biometric / fingerprint login.

Strong security and privacy

UK customers are increasingly conscious of digital privacy, especially since the advent of GDPR regulations. In order for customers to trust a client portal, it should have a secure login process, encrypted communications, transparent policies concerning data use, and multi-factor authentication options.

Client Portals: What Customers Dislike

Now let’s talk about the kind of features (or lack thereof) that are likely to drive your customers away in short order.

Poor user experience

A portal that’s difficult to use is quite possibly worse than no portal at all. If your customer portal software has issues like overcomplicated menu structures, cluttered interfaces, slow loading times, or too many clicks / taps to complete simple tasks, older users or users with low patience / digital confidence may find it quite discouraging.

Login and authentication issues

Security is essential, but so is being able to log in quickly and reliably. Too many barriers can discourage use. If customers often have problems with repeated login prompts, complicated password requirements, multi-step verification for minor tasks, or unclear / time-consuming password reset instructions, the customer is likely to feel frustrated.

Limited Functionality

Some portals promise self-service, but then don’t deliver much in the way of features. If customers log on and find out they still have to resort to email or telephone for most issues, they may lost trust in the portal altogether. Some examples might include a support ticket system with no status update, invoices or documents missing, no ability to update account information, or absent, outdated, or incomplete knowledge bases.

Slow or poor support response.

Timely updates are the whole point of a client portal — which can make it doubly frustrating for customers when they encounter issues such as tickets disappearing, long delays in responses, no insight or transparency about progress, and no easy way to escalate urgent support issues. If your portal doesn’t offer strong support, why do you even have it?

Lack of integration

Good customer portal software should integrate seamlessly with other systems, such as billing, payments, and live customer service. If payments shown in the portal don’t match statements, profile changes don’t sync, or customer service agents can’t see information submitted through the portal, you have a headache for customers and support agents alike.

Building a Client Portal Customers Will Love

Now that we’ve established what customers do and don’t like, let’s conclude with some guidelines on how to build a client portal your customers will actually want to use.

First, a customer portal should have intuitive, accessible design. It should use strong, clear language, be easy to navigate, load quickly on any device, and meet accessibility standards (WCAG).

It should also offer unified self-service tools for things like ticket submission and tracking, a searchable knowledge base, account and billing information, and AI chatbots to assist with common and simple queries.

Another great feature to have is simplified onboarding and logins. Being able to log in with single sign-on (SSO), social logins, or biometrics is far preferable to old-fashioned username and password.

Personalised experiences are also important. Customers appreciate when portals adapt to their needs with tailored recommendations, recently viewed items, or custom dashboards. And, of course, there’s the matter of strong privacy and data protection.

Client portals can significantly enhance the customer experience, but only when they’re thoughtfully implemented. A shoddy or poorly functioning customer portal can be worse than none at all.