What are the benefits of an online account management portal?
Asda online account manager, Debemhams credit card – anyone who looks after and cares for their customers often has an online account management portal.
But what is online account management and how can deploying and investing in the technology benefit your business?
Paying the bills is never fun – no matter who you are. Unfortunately though, it’s an unavoidable task that every business has to undertake. The key, therefore, is to make the process as hassle-free as possible.
Before the internet, customers would receive multiple paper bills sent through by various suppliers. Nowadays though, the online medium offers you access to your bills through what is often termed an online
account management portal. But what are the benefits to you as a business?
The most obvious advantage of a portal is that it offers you – the customer – complete control over your account. The whole concept of an account management portal is to ultimately reduce your reliance on your supplier’s workforce.
Rather than having to pick up the phone to notify the business of a change to account information – for example telling them that you’ve changed email address – the portal allows you to do it yourself through a few clicks of your mouse.
Time is so often a scarce commodity in today’s fast-paced business environment, so the elimination of having to queue in calls, increases the time you have to re-invest in other areas of your business.
Business is also increasingly done on-the-go; undertaken particularly through mobile devices. It’s very unlikely that you will be carrying all your letter/bills on hand all the time, so should you need one in unexpected circumstances, you’re often stuck.
However, with an online account management portal, you have all the important information instantly available through your phone – providing you have an internet connection. All your bills from the last 12 months are easily accessible through one single location, ensuring that you aren’t wasting unnecessary time searching for them.
While the logistical advantages are obvious, online billing is also beneficial in other respects.
As well as providing you with the ability to analyse previous bills, most portals also provide you with real-time information on many features of your account. This feature along with usage alerts can be particularly useful to those who want to ensure they stick within their respective limits (call usage for example).
A full breakdown of your account helps ensure that you know exactly where your hard-earned money is being spent. These can often go into specific product or service costs, which further help in the control of your finances.
While paper is just a top-level bill, online billing provides analysis features such as reports which can help reduce your business’ outgoings.
Finally, the last major benefit to online account management is the ability to log a fault. Services like our very own ‘MyAccount’ make it simple to obtain a support ticket to any problem that arises. The process to fix the problem will start immediately, and thanks to the detail it generates, the issue will be resolved as quickly as possible, helping maintain your business’ continuity.
The whole point of an online account management portal is to give you control at times convenient to you. Are you taking advantage?
