Proven Portals: Best Practices for Planning, Designing, and Developing Enterprise Portals

Conclusion

Portals are a new channel for acquiring, serving, and retaining customers. With the acquisition costs of new customers requiring two- to three-year payback periods, it is essential to retain profitable customers. E-commerce sites that are easy to use, provide intuitive search and navigation, and rapidly complete transactions are more likely to retain customers than those that make shopping a chore. Self-service can also improve customer satisfaction (as the myHalliburton case study clearly demonstrated), and it can also drive down the cost of customer support. Portal technologies integrated with other sale and support channels deliver positive returns on investments and improve sales.