Streamline Client Management with Salesforce Client Portal

Nikita R.

Media-savvy content creator, with a curiosity for all Salesforce experiences.

Updated: Jan 9th, 2025

A Salesforce Client portal is basically a web platform that can be used to share content, such as resources and tools, online in a secure space. Many organizations create Salesforce client portals to give their clients, employees, or partners access to their information from within a Salesforce environment.

With a Salesforce client portal, your business can allow customers to view their account information, their order histories, and any guides that can help troubleshoot problems that could arise with your products. These features from a Salesforce client portal can improve your customers’ satisfaction levels as they will have more control of their personal data and can solve their problems independently and instantly.

Who Needs a Client Portal in CRM?

Are you uncertain of whether you need a client portal for your customer relationship management strategies? Many organizations across various industries choose to use a cloud based customer portal. Let’s take a look at two examples of different organizations that have invested in client portal solutions.

Service-Based Companies

This massive industry includes companies specializing in consulting, IT support, and even marketing. Service-based companies can use a Salesforce client portal to enhance communication with their customers. For example, a service-based company can create a Salesforce client portal to empower their logged-in customers to independently view project updates, submit a request for a feature, submit a case for a fault, or even view invoices.

Financial Institutions

Institutions like banks, credit unions, or financial advisory firms found in the finance sector can also use a Salesforce client portal. For these institutions, Salesforce client portals are useful for allowing logged-in customers to access and manage their account details, financial statements, investment information, and any other relevant documents. Salesforce client portals are an excellent option for financial institutions as they keep sensitive information safe and secure.

How Can I Create a Client Portal for Salesforce

Are you ready to spring into action and create a Salesforce client portal for your business? Since Salesforce is a customizable CRM platform, there are many ways to make a client portal. You could choose to use some of the Salesforce tools and features, or you could decide to go with a third-party solution that needs to be integrated into the CRM platform. Let’s take a look at these two options in more detail.

Salesforce Community Cloud

If you decide to stick to creating a client portal solely with Salesforce, you want to use the Salesforce Community Cloud. It will allow you to build an online community for your customers, employees, and partners. When you create a Salesforce client portal with the Community Cloud, you get custom branding options, as well as features for providing your users with self-service options. Your Salesforce client portal will also support a knowledge base for uploading articles and a case management system if needed.

Third-party Applications

Salesforce Cloud is not the only option for creating a client portal. You could choose to make a Salesforce client portal with one of the third-party applications or add-ons found on the Salesforce AppExchange. We recommend using keywords like “customer self-service portals or service portal“ when searching for a third-party app on the AppExchange marketplace to narrow your search.

Branded Client Portal

If you are ready to create a branded client portal, you will be happy to hear that Salesforce has several tools and features to assist you. Start with Salesforce Community Cloud, as it’s designed for creating branded client portals. Follow our general, high-level guide to see how to brand your Salesforce client portal:

Use Cases for a Client Service Portal

There are many use cases for a CRM client portal as they assist in boosting engagement with your customers and adding support to your business teams. To help you cut through all the noise of researching Salesforce client service portals, we have provided two use cases for your benefit.

Customer Support: Salesforce Self-Service Portal

Your business can provide customers with a self-service portal when you build a Salesforce client service portal or customer portal. This self-service portal can display articles, frequently asked questions, and guides to help customers troubleshoot problems arising from using your products or services.

Partner Collaboration: Salesforce Partner Portal

A Salesforce client service portal is also great for providing resources and content to your business partners. When you extend your Salesforce client service portal to your business partners, you can share leads and collaborate on ongoing deals to streamline workflow processes in the Salesforce partner portal.

Use Cases for a Client Management Portal

We discussed client service portals, but you can also create Salesforce client management portals. These types of portals are used by organizations to improve their customer service and support strategies. Read on to discover Salesforce customer portal examples and two use cases that support a Salesforce client management portal.

Effective Case Management in Salesforce Customer Portal

Salesforce is a powerful CRM platform that lets your employees track customer support cases from end to end quickly with effective case management strategies. For example, your customer support teams can use a Salesforce client management portal to track customer requests when interacting with clients. Managers can also use the Salesforce client management portal to monitor resolution times of customer support and any other customer interactions. This essential data can be analyzed by managers and be used to improve customer support strategies for the future.

Engaging Knowledge Bases for Self-Service Options

You can create a knowledge base directly in Salesforce with a client management portal. Create a unique knowledge base to share your articles, guides, and documents related to your products and services with customers and employees so they have a source of consistent and accurate information at all times.

Consider A Responsive Mobile Client Portal

Launching a mobile-friendly Salesforce portal has numerous advantages, and you should definitely consider providing this option to your customers, employees, and partners as soon as possible.

Why? Well, a Salesforce mobile client portal creates more opportunities for users to access your content and engage with your business. We all know that people keep their mobile devices close at hand 24/7, so investing in a Salesforce mobile client portal means your customers and employees can connect with your business conveniently whenever they want.

More over, a Salesforce mobile client portal ensures that users receive the latest, most current information about your products, services, and even promotions. This is an essential feature for teams who are focused on sales or customer support and managers who need up-to-date information to make critical business decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Time

Does Salesforce have a client portal?

Yes, choose between Chatter Answers, Salesforce Customer Portals, and Salesforce Self-Service Portals when creating a client portal in Salesforce!

What are the benefits of a Salesforce customer portal?

Indeed, a customer portal Salesforce gives your business and customers several benefits. Some are that they give your business important data related to customer interactions, access to the information that customers need, and how your workforce interacts with customers.

What is a client portal used for?

It is used to share content with clients online securely and privately. Users generally need to log into the portal to view and access the content.

We hope to see you soon!

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Disclaimer: The comparisons listed in this article are based on information provided by the companies online and online reviews from users. If you found a mistake, please contact us.