Could your FileMaker system do more for you?
We can help improve and extend your Claris FileMaker system.
Improve your system
Your business system is your internal space, the brain of your business. It’s where your team plan, monitor, manage and document your work. So what happens when you open that space up and invite in your customers and suppliers? For the first time you’re giving them direct contact with the brain of your business. You don’t need phone calls and emails to act as go-betweens carrying messages and information. The messages and information go straight in.
By opening up these new connections you’re supercharging the power of the system. This is what custom web portal development can do for you.
Enabling access for customers and suppliers means they can interact with your systems directly. So for example if they want to see their order history, that’s simple. If they would like a copy of an invoice from a year ago, they can find it themselves.
Without a custom client portal they would have had to call or email someone in your team to ask them to dig out the documents – that’s an annoyance for your team and for your customer or supplier. Giving them access to the portal increases their satisfaction and means they’ll have a higher opinion of your business.
Clearly a web portal benefits your team too, as they no longer have to answer time-consuming queries that do nothing for the business.
You can also use a web portal for productive business functions. Customers can access documents such as reports or surveys via the portal, making this a more secure and trackable process.
Or for suppliers the portal can work the other way. A supplier can upload an invoice to the portal so it goes straight to the finance team, and the supplier will receive a message telling them that their invoice has been received and when they can expect payment. The entire process is tracked and recorded, so there’s a trail if you need to look back in future.
A portal also makes it easier for customers to place orders without the need to make a call or send an email, with all the back and forth that involves. The order is logged in the system, the customer gets a confirmation, and the portal can provide further updates as the order progresses through your system. By making it easier for customers to buy from you, you’re making it more likely they’ll buy from you.
There’s another important task that a portal can do for you. It can allow customers to book appointments with a specific, tailored set of questions and actions. So as well as booking the appointment they also describe their situation, upload photographs, and so on, ensuring that your surgeon, physio, engineer, craftsperson or whoever is ready for the appointment with all the information they need, avoiding wasting time.
The web portal is a secure environment in which you can interact with your customers and suppliers. It enhances their experience while simultaneously increasing your efficiency and control, and improving your company’s internal task management. At best, a FileMaker web portal doesn’t only deliver efficiencies, it delivers growth.
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