B2B Customer Portal: Requirements & Examples

As businesses aim to enhance relations with their B2B customers, many of them are looking into customer portals to make it happen.

With the sheer amount of tools available, and each focusing on different categories, making the right choice is overwhelming. Should you focus on CRM features, the ability to track projects, or having all customer data in one place?

Let me help you make the choice of finding a B2B customer portal that companies will simply fall in love with.

Understanding B2B customer portals

A B2B customer portal is a digital platform set up to connect businesses with their partners, collaborators, and clients in a seamless manner. Its primary aim is to provide secure, individualized access to various functionalities such as placing orders, tracking shipments, accessing documents, and managing transactions. In a B2B transaction landscape where detailed business data is crucial, this portal becomes a hub to streamline these interactions.

To grasp why B2B customer portals are vital, consider their impact on operations. These portals facilitate direct and efficient communication. They allow agencies to reduce bottlenecks in manual processing through automation, improving data accuracy and consistency. Both sides in the business transaction benefit, seeing a significant decrease in friction.

Key components of a B2B customer portal

Breaking down the crucial elements that make up a B2B customer portal begins with understanding its necessary components.

1. Dashboards: it serves as a central location where users can access all essential information at a glance. This includes order history, account summaries, and financial statements. According to a McKinsey survey, about 86% of B2B decision-makers prefer having such tools at their disposal.

2. Accounts: Each client gets an account, granting them secure access to the information relevant to their transactions. This function extends beyond just logging into a client portal. Users can set preferences and update details, while the organization safely handles sensitive data in line with privacy regulations. The rise of self-service options has made these accounts even more essential, as customers now expect a level of personalization in their interactions.

3. Permissions: Access levels in a B2B customer portal play a critical role in maintaining security and managing interaction complexity. Different levels of access allow companies to define user roles clearly, ensuring that employees, partners, and clients only view information relevant to their responsibilities. Customizable permissions mean that financial details, order modifications, and confidential data remain under the control of the business.

These key components, dashboards, user accounts, and access levels, work in tandem to create a robust B2B customer portal. Each piece contributes to a streamlined, secure, and responsive user experience. It paves the way for greater efficiency by allowing businesses to shift focus to strategic needs, rather than getting bogged down in repetitive tasks.

Client expectations for a B2B Customer Portal

Outside the key components, B2B clients have a handful of expectations when it comes to using a B2B customer portal.

1. Automated onboarding: Not every business owner wants to jump on a call to get onboarded. Some value their time and want it to be mostly automated. Offer them this option with SPP’s onboarding page, but keep the call available as a fall-back option.

2. Self-service capabilities: B2B customers prefer to manage their accounts independently. They expect functionalities such as order tracking, invoice management, and the ability to place orders or make payments without needing to contact customer support. This self-service model not only increases convenience but also reduces operational costs for businesses.

3. Real-time information: Clients expect real-time access to product availability, pricing, order status, and shipment tracking. This transparency helps them make informed decisions quickly, which is essential in a fast-paced business environment.

4. Personalization: The ability to customize the portal experience is increasingly important. Customers want tailored dashboards that reflect their specific needs and preferences, including personalized service recommendations and account management options.

5. Security features: Given the sensitive nature of B2B transactions, robust security measures are essential. This includes 2-factor authentication, data encryption and backups, as well as role-based access control.

6. System integration: The portal should seamlessly integrate with existing tools such as CRMs and sales systems. This integration ensures data consistency and allows for efficient project management.

7. Reporting options: Business customers are not consumers. They usually report to someone, and want nice graphs to back up any information. To help them out, the B2B portal should support a variety of reporting integrations.

8. Invoicing: Nobody wants to request invoices. Any business owner expects proper invoicing to be available from the get-go, so don’t make them jump through hoops to get it.

5 B2B portal software examples

Before choosing a B2B portal software, it’s important to know if it meets your individual requirements. Some tools try to cover every possible scenario, but ultimately fall short when it comes to the features.

Here are a few different use cases where our own tool, Service Provider Pro, excels.

SEO agencies

SEO agencies sell a variety of services, but what they all have in common is the need for reporting. That’s why the SEO agency customer portal should have built-in reporting options, or support a variety of client reporting tools. Most SEO agencies also partner up with other agencies, looking to get them to resell their SEO services.

Unique features:

• embed SEO client reports via Agency Analytics

• analytics dashboard to see bestseller services

• grow your SEO agency with the reseller program

Content agencies

Content agencies have specific needs that are mostly linked to placing large content orders. Most of their B2B clients order in bulk, which means that the content agency customer portal should make this process as easy as possible. SPP, for instance, supports a spreadsheet-type input that makes copy-pasting a breeze.

Unique features:

• spreadsheet input to handle large content orders

• native Zapier integration to automate content delivery

• team-based permissions to invite external collaborators

Link building agencies

Link building agencies have either a hands-off approach and sell links from different domains, or monthly recurring packages. In any case, the link building agency customer portal should support both of these options, allow for easy upselling, and support project intake forms.

Unique features:

• sortable catalog feature to easily sell links

• service add-ons to increase cart order value

• intake forms to gather project-specific information

Video editing agencies

Video editing agencies work with large files that clients need to submit without interruption. SPP makes it easy for them to allow large attachments in projects, but agencies can also use the Google Drive integration. In order to approve projects in the video editing agency customer portal, clients can use the emoji-based approval process.

Unique features:

• native file management supporting large attachments

• integration with Google Drive

• emoji-based approval process

Social media management agencies

Social media management agencies put a lot of effort into their new client onboarding process. When it comes to their SMM agency customer portal, they would like to easily capture branding information, but also need team management features that support their collaboration efforts. Lastly, this type of agency relies heavily on reports, which they can share with a variety of reporting integrations.

Unique features:

• onboarding form for your branding questionnaire

• team collaboration feature for clients to work on projects

• Klipfolio integration to share social media reports

Choose the right B2B portal

Customer expectations in the B2B sector are very different compared to those of consumers. If you want to make an impression, you have to cater to their needs. And your B2B portal has to have key features they are expecting.

In this post, I’ve introduced you to all there is to know about B2B buyers when it comes to offering them the features they need, from a self-service portal to invoicing and system integrations.