Your customers don’t want to wait until business hours to make a purchase or book an appointment. They expect immediate access and personalized interactions. While a website and social media presence are still important, they are no longer enough to keep your coaching practice, nail salon, or other business competitive.
In short, your CRM software needs a client portal.
What is a client portal?
If you’ve ever done online banking or bought anything off Amazon, you’ve used a client portal. It is an electronic gateway that lets you view and exchange information securely online. CRMs with a client portal let you build deeper connections with your clients by enabling a positive user experience.
Not all portals have the same features. Ideally, you want a solution that offers:
- Online scheduling that allows clients to book, cancel, and reschedule their own appointments. It’s convenient for them and reduces the administrative demands on you and your team.
- Secure payment processing for easy online payment of deposits and invoices. Prepayment also reduces the chance of a costly and frustrating no-show.
- File sharing protected by data encryption technology, giving both sides absolute confidence that private data is being handled as securely as possible.
- Direct messaging that supports a dialogue with each customer and lets you send them personalized offers based on purchase history.
vcita
vcita offers a customizable client portal that lets clients engage with your small business 24-7.
Pros:
- Clients can manage their own appointments
- Secure encryption technology protects confidential data
- Stores client purchase history, making marketing more effective
Cons:
- With the scheduling plan, only email notifications are available
Pricing: Plans start from $29 USD per month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Features:
- Client portal with secure payment processing, file sharing, and messaging
- Shareable booking calendars
- Two-way calendar syncing
- Stripe and PayPal integration
- Email and SMS appointment reminders
- Gmail integration
vcita is a user-friendly and richly-featured scheduling app that also happens to be one of the best CRMs with a client portal. All portals can be customized with your logo and company colors, and a user-friendly dashboard lets clients see all important information at a glance: upcoming appointments, shipped orders, outstanding invoices, and any new messages from the business.
Once within the portal, your clients can:
- Book, cancel, and reschedule their own appointments. The two-way calendar syncing feature automatically updates your Google or Microsoft business calendar, so you always know each day’s schedule, and automatic notifications reduce the likelihood that they’ll forget their session.
- Pay a deposit or invoice via credit card or PayPal,
- Ask questions via the direct messaging feature. Their answers can be used to create personalized offers and customize your marketing strategies.
- View and submit invoices, completed questionnaires, photos, graphics, and more.
By making key communication, scheduling, and payment features available to the client, vcita frees up time that you can devote to growing your service-based business. It’s also scalable, so unlike more complex solutions like Creatio, the account you create as a solopreneur can still be supporting your success when you reach multi-location status.
