After automating the lead capture process, the next step in linking your customers into your CRM, and therefore into your business and its processes, is the self-service portal.
Much as it sounds, this is a software system that enables your customers to exchange information with your organization in a completely autonomous manner. In this initial implementation, we will show you how to implement a system that allows customers to file service cases and software bugs within your CRM system, and then to check periodically for their updated status. The system is designed to be extensible to support customer interaction in almost any area covered by the CRM.
The fundamental capability that the self-service portal provides is to enable customers to add information into the CRM, and retrieve that information later on when it has been updated by company staff, without allowing them access to the CRM system as a whole. That information can also be provided in the context...