Email and phone, or a portal?
Email and phone orders work, and customers know them. They also cost your team time on every order. Here is how self-service compares.
How they compare.
| Topic | Email and phone orders | Portal by Webisoft |
|---|---|---|
| Who enters the order | Your team re-keys it into the ERP. | The customer, straight into the ERP. |
| Pricing and stock | Customer asks, your team looks it up. | Customer sees their contract price and live stock. |
| Order status, invoices, tracking | More emails and calls. | Self-service, any time. |
| Ordering after hours | Waits for the next business day. | Any time. |
| Typos and missed lines | Possible at every re-key. | No re-keying. |
| Complex or consultative orders | Strong: a person guides the buyer. | Quotes and RFQs, with your team in the loop. |
| Your team's time | Spent on data entry and status questions. | Freed for exceptions, approvals and selling. |
| Time to go live | Varies. | 5 days for the standard modules. |
| Try it before a call | Varies. | A live demo you can click through now, no form. |
Choosing between them.
When is phone or email still better?
For complex, consultative orders where a buyer needs advice, and for customers who order rarely. Keep your reps for those; let the portal take the routine reorders and status questions.
Will customers actually use a portal?
Customers adopt it when it saves them time: their own prices, live stock, one-click reorder and invoices in one place. Inviting a customer's whole team, not just one buyer, helps.
What happens to orders that still come by email?
Your team keeps entering them in the ERP as today. Portal orders land in the same ERP, so nothing is split.
Weighing other options?
- Webstore or app platform?Selling online to new buyers, or serving the customers you already have?
- Portal or ERP logins?Hand out ERP seats, or give customers a portal built for them?
- Built-in portal or Portal by Webisoft?Your ERP ships a portal. When is it enough, and when is it not?
- Build it or start from a platform?Build it with your own team, or start from a platform?
- EDI or a customer portal?EDI for your big trading partners, a portal for everyone else?
Place a reorder in ten seconds
Open the live demo, press Reorder on a past order, and watch it reach the ERP.