development and strengthening of customer service
The personal account for b2b clients has features that distinguish it from the interface intended for retail customers. When working with wholesalers, not only orders are important, but also the management of related documentation, processing of voluminous data and constant communication with sales managers. To optimize interaction with corporate clients, your personal account should include automated solutions.
Advantages of your personal account
Self-service for customers. Using a personal account, wholesalers can independently place orders, request invoices, track delivery and access documents, which reduces the need for constant communication with managers.
Automation of document flow. Digitization of document exchange (invoices, invoices) reduces the load on the sales department and minimizes errors.
Easier support and increased efficiency. Integration of your personal account with CRM, ERP and other systems minimizes the need for manual interaction between departments, automating routine processes and facilitating support. Managers have more time to build long-term relationships with clients.
Transparency and risk reduction. Standardization of processes reduces the risk of errors, and customers can independently monitor the status of orders and product availability.
Scalable architecture. Proper organization of the database and the use of containerization allow the B2B solution to flexibly scale depending on the load. This reduces the risk of bottlenecks and ensures consistent performance even during sudden traffic spikes.
Main functions of the personal account for users
Orders and purchase history. Detailed purchase log with filters by order status and stages.
Loyalty program. Special conditions, individual prices and promotions, cumulative points.
Support and feedback. Interactive options for communication with technical support and managers.
Financial control. Access to financial reports, balance sheets and debt information.
Analytics and reports. Ability to generate reports for purchasing analysis and planning, financial reports and debt control.
Manage your profile and notification settings. Ability to manage multiple accounts.
Custom or standard development: what to choose
Creating a personal account for B2B clients requires taking into account specific requirements that distinguish it from B2C platforms. However, it is especially effective to use best practices and ready-made modules that are time-tested and contribute to convenience and efficiency.
Custom development is only needed for atypical projects with specific interfaces or business logic. Many companies are not ready for custom development or simply do not need it, and saving on quality in such cases often results in higher costs for maintaining and reworking the site. Therefore, it is important to build according to code quality standards with proven solutions.
This affects:
Startup speed. The use of ready-made components can significantly reduce the time for developing and bringing a product to market, which is especially important in a highly competitive environment.
Risk reduction. Ready-made solutions are based on best practices and experience, which reduces the likelihood of errors and problems during the operation phase.
Support. Standardized components are easier to maintain and update, allowing the team to focus on improving functionality rather than dealing with custom development issues.
Scalability. The modular architecture makes it easier to add new features and integrations, allowing your business to grow and adapt to changing conditions.
Cost optimization. The use of standard solutions reduces development and support costs, which is especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises.
How to develop a personal account?
1. Define requirements
Study the needs of users to understand their expectations from their personal account. Record all features that need to be implemented, including must-haves and desirable ones. Use Agile methodologies to describe how users will interact with your personal account. This will help the team understand priorities.
2. Design the interface
Since users of B2B clients often interact with their personal account for a long time, the interface should be intuitive and convenient.
The design of your personal account must be consistent with the design of the website for a holistic user experience. It is better to design the home page of your account as a customizable dashboard displaying the status of orders, personal offers and bonuses so that the user can customize the widgets to suit their needs.
Use frameworks like React or Vue.js to create dynamic interfaces, and prototyping tools like Figma or Adobe XD to test user interfaces early on. Using lazy loading, caching, and database query optimization technologies will help speed up page loading.
3. Choose technologies
Select technologies that provide scalability and security, including programming languages, databases, and APIs for integration with CRM, ERP, and other systems.
4. Use modular architecture
Using a flexible architecture makes it easy to add new features. This way, the team can easily add new modules, such as document management, user management, and data analysis, without making changes to the rest of the system.
The developed modules can be reused in other projects. The use of proven modules and templates reduces development time and costs, reducing the risk of errors and operational problems.
The modular design makes it easier to move to microservices and APIs such as RESTful or GraphQL, allowing you to handle more data and users without sacrificing performance. For example, the system may provide an API for creating, updating, and deleting orders.
5. Establish a strict system of roles and access rights
B2B environments often involve multiple users with varying levels of access. A clear distribution of roles (managers, accountants, etc.) will help ensure security, as well as a clear division of user responsibilities.
Use authentication and authorization frameworks such as OAuth 2.0, which supports authorization through third-party services, or JWT (JSON Web Tokens), which allow user information to be securely passed between client and server.
It is also necessary to develop a database structure that will contain information about users, their roles and rights. This can be implemented through additional tables in a relational database, where access rights will be associated with specific roles and users.
6. Keep your data secure
For a B2B portal, data security is especially critical, since it handles confidential customer information. Compromise of such information can cause significant harm to both customers and the company, reducing trust and loyalty.
It's important to understand how to manage security risks and plan to work with developers to address them. At the same time, a high level of security may require additional costs for infrastructure and regular testing of the system.
Establish standards and procedures for handling customer data.
Log user actions and all actions within the system to analyze and prevent suspicious transactions.
Keep your infrastructure up to date and use the latest versions of software and infrastructure components because known vulnerabilities are fixed.
Implement two-factor authentication.
Plan and conduct regular security audits to identify vulnerabilities and take corrective action.
Use encryption libraries like OpenSSL and vulnerability analysis tools like OWASP ZAP to keep your data secure.
7. Test at different stages
Testing from unit testing to integration and user testing will help identify errors and improve the quality of the product. Once your account is launched, actively collect usage data to identify problem areas and opportunities for improvement. Plan regular functionality updates based on collected data and user feedback.
8. Train users and provide support
To help a new user quickly get used to the functionality of their personal account, implement onboarding—highlight interface elements with explanatory tips. This will help avoid questions and reduce the time spent learning how to use the platform.
Prepare training materials: manuals, video tutorials and FAQs for users to help them master the new functionality of their personal account.
Provide a help desk for users so they can quickly get help with any questions they may have.
9. Set up personalization
The personal account should provide personalized offers based on purchase history, special discounts and offers for wholesalers.
It is important to create a flexible system of discounts and conditions that will not slow down the work of your personal account with a large number of clients and decide how to collect and analyze customer data for personalization (for example, segmentation based on data from CRM).
10. Set up integration with external systems
Identify processes that require automation to understand how it can reduce workload and improve customer service.
B2B customers typically place large and recurring orders, so it is important to provide them with a complete picture of each stage of order fulfillment: from confirmation, packaging, picking, shipping to delivery.
For example, integration with ERP, CRM, payment systems, and logistics services will provide customers with access to up-to-date data on orders, balances, delivery and payments, eliminating the need for manual updates and reducing the risk of errors.
Integrations with ERP, CRM, payment and logistics systems can be implemented via RESTful API, which will ensure two-way data transfer and automation of all processes. SOAP and gRPC protocols can be useful for more complex requests.
Apache Camel or MuleSoft provide data adaptation and transformation across systems, which is especially useful when working with legacy ERPs.
11. Manage your data
Because large volumes of data need to be processed, it is important to consider how data is stored and analyzed, and compliance with accounting standards is considered to ensure information is up to date for clients.
A section with analytics and the ability to generate reports on purchases, order frequency, product categories, etc. nHelps clients analyze their purchases and plan expenses. In the section, the user can select parameters for reports and receive graphs or tables with the necessary data, download all the necessary documents as needed.
It is necessary to decide how to use analytics data to improve interaction with users (for example, based on reports on customer behavior in the account) and what performance indicators to implement to improve interaction.
Use NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or Cassandra for flexible data storage, and analytics tools such as Apache Kafka or Elasticsearch to process real-time data streams.
Ensure that logs and monitoring systems (for example, ELK Stack, Prometheus) are configured to analyze system operation.
Connect analytical services to track user behavior and further optimization.
12. Ensure scalability
The personal account must support the ability to scale as the client’s business grows. Configure your system to scale horizontally and vertically to handle high traffic. To do this, you can use containerization with Docker and orchestration with Kubernetes, which will provide optimization of resources and flexibility when scaling, as well as simplify the deployment of updates without interruption in work. Also consider a mobile application or adaptation for mobile devices.
13. Set up notifications
Prompt notifications by email, in your personal account, SMS or via instant messengers help customers stay informed about the status of orders, payments and other important events. Adjust the frequency of your notifications so they're helpful rather than annoying.
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Development of a B2B portal is a complex project that requires an integrated approach. However, a thoughtful and carefully designed personal account can become a key tool for retaining and developing wholesale customers, ensuring ease of interaction and trust in the company.
