The client portal
Give clients scoped read-only access to their own project: progress, documents and updates, without exposing cost, rates or other clients.
The portal exists to replace the Friday status call. A client who can check progress themselves calls less, and calls about better things.
What a client sees
- Their own projects only, with progress by section.
- Photos and updates you have published.
- Shared documents: proposals, drawings, certificates you choose to share.
- Their enquiries and the responses.
They never see rates, costs, margin, other clients, internal notes, or unpublished documents. Client access is read-only by design.
Turning it on
- 1
Create the client company
The project must be attached to it. This is what scopes everything that follows.
- 2
Check what is publishable
Open the project as it will appear. If progress is three weeks stale, fix that before inviting anyone.
- 3
Invite the contact
One named person to begin with. Additional contacts on the same client company can be added later.
- 4
Tell them what to expect
A short message setting the update rhythm, weekly or fortnightly, prevents the portal being read as a live feed of every hour.
Do not invite a client to a project with no logged progress. An empty portal reads as an inactive project, which is the opposite of the intended effect.
Keeping it worth visiting
- Publish on a rhythm the client can rely on, even when the news is that nothing moved.
- Two or three good photos beat forty. The portal is a report, not an archive.
- Answer portal enquiries in the portal, so the thread stays with the project.
Firms that publish weekly report the biggest drop in ad hoc calls. Publishing irregularly trains clients to call instead of checking.