7 Fatal Mistakes when Implementing Sage Software or a Customer Web Portal

Sage is a popular software solution company for businesses of any size. If you haven’t heard of them before, they help bridge the gap between companies and customers in a variety of capacities. The primary issues here, however, are concerning the self-service customer portals where a customer can log into a site, place orders, view their invoices, order history, inventory and more.

For companies, Sage software can make managing e-commerce, customer service, and even distribution easy. However not using Sage properly can spell disaster.

Avoid these disastrous mistakes when implementing a Sage customer portal

1.     Misusing the Deleting/Renumbering/Merging Tool

Sage is powerful, and it’s many tools do exactly what they say they do, so be very careful when using the delete/renumber/merge tool in the Inventory Utility. What does this have to do with a customer portal? Well if a customer accesses their online portal to find that a huge chunk of their orders, preferences or a vital information they used to shop your products are gone, they will not be pleased.

Common complaints are that part numbers or order IDs are missing.

To avoid this always make a backup before using this tool and do a cursory check of your inventory management information immediately afterward.

Don’t wait for customers to email with complaints that their order wasn’t processed only for you to find out that all of your order IDs are gone. Customers rely on self-service portals for up-to-date information on the availability of products and the status of their orders, which depend on your inventory system.

2.     Not Knowing What Your Customers Need

What leads many companies to ruin is a misunderstanding of what your customer needs and wants. E-commerce relies on proactive action, and this makes it imperative for companies to provide what customers will need from them preemptively.

Customer portals have a lot of options and a lot of availability for manipulation. The variety can help you achieve success, or it can result in utter failure.

At least, give your customers:

• Single step shopping carts
• 2-page or fewer transaction processes
• Large and attention-grabbing buttons

Finally, remove:

• Unnecessary fields
• Pop-ups in customer portal areas
• Useless pages that block the customer’s access to their information

3.     Poor or Confusing Flow

Those who have experience in Information Technology have an advantage over other business owners. Unfortunately, most e-commerce business owners or managers don’t have that advanced experience working with technology and data flow may be a foreign concept.

If you have a poor or confusing flow, your customers will have a hard time finding anything, and that will significantly and directly impact your sales.

Before you start using Sage software, have a clear vision in mind of how you want a customer to navigate through their portal. Then begin analyzing what the back end would need to make that vision a reality. Include everything from signing in to checking out.

For example, if you’re trying to offer single step sign-in for customers as well as syncing to customer data across any other system you use you will need to create a flow of how and when these multiple systems will come together or interact.

To create a fluid data flow map for your customer portal:

• List out your tools
• Identify what metrics you need to track
• Identify your database elements
• Create a physical layout of your ideal customer portal

4.     Opting Out of Necessary Enhancements

Enhancements seem optional, but your customers will have a hard time using their portals without frustration if you don’t have them.

Whenever possible avoid:

• Choosing a service that is entirely reliant on another product
• Using a mix of software solutions that don’t work together

Instead, use enhancements to fill the gaps. Probably the most impactful enhancement for Sage 100 is CertiPro’s E-Link which provides a two-way connection between the customer’s shopping cart and your sites. This enhancement is vital for anyone creating a customer self-service portal.

Another important enhancement combination is CertiPro’s Stock Availability by Date and the Automated Inventory Cycle Count Sage extension. If a customer logs in to their portal and only sees a glaring “out of stock” tag on an item they order regularly, they’ll likely take their business elsewhere.

Use enhancements that affect your customers, and they’re worth the investment as they can help you avoid losing business when your inventory is low, or when customers require detailed information on their orders and interactions with your company.

5.     Treating A Customer Portal as A One-Time Event

Companies that treat technology set up as a one-time event will face doom quickly. Unfortunately, many businesses will go through, set up their website, click any buttons to get their e-commerce features running and then forget the technology aspect and continue with production and customer service.

Watch out for:

• Updates to your e-commerce flow
• Changes in your shipping, CRM or platform
• Providing an answer to every possible customer issue within the customer portal

You don’t need to update your information or site every day, but you do need to do some tidying up within your customer portals regularly.

Whenever it’s reasonable, update your customer portal for:

• Mobile compatibility
• Customer Support
• Provide clear solutions to obvious pain points

6.     Incorrectly Setting Data Save Periods

Data saving or backups are vital to customer happiness. What if the worst happens and you lose your data after someone places an order? Their order information is lost, but they still gave you payment, and after a while of not receiving their goods, they’ll move on to somewhere else. That’s not the worst of it though, they’ll tell others, and regardless of whether you’re B2B or B2C, reviews, public feedback and word of mouth can ruin an online business.

Sage has the availability to schedule regular backups of company information, including inventory, accounting and more.

Watch out for:

• Using minimum backup settings
• Opting for quarterly or semi-annual data saves
• Only saving before major updates

Instead, schedule data saves:

• Daily, weekly or monthly depending on your order volume.
• Before any updates.
• When making any changes to your customer portal or e-commerce platform.

7.     Attempting to Integrate Sage Without Help

Sage is easy for those with experience in handling technology, but for most e-commerce businesses, it’s not a single-click solution.

Watch out for anyone who says:

• “All you have to do is install Sage.”
• “Just use the preset options.”
• “Don’t worry about customizing Sage too much.”

The best way to get everything you can out of Sage is to balance your enhancements with additional implementation or integration help. CertiPro Solutions which offers the E-Link enhancement for Sage software provides full-scale Sage integration with Magento, a popular e-commerce and development solution.

Sage has so many solutions available. They cater to 7 different industries and tailor their products to businesses of small, medium, and large scales making it nearly impossible for any company to jump into using Sage on their own.

Instead, get help and put Sage to work for you. Contact CertiPro Solutions for a free demo and learn how they can help you create a customer portal while still using Sage.