Costumer service: Strategies, steps and best ways to succeed
Customer expectations in B2B are not shaped by competitors alone, they’re shaped by the best digital experiences anywhere. Buyers expect the same speed, transparency, and self-service level they get in B2C, but with the added complexity of contracts, pricing agreements, product assortment, and long-term relationships.
Yet many B2B customer portals still fall short. They provide access to information, but not true value. They reduce some friction but fail to transform the overall customer experience. The result? Increased, instead of decreased, pressure on customer service teams, missed opportunities for upselling, and frustrated customers who still rely on manual support.
This is where the “360° experiences” approach in B2B customer portals come in. By connecting data, processes, and touchpoints into one cohesive journey, companies can unlock one of the most important outcomes in digital commerce today: improving customer service in B2B portals.
To explore the best ways to improve customer service, we spoke with Ludvig Bergander, Strategic Account Advisor at Columbus. He shares practical insights, proven strategies, and real-world examples of how organisations can turn their portals into true service engines.
Q: Ludvig, why is improving customer service in B2B portals such a critical topic right now?
Because the expectations have fundamentally changed. B2B buyers don’t want to call or email for every update, since they expect instant answers, self-service, and full transparency.
The challenge is that many portals were originally built as “order portals,” not as customer experience platforms designed from a customer journey perspective. That creates gaps. Customers might be able to place an order, but they can’t easily track it, manage invoices, or get proactive support.
Improving customer service today means rethinking the portal as a 360° experience hub, a place where customers can do everything they need, without friction.
Q: What are the most common mistakes companies make with customer portals?
One of the biggest issues is treating the portal as a static interface rather than a dynamic service layer.
We often see:
- Limited self-service functionality
- Poor (slow, limited, in-complete) integration with ERP, CRM, or PIM systems
- Generic experiences instead of personalised ones
- Lack of real-time data
These gaps force customers to fall back on traditional support channels, which increases workload internally and reduces satisfaction externally. If you’re serious about ways to improve customer service, you need to eliminate those gaps and design the portal around real customer needs, not internal structures.
Q: So, what are the best ways to improve customer service in B2B portals?
It really comes down to creating a connected, customer-centric experience where everything works together seamlessly. Not designed based on systems or your organisation but based on your customer daily life and needs.
At the core is true self-service by giving customers the ability to manage orders, invoices, and support cases on their own terms, whenever it suits them. But self-service alone isn’t enough. It needs to be powered by unified data, where historical and real-time information comes together in one place to provide full context and consistency.
When that foundation is in place, you can deliver real-time insights, so customers always know what’s happening with their orders, deliveries, and requests without needing to reach out. On top of that, personalisation becomes key, using data to present relevant products, services, and recommendations based on each customer’s behaviour and history.
The real shift happens when service becomes proactive. Instead of waiting for customers to ask, the portal anticipates their needs. Whether it’s suggesting a reorder, highlighting a potential issue, or recommending an upgrade or machine service based on data, at the right moment. These aren’t to be seen as just individual features; they are connected strategies to improve customer service by removing friction and making every interaction more relevant and valuable.
Q: You’ve mentioned 360° experiences a few times. What does that look like in practice?
A 360° experience means the customer never has to think about what’s happening behind the scenes. The complexity is still there, but it’s fully connected and presented in a way that feels simple, intuitive, and consistent.
In practice, that means a customer can log into the portal and immediately see contract-specific pricing, track orders across multiple shipments, access invoices and payment history, and quickly reorder products they’ve purchased before. At the same time, the portal can surface relevant recommendations based on past behaviour and provide access to support where all context is already available, so the customer never has to repeat information.
All of this happens seamlessly in one place. There’s no need to switch systems, chase updates, or rely on manual support for routine tasks. That’s when the experience shifts from reactive to proactive, and that’s ultimately what defines truly improved customer service.
Q: Can you share examples of how this improves customer service in real life?
Absolutely. In many B2B organisations, customer service teams are overwhelmed with repetitive and mundane requests. Primarily things like order updates, invoice questions, or basic product information. It’s time-consuming, and it prevents teams from focusing on more value-driven interactions.
When a well-integrated portal is in place, much of that pressure can be removed. Customers gain direct access to the information and tools they need, which significantly reduces the number of incoming support requests. At the same time, standard cases can be handled faster through structured workflows, while customers get full visibility and control over their orders, history, and interactions.
This creates a clear shift from reactive to proactive service. Instead of constantly responding to questions, businesses can anticipate needs and streamline the entire experience.
We see this across industries, from manufacturing to distribution, where companies use customer portals to simplify complex processes, increase transparency, and ultimately build stronger, more efficient customer relationships.
Q: What are the key steps to improve customer service through a portal transformation?
There’s a clear path that works well. These are the core steps and strategies to improve customer service:
- Decide on what change you want to see, and allocate change management, both internally and with customers, based on the level of change you expect.
- Map your customer journey end-to-end – Understand every interaction point — before, during, and after purchase. Update expected changes (see point 1) based on insights.
- Create a 360° data foundation – Identify where customer data lives and bring it together into a unified view.
- Define the target experience – What should customers be able to do independently? What should feel effortless?
- Integrate systems and processes – Ensure your portal connects seamlessly with ERP, CRM, and other platforms.
- Continuously optimise and drive change – Use insights and behaviour data to improve the experience over time, and continue to invest in change management to ensure adoption and change
These steps are essential if you want to move from isolated improvements to real transformation.
Q: What’s your advice to companies looking to improve their customer portals today?
Start with the customer journey and build from there. Too many companies jump straight into technology decisions. But without understanding the full experience, you risk creating another disconnected solution.
If you focus on building a 360° customer view, the rest follows naturally; better service, better insights, and better outcomes.
From fragmented touchpoints to 360° service experiences
Improving customer service in B2B portals is not just about adding more features, it’s also about connecting the entire customer journey. A modern customer portal should act as a central hub for data, interactions, and services, enabling customers to self-serve while giving businesses the insights needed to deliver proactive, personalised support.
When companies bring together historical and real-time data into a single, unified experience, they experience something powerful:
- Better customer understanding
- More relevant interactions
- Higher efficiency across teams
- Stronger customer loyalty over time
The result is a shift from reactive support to predictive, experience-driven customer service. Or as Ludvig Bergander puts it:
“We often talk about digital self-service, but the real shift happens when customers stop thinking of it as ‘self-service’ and just experience it as service.”
