A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) Customer Portal is a web-based interface that allows a laboratory’s customers to access their requests and results real-time, on-demand. It can improve communication, streamline reporting, and can even help the laboratory earn new customers. According to a recent analysis, 69% of customers want to resolve their own questions. Providing them a Customer Portal can help with that. For laboratories that utilize a Customer Portal in conjunction with their LIMS, the benefits don’t stop there. Below are just a few examples of ways a laboratory can maximize the benefits of a LIMS Customer Portal.

What is a LIMS Customer Portal?

As mentioned above, the LIMS Customer Portal is typically a web-based application the laboratory’s customers utilize. It provides those customers a tool to submit the information needed for a request. That request can then be tracked through the process using statuses and data fields. Once complete, a report can be shared directly from the laboratory to the customer through the portal.

Benefits of a LIMS Customer Portal

The benefits of implementing a LIMS Customer Portal are dependent on how that portal is utilized. In order to maximize these benefits, it’s important to understand them and which ones will work for your laboratory. Wavefront Software has spent years working with their customers, helping them configure their Customer Portal to meet their needs. Below we describe the top five benefits our customers have realized through implementing the Wavefront LIMS Customer Portal.

#1 – Customer Self-Service

How much time, on average, do you spend each week fielding phone calls or emails requesting status updates from your customers? One hour? Three hours? More? The Customer Portal puts the necessary information directly in the hands of the laboratory’s customers. This allows the customer to check on statuses or read notes without calling up the laboratory every day. The great part is that the laboratory can choose what information to share with their customers via the portal. Therefore, there’s no concern with unnecessary questions when a customer doesn’t understand a particular status flow step.

#2 – Report Accessibility

How often does a customer reach out because they’ve lost the report that you just sent them? Or maybe it was the report from five weeks ago? Now you have to dig through your emails, without an accurate date or ID number, going off of memory. More time lost.

The LIMS Customer Portal allows the laboratory to automatically attach the report to the request once complete. Then, the customer is notified (through LIMS) that the report is ready. They can pull the report from the Customer Portal whenever they need. Now there’s no concern for lost emails, and yet another opportunity for improved efficiency.

Wavefront LIMS’s portal is designed to streamline internal and external customer interactions. Learn more about this and other valuable features by scheduling a demo today!

#3 – Organized Communication

What type of request is the customer making? Is it for testing, engineering review, on-site analysis? Each option may have different information required. Using the LIMS Customer Portal, the laboratory can create different request types to be available to their customer. Each request type can have different fields so you’re sure that the customer is presented with the correct information. Better yet, the information the customer provides will flow all the way through LIMS, so you don’t have to worry about manual data entry or job creation.

#4 – Complete Communication

Now that the customer has the different requests available to them, how do you make sure they provide the necessary information? How often are requests delayed while the laboratory waits for clarifications to questions or additional information from the customer that they should have provided in the request? A significant benefit of a LIMS Customer Portal is the ability to define required fields. Combining this benefit with #3, above, allows the laboratory to create a request with all of the fields they need from the customer and have confidence that the customer must provide that information.

#5 – Reach more Customers

As I’m sure is not news to anyone, the necessity for a commercial laboratory to be accessible online is not only convenient, but necessary. Word of Mouth advertising is still extremely important, but web searching extends a laboratory’s ability to reach new, previously untapped markets. Integrating the Customer Portal into the laboratory’s website provides an easy method for new and existing customers to submit requests from an accessible location.

Summary

There are many benefits to implementing a Customer Portal for your laboratory. We reviewed only the top 5 that Wavefront has experienced over the years of configuring the Wavefront LIMS Customer Portal for the laboratories they work with. There are many more applications and benefits to be had with streamlining the request process and it’s important to consider your laboratory’s needs when choosing a LIMS provider and whether or not a Customer Portal is for you.

Ready to learn more about the Wavefront LIMS Customer Portal? Click on the “Schedule a Demo” today and a knowledgeable Wavefront representative will be in touch soon.