The truth: Your customers don't like calling the hotline. They want answers – instantly, without waiting, at 10 PM or at the weekend.
A self-service portal is no longer a future vision. It's business-critical. And with Microsoft Power Pages you can go live in 4-6 weeks – without months of development.
The Hard Numbers: What Your Support Really Costs
📞 Cost Per Support Ticket
Average cost per ticket[1]
Monthly tickets at medium-sized B2B companies
Annual support costs
✅ The Savings Potential with Self-Service
| Metric | Without Self-Service | With Power Pages Portal | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly tickets | 500 | 200-300 (40-60% reduction) | 200-300 tickets/month |
| Cost per ticket[1] | €17 | €17 | — |
| Annual support costs | €105,000 | €42,000-63,000 | €42,000-63,000/year |
| Portal implementation costs | — | ca. €65,000 (one-time, 8-12 weeks) | — |
| ROI after 12 months | — | -€23,000 to €0 | Payback in 12-18 months |
💡 Realistic calculation: With 500 monthly support tickets and a conservative reduction of 50% you save €68,000 per year – after deducting implementation costs.
Why Self-Service Is Now Essential
📈 Customer Expectations Are Changing
💼 Business Risks Without Self-Service
- Support teams at their limit – burnout & turnover
- Long waiting times → declining customer satisfaction
- Competitors already offer self-service → competitive disadvantage
- Scaling problems: More customers = disproportionately more support costs
⚠️ Reality: Companies that don't offer a self-service portal today are actively losing customers to competitors with better service experience.
What a Self-Service Portal Really Must Be Able to Do
1 Searchable Knowledge Base
FAQs, how-to articles, video tutorials – structured, categorised, with full-text search. Customers find answers in seconds.
✓ In Power Pages: Pre-configured knowledge base with AI-powered search
2 Case Management & Ticket Tracking
When self-service isn't enough: Customers can create tickets directly in the portal, track status, view responses – without email ping-pong.
✓ In Power Pages: Seamless integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Service
3 Community & Peer-to-Peer Support
Customers help customers. Forums, discussions, best practices – additionally relieves support and creates customer loyalty.
✓ In Power Pages: Forum templates with moderation and gamification
4 Personalised Content
Customers only see relevant articles based on their product, contract or previous requests – no generic FAQ desert.
✓ In Power Pages: Role-based content, CRM integration for personalisation
5 Mobile First
60% of support requests come from mobile devices. The portal must work just as well on a smartphone as on desktop.
✓ In Power Pages: Responsive templates, optimised for all screen sizes
How Power Pages Goes Live in 4-6 Weeks
🚀 6-Week Roadmap
Week 1-2: Analysis & Template Setup
Workshop to capture most frequent support requests, template selection (Customer Service Portal), set up Power Pages environment, configure Dynamics 365 connection
Week 3: Build Knowledge Base
Migrate existing FAQ content, create 30-50 knowledge base articles, categorisation and tagging, configure search function
Week 4: Case Management & Workflows
Customise ticket forms, set up status tracking, configure email notifications, define escalation workflows
Week 5: Pilot Phase
Test with 50-100 existing customers, collect feedback, optimise content based on real usage data, bug fixing
Week 6: Launch & Change Management
Rollout communication to all customers, train support team, launch monitoring, set up KPI dashboard (ticket reduction, portal usage, customer satisfaction)
💡 The difference: While custom development takes 6-9 months, you're productive with Power Pages templates in 4-6 weeks.
Practical Example: Manufacturing Company
🏭 Initial Situation
- Industry: Manufacturing, B2B, 350 active customers
- Problem: 600 monthly support requests, 70% repetitive questions (operating instructions, spare part numbers, maintenance guides)
- Costs: 3 FTE in support, annual costs ca. €157,000
✅ Solution with Power Pages
- ✓ Self-service portal with knowledge base (operating instructions, video tutorials, spare parts catalogue)
- ✓ Case management for complex technical requests
- ✓ Integration with Dynamics 365 for machine-specific info (customer only sees relevant documents for their machines)
- ✓ Implementation time: 5 weeks
📊 Results After 6 Months
Support tickets
From 600 to 270/month
Annual savings
After deducting implementation
Customer satisfaction
NPS score increased
Calculate Your Savings Potential
In a free 30-minute call we'll analyse your support costs and show you how much you can save with a self-service portal.
Book initial call now