Collecting Feedback with Your Portal

A portal works when customers know it exists, can post without friction, and see their ideas go somewhere. This guide covers getting ready, sign-in and access, promotion, and expectations, with templates you can copy.

Why a portal

A portal gives customers one place to share ideas, see what others asked for, and follow what happens next. It turns scattered emails and tickets into demand you can measure.

Get it ready before launch

The first visit decides whether a customer comes back. Make sure there's something to see, and that it's clear what to do.

• Seed it. Add the ideas customers already ask for most, with their supporters, so the portal isn't empty on day one.
• Post a few status updates. Ideas marked Planned or Completed show customers that ideas lead somewhere.
• Write a welcome message under Web portal, Site text, and set each forum's prompt, such as “How can we improve reporting?”
• Use categories customers recognize. Turn on Require a category only if you route or report by category.
• Brand it with your colors, logo, and own domain, and set the auto-reply email under General, Auto-reply Emails, to thank customers and set expectations.

Decide how customers get in

Every extra sign-in loses customers. Decide before launch how customers sign in, whether they post from inside your product, and who can see the portal.

Sign-in and the widget

With single sign-on, customers already signed in to your product arrive on the portal signed in, with no new account or password, and their votes and ideas stay together. The widget lets them post an idea or vote without leaving your product. Pass it the same SSO token so it knows who they are.

Public or private

Where to put the link

Put the portal where customers already are when they think of an idea. The best places are inside your product.

Tell your customers

Announce the portal like a feature launch. Say what it's for, how it works, and what happens to ideas.

1. Seed the portal and post a few status updates first.
2. Send the announcement email to all customers, or to your most engaged ones first.
3. Turn on the widget and in-app message the same week.
4. Add the link to your help center, release notes, and support replies.
5. A month later, share what you've learned and what's changed because of it.

Set expectations

Customers who know what happens to their ideas stay patient and keep coming back. Say it once in the welcome message, again in the auto-reply email, and through every status update.

Close the loop

The most important thing a portal does is tell customers what happened to their idea. It's what brings them back to post again.

• Supporters are subscribed automatically. Customers who post or vote get “We'll send you updates on this idea”.
• Post status updates with a message. Leave Notify subscribers on, and subscribed supporters get an email, along with the contributors who captured their feedback.
• Explain a “not now”. A short reason keeps trust, even when the answer is no.
• Link shipped ideas in release notes, and mark them Completed the same day.

Keep it healthy

A portal with fresh replies and few duplicates gets used. A quiet one doesn't.

Measure it

The Activity Report, under Insights, shows portal use over the last 30, 90, or 365 days. To share the numbers, see Reporting on Feedback to Leadership.