If you are thinking of expanding your consulting business, then you may consider an online consulting platform. Plenty of counseling firms have helped people across the world through online platforms.
Attending online counseling sessions is quite beneficial for those who need expert advice. This blog will help you understand why having an online consulting platform can help your business grow. Also, you will learn about the advantages of consultation solutions and the various features that make them successful.
Why Your Consultation Business Needs A Comprehensive Consulting Platform?
Let us have a look at the Statistics
The revenue generated by the counseling market across the world per year was around 8.6% in 2014 and 2019 reaching worth nearly a trillion dollars.
As per the Statista predictions, it would grow at a CAGR of 10.6% to touch around $1.5 trillion by 2022.
More and more firms are looking for expert advice and consulting firm are looking forward to gain more clients. A plenty of organizations approach experts to help them to understand the changing market needs and demands due to digitalization.
When it comes to large-scale enterprises they need counseling for client care, online projects, etc. With the introduction of technology, there is a change in consultancy services as well. It is not just about normal consultation but now organizations look towards experts with the explicit experience to guide them better :
How You Can Boost Your Business With An Online Consulting Platform?
Manage Time Effectively
The online consulting website helps you utilize time effectively. With flawless time management, you can schedule the conferences smoothly for specific days and duration. The schedule also helps your customers to know when the advisor is free.
Engage In Flawless Communication Online
Excellent communication is vital for every business and consulting business is no exception. Certainly, you would want to understand the concerns of your customers properly for which you need a platform that helps you arrange seamless conversations and communications.
To conduct online discussion, you need the right platform that enables you to do so. There are different ways of online communications and a reliable platform offers all of them for your consulting business. Whether you use all of those communication methods often or rarely doesn’t matter but you know you have all of them integrated into your online platform.
Different types of communication methods you need for online consultations :
- Video calls
- Live chat
- Group calls
- File transfer
- Screencasts
Manage Accounts Easily
With the help of an efficient online consulting marketplace, the consultants can utilize and manage the accounts. It helps them keep track of the expenses without the need to maintain old methods of expense ledgers. A flexible online counseling platform helps you use QuickBooks to manage accounts, gather expense data and also generate reports.
Get A Smooth Payment Process
Well, as a consultant, you need to make sure that the clients pay for the consultation services you offer them. A lot of people across the world do not pay after availing of consulting services. So, it is the main concern for most consultants that stops them from using an online platform.
The best way to sort out this issue is to request an advance payment for consultation. But, again only a few clients show interest in making advance payment. But, an efficient platform can eliminate all these hassles. How? Well, once the clients book a consulting service, the fee is automatically reflected in their accounts. Once the consultation is over it is transferred to the account of consultant which helps them be assured of getting paid for the services and the clients are not asked to pay upfront too.
Corporate Use
Some consultants run their agencies instead of working individually. It means they hire experts to offer consultations. Hence, the consulting software needs to be effective and profitable.
With a steady and reliable online consultation platform designed for corporate use, several consultants can use it. The platform offers a single interface to be accessed by all consultants along with excellent functionality. Such platforms help clients select the consultants of their choice, check schedules, and book appointments. On the other hand, the admin is allowed to add or delete consultants. They can track the payments, client base, etc.
Simple Client Management
As a consultant you would want to gain more clients, isn’t it? Evaluating the client’s information is something you need to look at to offer consultation. The online platform has a built-in CRM – Customer Relationship System that helps save the clients' data like contact details, names, etc securely. CRM makes it easy for you to store and manage client data.
You can use this data stored on your online platform for successful email marketing campaigns. The system also helps consultants to get feedback from the clients for each consultation.
Features To Be Included In Your Online Consulting Platform
When you plan an online consulting platform development process, you need to have the below-mentioned features for 3 different panels :
- Clients Panel
- Consultant Panel
- Admin Panel
Features For Client Section
- Registration
- Search
- User Profile
- Booking
- Video call
- Payment
Features For Consultants Section
- Registration
- General Management
- Consultant’s Profile
- Payment history of Consultant
- Consultant booking management
- Payment management
Features for Admin section
- User management
- Revenue management
- Booking management
- Payment gateways
- Analytics & Reports
- Feedback management
Top Business Niches To Excel In For Online Business
Consultant Services
After knowing about how online consulting platforms can help you as an online consultant, you may want to explore the niches where you can excel :
- Healthcare Online Consulting Platform
- Educational Online Consulting Platform
- Personal Online Consulting Platform
- HR Online Consulting Platform
- IT Online Consulting Platform
- Management Online Consulting Platform
- Nutrition Online Consulting Platform
- Family Online Consulting Platform
- Marketplace Online Consulting Platform
Are You Prepared To Grow Your Business With The Help of an Online Consulting Platform?
Well, this blog explains to you all the aspects that help you know how an online consulting platform can help your consultation business grow. If you are ready to back your counseling business with an online platform, get in touch with The Q Dev, a reliable web development company, that helps you avail of comprehensive website design and development services to build and maintain premium consulting websites or apps.