{"id":1337,"slug":"rule-run-90-day-portal-adoption-test","title":"R2 — Run a 90-day adoption test with a cheap bought portal before committing; if <40-50% of clients log in, the portal is solving a problem the client base doesn't have","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["agency-methodology","client-portals","self-service-adoption"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** Before committing to any portal (custom or paid annual), **deploy a cheap bought portal to a subset of clients for 90 days**. Introduce at onboarding. Measure login + usage. Benchmark: **if fewer than ~40-50% log in within 90 days, the portal is not solving a real problem for this client base — stop**.\n\n**Why:** Practitioner data: **40-60% of clients haven't logged in in the last 90 days** ([[40-60pct-clients-not-logged-in-90-days]]). Gartner: only **14% fully resolve issues in self-service** ([[gartner-2024-14pct-self-service-resolution]]). The patient-portal academic literature tops out at **26-51%** ([[patient-portal-usage-32pct-academic]]) despite far stronger adoption incentives than most SMBs have. A 90-day live trial reveals the truth at low cost.\n\n**How to apply:**\n- Pick the cheapest credible bought portal ([[suitedash-pricing-19mo-unlimited-users]]).\n- Introduce at onboarding for *new* clients, not by retrofitting existing ones (changes the test).\n- Track login frequency by client; measure proportion who logged in at least once in 90 days.\n- Mirror the calculator brief's \"operational test before you commit infrastructure\" discipline ([[rule-pair-calculator-with-five-minute-followup]]).","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"rule-pair-calculator-with-five-minute-followup","title":"R6 — A lead-capturing calculator is wasted infrastructure without a 5-minute follow-up SLA; build the SLA first","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"gartner-2024-14pct-self-service-resolution","title":"Gartner (Aug 19, 2024; survey of 5,728 customers Dec 2023) — only 14% of customer service / support issues are fully resolved in self-service; even for \"very simple\" issues only 36% resolve fully","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"40-60pct-clients-not-logged-in-90-days","title":"Practitioner data: \"Most firms find 40-60% of clients haven't logged in in the last 90 days\" — the ghost-login problem stated by an adoption-tool vendor","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"patient-portal-usage-32pct-academic","title":"Patient portal usage (academic, adjacent benchmark): cross-sectional study 32.1% used (range 26-51%); ER real-time 17.4% of 1.28M; US national 2022: 77% offered, 68% accessed","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-client-portals-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: client portals for SMBs — the honest case (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"article-client-portals-for-smbs-when-worth-it","title":"Article (draft): Most small businesses don't need a custom client portal — some don't need one at all","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-design-for-goal-gradient","title":"R2 — Design every multi-step tool for the goal gradient: visible progress + low interaction cost + start-state non-empty when possible","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-20T17:57:32.213Z","updated_at":"2026-06-20T17:57:32.213Z"}