Podium is an all-in-one marketing and communication tool specifically built for local businesses that want to grow their business, connect with modern customers, and simplify operations. Podium's all-in-one inbox consolidates reputation management, website chat, marketing campaigns, and mobile payments into a single inbox that helps streamline outreach and campaigns efficiently.
Capabilities |
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Segment |
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Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support |
Training | Documentation |
Languages | English |
I like how this software is so simple and easy to use.
I dislike that it doesn't filter certain messages to the right groups.
We are solving answering our own leads. We have noticed how simple it is to text from the computer
Poduim has helped our business have a greater internet presence. The application is easy to operate for our associates and very easy for our clients as well. It also allows a forum for our customers and potential customers to reach out via text.
Like most all aspects of Podium. Ease of use . Time it takes to send and respond through Podium.
Internet review presence and forum for customers to reach out to communicate.
communication with clients became much easier
I like all the features it has, but for the issue I encounters sometimes, as I mentioned below
sometimes the I cannot see the conversations on my phone APP,
Podium is easy to use and very effective. It is a great way to communicate with employees and clients. With one click you can send out automatic reviews. It's a GREAT way to get feedback. I would recommend this to any business that is looking for get feedback or an easy way to communicate between clients/candidates/employees.
The only thing I wish it could do is send out a mass text easily, but other than that their is nothing wrong with it!
Customer and client reviews, communication, and time management.
Podium has been a pretty big game-changer for us, not only as a better chat platform but also as a way to monitor customer communications. First off, the fact that it's text-based is huge - it ensures the person on the other end is more committed to the conversation. Second, the capability for us to transfer the conversation ownership to different employees within the company without breaking the customer experience has been an incredible value. This is the first tool that we've been able to easily deploy to our service departments and customers LOVE it! Over the years, we've bounced through a half dozen chat providers and this has been the best experience, period.
The only thing I could really ask for Podium to improve is how it breaks out our Sales and Service information in the back-end. It basically treats it as two separate "companies" rather than identifying them as departments of the same company. It doesn't make a huge issue, but it is annoying when dealing with reviews.
Options to communicate with customers have grown immensely and they are super engaged. We originally signed up just to use it as a website chat tool but this has been one of the biggest improvements to our service department in years.
It is very simple to use, it helps my staff effectively use their time, and easily stay in touch with the customer. From a management perspective, it allows me to keep up with communications between staff and customers, and even more freedom to enjoy a day off work, but still keep up with what is going on while I'm away. I have found that response rates are up, because text is often preferred over other forms of communication. The monthly stats and google review tracking are presented in clear, easy to understand numbers, so that staff performance is easy to identify.
Constant app updates make it more cumbersome to keep up with, and often present glitches. The mobile in general is not as user friendly as the desktop version, but manageable.
Google reviews are at an all time high. Staff performance is clearly identified.
The part I enjoy most about Podium is its very easy to use/ user friendly app that notifies you instantly on your mobile device and saves the conversation so you can easily continue the discussion no matter how much time has passed.
Sometimes the notifications don't always come through on the mobile device making it hard to know if someone is waiting for a response.
I like that it keeps track of the conversation in writing helping to eliminate any communication errors.
Being able to connect with clients or customers so easily and quick really steps up personal connections. Being able to send review invitations directly to customers really helps support the business. Podium has allowed us to gain plenty more exposure via reviews and customers are constantly telling us they came to our business because of our reviews. Not only has it made it easy for us to connect with customers but it has made it easy for the customers to connect with us. Not everybody has time to always come in to sit down and talk about designs, gifts, ect so being able to do that through podium has only broadened our options.
Nothing to really complain about, I think Podium really nailed it on the head with this system. The idea of being able to connect with customers to easily has changed the game of connectivity. Very well designed system and I'm sure it will only get better over time.
Customers have busy lives and cant always chat over the phone so being able to text and connect that way eliminates a lot of wasted downtime. One of the biggest benefits is being able to send reviews links. Making it 10 times easier for a customer to write a review has allowed our business and clientele to only expand.
It is most helpful to communicate with our clients who have questions outside of business hours. It is helpful to have an automatic reply so they are assured we will be in touch shortly.
I currently cannot think of any dislikes of podium.
We are able to be more accessible to our clients, especially outside of business hours. We are more easily able to suggest they leave feedback. It benefits us to know how we are doing individually and as a whole.
I like the fact that you can do reviews, live chat to communicate with customers, and have internal communications with employees all on the same site. It makes it really easy and convenient for busy businesses to keep track of things going on within the company on a daily basis.
So far I don not have anything negative to say about Podium. I think it's an awesome tool to have!
So far we have not had any major issues with Podium.
I love the option to send a automatic review invite at the end of a transaction.
I think the layout of the podium home page could be more clear and notification of a new message could be louder or perhaps continue dinging every so often until addressed to improve response time.
The option to text customer has really helped
connected to cell phone as well as work computer
There is nothing that I dislike. Very user freindly
podium makes it easier to stay in contact even after business hours
I enjoy using podium for the mere fact that its instant. You don't have to download photos of vehicles to computer then send via email. Its an instant communication between you and the customer.
That it doesn't talk to our CRM.We have to copy and paste the notes from one to the other.
Able to save more appointments.We had a lot of customers show up after we had recently called them and they had texted our company number to reply for example...im on my way.When prior to using podium we wouldn't receive those messages because its a land line.
easy access ,make doing service a breezy able to multi task and get more done
wish it would access in work customers better ,i like that i can do a bunch of other stuff and help customers at the same time
able to get authorization quicker when customers are in meeting or cant talk on the phone able to get more customers in the door
I enjoy not having to give my personal number out to every client I encounter.
I’ve not found anything I don’t like yet.
I’m not using my personal number and I like that all of my managers can see all the conversations I have with clients. I enjoy that if I have a day off of work, someone else can handle all my clients if they should need something.
What I like best is it's ease of use and excellent support staff.
I wish it could integrate with Yelp, but I understand the legality.
More reviews - fast response time to patient questions.
The fact that SMS/texts are the focus and that it is one click to leave a review on Google set Podium apart from the rest.
Pricing can be tough for some clients to accept.
Ranking on search has improved as the positive reviews have piled up. Local reputation is very important for all of our clients and Podium helps them all.
the ability to connect almost instananeously and the way it gives you the ability to forge a relationship quickly and with out too much effort.
glitches in the software that make me have to uninstall and reinstall the app periodically.
Reaching customers with out them having to physically enter the showroom opens up a whole new realm of potential clients and prospects.
We signed up with Podium in 2016 and I was immediately impressed with the level of customer service. They are always asking for feedback and constantly improving the platform to meet our needs. As changes occur with the review sites we use most often to get feedback from our customers, they are always ahead of the curve and don’t wait until there’s a problem to update their platform. On the rare occasion that there is an issue, they provide frequent updates while working on a resolution and have always communicated in an honest and caring manner. They have not only earned my trust and respect, but also my highest recommendation.
They integrate with GMB, but don’t allow multiple pages to be connected. This wouldn’t be an issue unless you have a business with GMB Department pages, like we do. They represent the same business and location, but allow us to use the different GMB features reserved for sales, service or parts. It’s probably more something I dislike about GMB, but I had to put something in here.
Customer feedback and getting our whole team involved in solving customer issues. Increasing our reviews hasn’t only helped us from an online reputation standpoint, it has also helped us identify internal issues we can easily resolve and helped us identify employees and departments who are consistently doing a great job and providing excellent care for our customers. The reporting is really great and gives us all kinds of insights.
The easy to use app is helpful to keep track of marketing contacts although I wish I could access my contacts from my phone directly. It is a great way to send review requests.
I dislike that I cannot access my contacts on my phone from the app. I also find it difficult to save updates to a template. It would also be great to have a window pop up after entering a sale in our pos system asking if you want to add customer to contacts and send a review.
It has given the customers a chance to let us know what we could do better and what we did well already.