Podium Review & Product Overview

Convenience Wins

For a small business that wants to grow, it can be hard to navigate customer interactions. Especially for businesses that want to generate better reviews and communicate with leads more effectively. This is exactly what Eric Rea noticed when his dad complained about positive in-person reviews being trumped by negative online reviews for his tire shop.

Like all innovative ideas, Podium emerged as an answer to a simple problem. Rea wanted to create a way for businesses to better manage customer feedback, messages and online reviews. Teaming up with Dennis Stelle, the two founded Podium in 2015 in Lehi, Utah.

Podium Features Explained

Podium offers a streamlined customer-business interaction centered around convenience. Podium is an innovation for modernizing customer interactions and improving online feedback for businesses. Podium offers a streamlined customer-business interaction centered around convenience. They offer a suite of products for any business wanting to improve customer interactions and online reputation.

Podium’s features are loved by thousands of businesses because customer communication powers sales. If you can improve the way you communicate with your customers online, you can strengthen relationships, generate more leads and drive sales. Here are a few of the key features Podium offers:

• Podium Simplifies Customer Reviews

“Customers wanted to leave a review, they just wanted a simpler way to do so.” Podium.

Podium’s primary feature is review generation and management. This management system  improves your SEO performance online and offers tools to generate new customers. 

According to Podium, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 57% won’t use a business with less than a 4-star rating. Instead of having negative Google reviews flood your online reputation, Podium created a simple way for happy customers to leave positive reviews.

Once a customer is finished with their service, Podium sends the customer two questions over text message:

• On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend us?
• What made you choose your score?

This system brings a higher response rate and doesn’t tie your customer down with having to click on a link or navigate to another site. All of this information is then sent over to the dashboard. This system has generated more positive reviews for businesses and helped them rank higher on Google. A high rank on Google is impressive to potential customers and ultimately drives sales.

• Podium Offers an Integrated Dashboard

The integrated messaging dashboard is one of Podium’s best features. Facebook, Google, Instagram and other messaging from social media channels gather in one convenient dashboard so conversations continue flowing and you don’t miss a beat. 

A single dashboard also streamlines sales, marketing and customer support teams. Businesses can also collect payments, schedule appointments and use pictures to chat. Businesses can also send links and help customers find what they’re looking for via text.

• Podium Streamlines Inbound Lead Generation

Another innovative service that Podium offers is the way leads are generated. Potential customers can chat and send in their questions in a simple text box on a business’s website. Leads are then transitioned over to a text conversation so the customer and business can communicate on their mobile phones.

Instead of waiting on hold for far too long, customers can have their questions answered right away via text. Employees and customers are saving time so they can communicate even after they’ve left their computer via text messaging. 

This seamless transition helps potential leads become real customers and creates convenient ways to communicate with people who are interested. 

Podium also offers a host of other convenient features: 

• Billing & Invoicing
• Electronic Signature
• Campaign Management
• Canned Responses
• Complaint Monitoring
• Debit/Credit Card Processing
• Customer Support
• Email Distribution
• Engagement Tracking
• Mobile Payments
• Multi-Channel Communication
• Multi-Channel Data Collection

Problems with Podium According to Customers

Podium has helped over 100,000 businesses with modernized communication and improved customer interactions. This number isn’t only made up of small businesses, but well-known brands like Lazyboy, Merry Maids, Tire Pros, and Ken Garff to name a few of the most impressive.

With every business, there are flaws that are presented. With a tiny bit of searching, you can find hundreds of positive reviews about Podium. Here are a few of the negative comments customers have left about using Podium. 

Podium Pricing

All of Podium’s plans are customized to fit each business individually. The pricing is done through a yearly contract. This is the minimum amount of time a business needs to pay for Podium’s software. Once the year is completed, you can move to a month-to-month contract. If you renew for another year after the initial year, you’ll receive a 10% discount on your overall Podium costs. 

A free version with up to 30 unique communications per month is available if you want to try out the service without committing to a custom plan. This free version offers a textable phone number from which you can manage text-based communication as well as the website widget for seamless communication. 

Software Bugs

With any software company that only offers digital products, there will always be bugs. Concerning Podium’s software, there were negative reviews. Businesses report missing their customer’s messages and occasionally not having reliable communication. 

Because of this, customers weren’t given the quick response and communication they needed. Customers also noted that links sent to customers and website widgets didn’t always work. 

Popular Podium Integrations

Another reported issue with Podium is the actual integration and transition into using the software. A few companies say that trying to communicate with Podium was difficult. They felt like they were left alone to understand and train their team on using the software. 

One real estate CEO reported that, “I felt like it was up to me, to have to do the training, to have to do the implementation. I’d get an email here or there from Podium, but really it was more like 

I had to reach out to Podium more than they, reaching out to me to always see how things were going.” Customers felt like they needed more onboarding and support after purchase. 

Training and improved tutorials are also not available for Podium customers. Businesses complain that Podium doesn’t offer any training or tutorials to better understand how to use its software. This area might be where other software companies shine.

What is Podium’s pricing model?

While Podium does not list its prices online, here are the general price points. Podium starts with a basic package at $399/month. The more expensive packages are $499 and $700 monthly, or $4,308, $5,988 and $8,400 annually. There is a $449 set-up fee that can be waived. Some companies don’t need to pay for all of Podium’s products, and what they pay for can be customized.

Many small businesses just need assistance communicating with potential leads. The free version might be a solution for this type of business. If a business doesn’t have a large employee base and just wants to manage leads more conveniently, the free version might suffice. This will give them the ability to continue a conversation with a customer on their mobile phone.

To truly get everything out of Podium’s software that you can, larger businesses are going to benefit more from Podium.

Alternatives to Podium

Every business in the reputation management industry is centered around convenience. This industry is focused on creating simple communication methods for businesses to interact with their customers and improve their rankings online. 

Salesforce, Zendesk, and Intercom are some of the other leading companies in the business reputation management industry and offer similar products to Podium at a similar price point. Cheaper alternatives that also offer similar products to Podium are Birdeye, Swell, and Weave.

Podium FAQs