Overview
What is Podium?
Podium, formerly Repdrive, is a ratings and review management platform from the company of the same name in Provo, Utah.
TrustRadius Insights
Podium: Messaging App for Businesses
Great for review generation. Not so great with customer support.
Terrible experience with Podium
Let my people go! How to keep getting billed after you cancel in 3 easy steps.
Product Malfunctions
Probably best suited for a very large company.
Happy but Wanting
MAKING THE MOST OF PODIUM
Simple View
Did you Podium today?
Step up to Podium for one of the best means of communicating to your clients and staff
We've somewhat fallen out of love with Podium
Podium is the most reliable and affordable employee on my staff!
Podium's Positive Performance and Profit Producing Product in a Practical Platform
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Podium Essentials
$249
Podium Standard
$409
Podium Professional
$599
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $249 per month
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Podium?
Podium Competitors
Podium Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(91)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Users have reported a range of experiences with Podium, both positive and negative. On the positive side, many users find Podium to be a useful tool for managing their online reputation and generating customer reviews. They appreciate its ease of use in sending review invites via text messages, which has yielded better results compared to email surveys. The software has helped businesses boost their online presence by addressing the problem of not receiving enough Google reviews. By using Podium, companies have seen an increase in their average rating on Google and have stood out among their competitors.
Furthermore, users have found value in Podium's ability to automate necessary communications and save hours per week that would otherwise be spent on manual tasks. The software allows for custom automated messages, such as reservation reminders, service ticket notifications, and review requests. This automation not only makes businesses appear more professional but also helps them stay organized and efficient. Podium's payment function is also appreciated by users as it simplifies the process of collecting payments for special orders and memberships.
However, there are also several challenges that users have faced with Podium. Some users have reported difficulties during the installation process and a month-long onboarding period. Additionally, there have been complaints about unhelpful customer support and language barriers when seeking assistance. Users have encountered issues with linking phone numbers to the company phone and experiencing problems with form submission when integrating with WordPress.
Furthermore, some users find certain features of Podium to be limited or unnecessary. For example, the reviews tab is deemed pointless as users can simply send customers a link to their Google My Business review tab. Another limitation is that once customer information is uploaded, it cannot be modified or deleted, leading to mix-ups and errors in automated texts.
Despite these challenges, many customers highly recommend Podium for its reputation management capabilities, review solicitation tools, and live chat feature. It has proven valuable for businesses across various industries, helping them improve their online presence, streamline their communications, and enhance their customer experiences.
Intuitive User Interface: Reviewers have consistently praised Podium's user interface for its simplicity and ease of use. Many users have stated that the software is intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing anyone to quickly grasp and utilize its features effectively.
Flexible Message Customization: A significant number of reviewers have highlighted the value of being able to customize messages on Podium. Users appreciate the flexibility to send mass texts or individual messages, tailoring their communication approach based on their specific needs and preferences.
Top-Notch Customer Support: Numerous users have commended Podium's customer support as being highly responsive and helpful. The availability of support via chat has been particularly appreciated by customers, who find it convenient to reach out for assistance whenever they encounter any issues or require guidance.
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Poor Customer Support: Several users have expressed dissatisfaction with the customer support provided by Podium, describing it as unhelpful and sketchy. They have mentioned that their issues were not resolved in a timely manner and felt frustrated with the lack of assistance.
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High Pricing: Some users found the pricing model of Podium to be poor, stating that the software is considerably more expensive compared to other systems like Reputation.com. They feel that the cost does not justify the features and functionality offered by Podium.
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Difficulties with Setup and Onboarding Process: Users have reported difficulties with the setup and onboarding process of Podium, suggesting that it should not charge until the setup is complete. They have mentioned facing challenges in getting started with the platform and believe that a smoother onboarding experience would greatly improve user satisfaction.
Users highly recommend using Podium as a valuable tool for businesses. Despite its cost, users believe it is worth the investment and suggest exploring all the features and options available on Podium's home page for better understanding. They also recommend ensuring that Podium can integrate with all the software used by the business.
Podium is praised as a great tool for tracking customer conversations, follow-up, and live chats. Users suggest using it to its full potential in order to enhance client interaction. Many reviewers believe that Podium is the best product on the market for customer communication and driving revenue.
Users highly recommend Podium for its user-friendliness, great support, and simplicity. They advise fully implementing Podium in the business and getting the team fully on board with using it for asking reviews. It is also recommended to have friendly competition within the team both for the number and quality of reviews.
Overall, users advise trying Podium and taking advantage of its free trial period to experience its benefits firsthand. They suggest using it to gather feedback, create an online presence, and increase online reputation. Users praise Podium's integrations with other tools and emphasize the importance of being accountable with review invites, sending them right after customer interactions.
Although there are a few users who advocate against using Podium and suggest alternative platforms, many others find it to be a valuable addition to their business toolbox.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 41)Dont Sign an Agreement with Podium!!
- Customers had missed calls because Podium
- In my experience, worst investment in my history of business
- We lost tons of potential reviews because we cancelled our other review software and, in my experience, Podium couldn't send out 1 review invite.
- In my experience, when you cancell they dont allow you download or access previous data from when you worked with them.
Podium: Messaging App for Businesses
- Most payment links sent are paid within 6 minutes YTD
- 85% of payment links sent YTD were paid
- 86% of inbound leads YTD were from the webchat
Great for review generation. Not so great with customer support.
- seeing many new faces because of the increase in Google reviews
Terrible experience with Podium
- I feel they wasted my time
- I feel they wasted my money
- I feel like I wasted $6000
Product Malfunctions
- Affected our in-stream of leads although its not high
- Affected our revenew
Probably best suited for a very large company.
- Increased work load
- large learning curve that was time consuming
- costs too much for all the add-ons that we don't need
Happy but Wanting
- I am glad there are card readers now, sales team members too often try to just send a request instead of taking payment onsite.
- It's made capturing messaging leads much easier.
- It's worth the cost but if it did a few more things it would be worth a lot more to us. Document signatures, surveying after jobs, even geotagging of photos/reviews for SEO
MAKING THE MOST OF PODIUM
- negative - credit cards charges
- positive - P & L, customers able to pay quicker
Simple View
- I would like to see more
Did you Podium today?
- Using Podium, we lead our market with over 100 positive client reviews on google
Step up to Podium for one of the best means of communicating to your clients and staff
- Google Reviews, Google Reviews, Google Reviews. They bring us clients daily.
- In 2019, texting back to clients became too overwhelming for 2 managers to maintain, so I was hired to be the 'digital relationship manager.'
We've somewhat fallen out of love with Podium
- We've gone from 75 reviews with a 4.8 rating on Google to almost 1,700 Google reviews with an overall rating of 5.0
- Podium saves countless labor hours.
- Podium makes us appear more professional to our customers.
- We are estimating a minimum of 50x ROI. Just from reviews.
- 30 hours per week of savings in admin from payment collections and customer interactions. Another 10x on ROI
Communicate how your customers want you to
- We've broadened our customer base to those that prefer to communicate by text than by phone and bookings can happen at that speed rather than over the phone or in person.
- We more than tripled our online Google reviews since joining Podium.
Don't take no for an answer
Waste of Time and Money
- Very negative
- I was told I could try it for a month, but it was 3 months they charged me for.
- No return, only $600.00 out the door.
- We look like fools to our customers who have paid us through Podium but haven't received the funds.
- Trying to setup the platform has taken way too much time with no benefits at all.
- Was not as described by the sales person at all. It's just for getting reviews.
- we needed a communication platform that brought email, text, chat into one box. This does not work as promised so far.
- Support is really bad. They send texts/emails and then never answer you when you respond asking for help. I understand the labor shortage, but if you can't set up in a timely manner, don't start charging from day one.
Way to much for services and no ROI
- Negative ROI. Spent $500 more than expected with no return whatsoever.
Podium Rocks Communication
- Only when the link is broken that is really annoying, inhibits our reviews
Deceptive sales from [...] account Executive
- This is just an expense line
Podium is an important tool for every business
- Fortunately, our business has a lot of raving fans. Podium has made it easier for them to have a voice.
Before buying, look at the negative reviews!
- Our ROI for obtaining Google reviews was exponentially worse than our previous process.
- The cost per month could have been much better used by paying our employees a bonus for each client they worked with that did an online review.
- I feel Podium was a complete waste of money.