Streamline customer interactions with Podium

Podium for startups. That’s what we’re going to talk about.

Problem Backdrop (The What)

Your business is trying to attract leads / prospects / customers but they are coming through multiple channels – maybe Phone calls, Online forms, Chatbots embedded on your website, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, SMS text messages, Apple Business Chat or fill-in-the-blank with your favorite channel.

Your customer reviews are spread across multiple websites and is becoming unmanageable.

You get the idea.

Why is this a problem

There are myriad channels becoming available and businesses are doing the best they can to be available on all possible channels to capture the traffic. Imagine you or your employees trying to monitor and respond on all these channels. It will be a nightmare. The challenge is in streamlining all the interactions using a single platform from where you can not only interact with your clients easily but also having all the data from past interactions available as you connect and collaborate.

Our clients contact us from all over the place; through our website, direct email, phone, whatsapp, facebook messenger etc. It’s painful to maintain presence on all these channels. We want to provide our clients the best possible customer care experience. -Sam“.

Podium is the solution

Here is how Podium which labels itself as an interaction management platform helps at every stage of the customer journey.

It helps you win more leads, earn repeat customers and do more as a team. The best part, every lead from Google, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and more come to the same easy to use inbox, so you can manage it all from one platform, making every interaction as easy as sending a quick message.

From within Podium, you can answer questions, schedule appointments, send pictures and videos, and close the deal – all by messaging back and forth with customers on the channels that they prefer. You can choose to give each interaction a personal touch or use automated messages and ready to send templates for some of the more routine stuff.

With Podium Web chat leads who end up on your website can connect the exact same way. It starts as a simple button on your site then immediately takes the conversation to text, giving both of you the flexibility you need to keep the conversation going – turning more clicks into customers.

Besides managing customer requests, you can use Podium to easily collect feedback and customer reviews. Just like everything else in Podium, it’s as easy as sending a quick message. Your customers simply tap the link in the message and leave a review.

With real-time insights powered by messaging you’ll get far higher response rates, so you’ll be able to double down on what’s working well and quickly fix what is not.

Podium also provides Team Chat to communicating with your employees from the same platform. You can communicate through custom groups and direct messages.

Summary of Podium Use Cases

• Interact with customers across multiple channels through a single platform
  • SMS/Text
  • Web chat widget
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • WhatsApp
  • Google click-to-message

• Automate routine customer interactions
  • Reminders
  • Feedback surveys

• Request and respond to customer reviews across multiple sites through a single platform
  • Google.com
  • Facebook.com
  • TripAdvisor.com
  • HealthGrades.com
  • Vitals.com
  • Cars.com
  • Avvo.com etc.

• Invoicing and Payments
  • Send branded invoices
  • Collect payments
  • Process refund requests

• Gather metrics and business analytics
  • Total leads generated
  • Average response times
  • Total reviews
  • Average rating etc.

• Competitive intelligence in terms of comparing the overall number of reviews and ratings against competitors

Industries served by Podium

• Retail
• Hospitality
• Health Services
• Auto Services
• Home Services
• Professional Services

How much does Podium cost

Podiums’s pricing is not straightforward. It can be anywhere between $300 – $500 per month. You’ll be given a customized price based on specific features you need and the number of business locations you have.

Does Podium require a contract

Yes for the first 12 months. There after it is month-to-month.

What is the Return on Investment (ROI) with Podium

Awaiting a response

How responsive is Podium’s support

Meh!

How to get started with Podium

You can sign-up at a discounted price by clicking on the above button or this link and go through their registration process. If the promotional offer is not applied automatically, you can email [email protected]