Podium Review: 3 Pros and 5 Cons
for Local Businesses and Agencies

 

You're a local business owner or a marketing agency looking for a reliable Podium review. I've been in your shoes before, and it's not easy.

 

As a fellow business owner, I know how important it is to keep track of your online reputation. That's why I've put together a comprehensive Podium review just for you.

 

You might be thinking, "Oh great, another sales pitch." But trust me, that's not what this is. I'm not here to push a product on you.

• Podium Reviews Summary
• What does Podium do?
• Podium App Review - Where does it Shine?
• Podium App Review - Where does it fall short?
• Podium Cost Review
• Unpacking Podium Review Management
  • Podium Review Management - The Bright Side
  • Podium Review Management - The Dark Side
• Podium Texting Review
  • Podium Texting - The Pros
  • Podium Texting - The Cons
• Podium Payments Review
• Is Podium Worth It for Local Businesses or Marketing Agencies?

Podium Reviews Summary

3 Things Podium Gets Right

• Review automation: Customers really like how Podium automates customer reviews. This makes it easy for businesses to get more reviews and respond to reviews. People have mentioned that they've received a lot of positive reviews after using the tool.
 
• Texting capabilities: Podium offers real phone numbers that customers can respond to. This means that businesses can communicate with their customers in real time. Many businesses have said that this is by far their favorite feature.
 
• Easy to use: Another thing that people like is how easy it is to use. It's user-friendly and businesses have not experienced any issues with adjusting to the software.
 
• More about the bright side of Podium below.

5 Things Seriously Wrong With Podium

• Customer support: More like customer desertion! Users complained that support disappeared after a few months and it was nearly impossible to get someone on the phone. Some even claimed they were lied to about features and billing.
 
• Shady billing: Users have trouble canceling their contracts and Podium ignores their requests to do so.
 
• Payments: If you use Podium to take payments from customers, they make you pay a huge processing fee on top of the existing cost of the Plan.
 
• Integration with other platforms is poor: Users found poor integration with their website and missed leads. Review invites didn't reach the targeted inbox.
 
• Expensive: Podium charges absurdly high fees compared to other similar products. The pricing structure is confusing and some users were overcharged or misled about the cost.
 
• More about the dark side of Podium below.

Is Podium Worth the Cost?

• Essentials: $249/month with a 12-month agreement ($289/month otherwise), "apparently" perfect for small businesses. You get online review capture, text-based website chat, and text marketing.
 
• Standard: $409/month with a 12-month agreement ($449/month otherwise), for businesses that are expanding both online and in person. You'll get personalized setup & onboarding, website reporting & customization, and multimedia marketing messages.
 
• Professional: $599/month with a 12-month agreement ($649/month otherwise), for mature businesses. You'll get automations that streamline tasks, personalized automated FAQs, and unlimited contacts and team members. Sounds fancy, but do you really need it?
 
• Look, Podium might be good for some businesses, but let's be real - it's not worth it for small-medium businesses and agencies. More on that below.

What does Podium do?

• Generates reviews: Podium allows you to request reviews via SMS and Email. It's great for automated review campaigns to boost your reviews.
 
• Webchat: Podium's webchat feature lets you connect with your website visitors through SMS, eliminating the need for live chat.
 
• All-in-one inbox: With Podium, you can manage all your text and social media conversations in one centralized inbox.
 
• Payments (beware!): It enables payment links via text/email and in-person payments using card readers. But, this feature has a lot of issues, as we'll discuss in our Podium payments review section.

Podium App Review - Where does it Shine?

• It's review automation feature sends automated review invites to customers after they have made a purchase, here's why businesses love it:
  • Customers like this feature because it's quick and easy to leave a review, and they can do it right from their phones.
  • Businesses benefit from this feature because it helps them get more reviews.
  • More reviews mean better search ranking and more local leads.
 
Here's Podium customer review from Haley:
 

“I love the ability to review, respond, assign and forward review information to my team! They have helped us grow our review account for our entire team and made it easy to update and respond.” ― Haley G. - Digital Marketing Manager

 
• Texting Capabilities:
  • Podium provides businesses with real phone numbers that customers can text to ask questions, make appointments, or provide feedback.
  • This feature is popular because it allows them to easily communicate with customers and respond to their inquiries quickly.
  • Their Webchat is way better than live chat because it moves customer conversations to text.
  • Customers love this because they can communicate with businesses on their own terms, without having to wait on hold or navigate a live chat.
 
• User-friendly:
  • Podium is very user-friendly, with a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate.
  • It is designed for small businesses, it's fast and efficient.

Podium App Review - Where does it fall short?

• Listen, if you're thinking about going with Podium, be warned that their customer support is lacking, here are some REAL customer support issues users have reported:
   
  • Their representatives stopped responding after just a few months into a contract
   
  • And don't even bother trying to get someone on the phone – Podium's customer service is worse than waiting in line at the DMV.
 
Customers absolutely hate their customer service. Here's what Robert (ex-Podium customer) said in his Podium software review:
 

“Podium has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. The company employs a third party to contact dealers and try to sell them services one or twice a week. In fact I didn't even know who my account manager was as they changed monthly. The service is a complete nightmare. I would NEVER recommend podium to anyone.” ― Robert R. - Marketing Manager

 
• Another thing to watch out for is their forced annual contracts. If you try to cancel your account, you might run into some issues:
   
  • One user mentioned that they had trouble canceling their account despite jumping through multiple hoops, including a mandatory screen share.
   
  • They use the one-year contract you sign against you, and your credit card will still be charged even after canceling services.
 
 
• It's really expensive:
  • Podium charges a lot compared to similar products. If you want to do get more reviews using Podium, you need to get their $449/month plan for automated review invites. Competitors like ReviewGain offer this for just $49/month.
   
  • Most small-medium agree that the price is just not worth it and that there are cheaper and better alternatives out there (like ReviewGain *wink*). If you're on the hunt for some fresh Podium alternatives for 2023, my Podium alternatives blog has got your back with 7 of the best.
 
Here's another Podium software review by Jerry talking about their experience with their contracts:
 

“Tried to cancel this and was not allowed. Went through all kinds of hoops including a mandatory "screen share" by our account rep trying to keep us which made it worse. You CANNOT call or write in and cancel ever! They have their methods and basically won't let you out of a contract. We canceled ours finally after the screen share, the hard close from two different people to keep paying and then still got billed since they had our credit card.” ― Jerry M. - Automotive business owner

 
 
• Poor integrations. Podium integrates with your website and social media to deliver all your leads in a single inbox and sometimes it doesn't do what it's supposed to do:
  • One user reported losing three days of business because of poor integration, and nobody from Podium cared.
   
  • This is a major issue, especially for businesses that rely heavily on communication with customers.
 
 
• Payments:
  • So, Podium promises to make payment collection a breeze with its links and card readers, but you'll have to pay extra fees on top of their Plan's cost.
   
  • And if that's not enough to make you roll your eyes, their payments feature is so bad that cardpaymentoptions.com gave it a 2 out of 5.
   
  • If you value your sanity, you might want to steer clear of their payments feature.

Podium Review - Cost of Podium

• Online review capture - basically you can send review requests.
• Podium webchat.
• 100s of app integrations
• Simple payment processing
• 1,000 contacts and review campaigns running over just 50 customers/month

• It's expensive! That's a lot of money for a small business or agency to fork out every month.
 
• Most of these features can be found elsewhere for much cheaper. ReviewGain offers a complete review management suite for just $49/month and companies like Zoho offer Webchat for just $15/month. Why pay Podium $289/month?
 
• You probably don't need the 100s of app integrations they are charging you for.
 
• Running campaigns over just 50 customers per month is not enough at all, you want to target at least 75-100 customers per month to have a healthy flow of reviews coming in. ReviewGain lets you run campaigns over 100 customers in just the $49/month plan.

• Personalized setup & onboarding - They really make you pay $449/month for onboarding, isn't that the bare minimum they should offer in all plans?
• Automated review campaigns - Request for reviews on both SMS/Email with drip campaigns.
• Website reporting & customization.
• Multimedia marketing messages.
• Unlimited contacts and team members.

• Many of these features like MMS and website customizations are nice-to-haves, rather than must-haves. There's no point paying Podium for these features.
 
• You could probably find a cheaper alternative that offers similar functionality. For example, if you choose ReviewGain's $79/month plan, you can send up to 500 SMS per month plus get all the review campaign features.

• All the benefits of the Standard package.
• Round-robin lead routing.
• Personalized automated FAQs.

Podium Review Management - The Complete Lowdown

Podium Reputation Management - The Bright Side

• Efficient Review Management: Podium makes it easy to manage customer reviews from various platforms like Google and Facebook in one place. Users can quickly and efficiently track and respond to reviews.
 
• High Conversion Rate: The tool is successful at getting more reviews. The combination of automated follow-ups + good review requests + SMS works wonders for businesses.
 
• Seamless Google and FB Review integrations: They have solid integrations, you can respond to all Google/FB reviews without leaving their platform.

Podium Reputation Management - The Dark Side

• "Bait and switch" tactics: So apparently, Podium has been caught out misrepresenting their product to customers. They claim to have a "Google Workaround" that doesn't require a login, but surprise surprise, that's not true at all. Kat was harassed for a bill she never received, see her Podium app review:
 

“They lied and misrepresented their business and strategies to me overcharged me. I had to dispute with my credit card company through several months, and now I’m being harassed by them for an outstanding bill of a month and a half of service that I never received." ― Kat K. - Medical Practice Owner

 
• Way too expensive: The price of their review campaigns is through the roof compared to their competitors. And if you’re thinking, "Well, at least the customer service is worth the extra dough!" Think again!
 
• Email campaigns aren't great: Their review campaigns are heavily reliant on SMS. For this to work, it requires your customers to leave their phone number. That might not sound like a big deal, but for some industries, like construction, it’s a real turnoff.

Podium Texting Review

• Webchat personalization: The ability to select the profile picture of an actual team member to appear on the website as the person a customer is communicating with is a popular feature.
 
• Real-time communication: businesses can connect with customers instantly and answer their questions in real time. Customers can easily chat and share their needs, without waiting in long phone queues or sending emails.
 
• Centralized inbox: Podium collects all online communication from various sources, including Facebook, Instagram, Google chat, Apple chat, and web chat, in one place.

• Mobile Version is a Drag: Have you ever tried to navigate a maze blindfolded? That's what it feels like trying to use their Text Messaging on your phone. It's clunky and slow, making the experience a real drag.
 
• Expensive Texting Shenanigans: As we have seen before, Podium charges an arm and a leg for their text messaging campaigns compared to other options out there. Plus, they don't offer a lot of subscribers in those campaigns either.
 
• Can't transfer the conversation: Looks like the baton can't be passed in Webchat! So, if you have a team tackling customer queries, you can't tag in another responder mid-conversation. Slight bummer!
 
• Missing review requests: Sometimes review invites just stop coming through. And there are no reports or explanations from Podium. Here's a Podium software review complaining about missing review invites:
 

“The software does its job when it works but I began to notice that over time SMS review requests were no longer being received. Had numerous clients and friends who should have received the auto generated review request but it never hit their inbox." ― Darren W. - Automotive Business Owner

 

Podium Payments Review

• Podium's card readers are user-friendly and they even send out review invites to your customers who pay with them.
 
• People are more likely to pay through SMS links, so no more annoying email invoices that get ignored.

• Extra processing fees: So you can use their payments feature once you subscribe to Podium's plans starting at $289/month, and there are extra processing fees on top of that.
 
• Bad Ratings: It is rated 2/5 by both cardpaymentoptions.com because of its bad customer service and messy cancellation/refund process.
 
• Way more expensive: They're pricier than other options like Square & National Processing. Those competitors don't charge a monthly fee and their processing fees are even lower than Podium's.
 
• If you want to understand Podium payments in-depth, jump over to my Podium pricing blog.

Is Pay Podium legit?

Is Podium Worth It for
Local Businesses or Marketing Agencies?

• 3 Places where Podium Shines - Review Generation, Texting Capabilities, and User-friendly.
• 5 Things Seriously Wrong with Podium - Customer Support, Shady Billing, Payments, Poor Integrations, and it's really expensive!
• Cost Review - We discussed Essentials, Standard, and Professional Plans and why they won't be good for your business.

“After many months (maybe a year), we tried to cancel the service because we did not feel we were getting the value for the $500-ish monthly charge. We tried to cancel, but in my experience, we were told this was an ANNUAL service, and we had to keep paying for a full year (for a service we wanted to cancel)." ― Tirey Counts - Owner at Apartment World

• Receive 20-30 reviews per month using 100 SMS review requests and 1000 email requests.
• Manage and respond to reviews conveniently using a central dashboard.
• Monitor your profile 24/7 and receive review alerts directly to your phone.
• Understand your customers better through customer sentiment analysis features.
• 24/7 Email and Chat Support (actual and responsive support, unlike Podium!).

• Receive at least 150 glowing reviews per month using 500 SMS review invites and unlimited email requests.
• Gain more local customers by automatically showcasing your reviews on social media and your website.
• Includes all features of the Starter Plan.
• 24/7 Email and Chat Support.

• ReviewGain offers a 100% whitelabel platform that allows agencies to customize their own branding and pricing.
• You can start off with 1 seat for $49/month per client + $0 in whitelabel setup fee.
• Up to 50% discounts are available as more clients are added, enabling agencies to save money while scaling their services.
• 24/7 Email and Tech Support. We act as your tech team!