Podium is one of quite a few online reputation management companies on the market today. But as a messaging platform offering an easy way to collect Google reviews, is Podium all that it’s cracked up to be? While managing your business’s online reputation can be difficult, especially when you are dealing with an influx of negative reviews, online reputation management companies can help, but some are better than others. By looking at the good and the bad, let’s find out if Podium is the right platform for you.
Podium Compared to the Best Online Reputation Management Companies
Podium is one of our favorite ways to manage and gain Google reviews for your business. But they’re hardly the only choice for reputation management. Check out these four other solid choices, pulled from our full post on top online reputation management companies.
Nextiva is a straightforward tool designed to help you monitor brand mentions, schedule social posts, and reply to all your messages from a single dashboard. Take control of your online reputation and contact Nextiva today.
Reputation Defense Network is a great option for removing negative search, social, and reviews to improve your business’s reputation. Schedule a free consultation to learn more.
Birdeye is similar to Nextiva, but with a lot more functionality (making it more challenging to learn) and a stronger focus on forming authentic connections with your audience to holistically improve your reputation over time. Snag your free demo today.
Podium: The Good and the Bad
Just like for all online reputation management companies, there will be good and bad features to consider. Podium offers some excellent features for reputation management and customer interaction, but it also has a few drawbacks that could make or break the product. Let’s take a deep dive into both sides of the spectrum, and you can decide what works best for you.
The Good
Excellent For Getting Google Reviews: Getting customers to leave a Google review can be a difficult task, but Podium can help alleviate this difficulty with its built-in messaging functionality that utilizes MMS and SMS prompts. Instead of email chains and chatbot requests, after your initial customer interaction, the Podium software will send out a review request via text message. The text message will offer a one-click link, so your customers can click the link, choose which platform to review on, and leave their review. Podium is still one of the easiest ways to drive Google-specific reviews, and you can also include Facebook and other industry review sites as options for your customers.
Easy Team Collaboration: Whether you have two team members or 20, Podium makes it easy to collaborate with your team while giving context to every customer conversation. With Podium, there are no unopened emails or complex phone transfers, especially not when you have access to one simple and manageable inbox. You can also collaborate with your team members by sharing customer conversations and connecting with them from anywhere.
With Podium’s unified, AI-assisted inbox, you can send direct and group messages with pictures, videos, GIFs, and attachments for maximum effect. You can also adjust your notification preferences and filter out the updates you don’t need, making it easier to stay up-to-date and prioritize certain customer interactions. Podium’s team inbox offers customizable templates, autoresponder, automations, permissions, and the ability to assign conversations for relevance.
Smart Customer Feedback: Customer feedback is critical for the improvement of your business, and just like for reviews, Podium makes it easy for you to get quick responses from your customers—all you have to do is ask a question. Unlike other online reputation companies, there are no long forms or clunky surveys. Podium relies on SMS messaging for customer feedback, so you can expect more responses within minutes and not months.
Once a customer has sent through their feedback, you can immediately view their score and jump into a conversation in real time, making it easier for you to resolve any issues if they arise. Podium offers you feedback templates, or you can write more relevant custom questions. Other features include real-time notifications, scheduled feedback requests, automated responses, analytics, NPS, and reporting.
Omnichannel Customer Interactions: Podium now leans heavily on AI-powered webchat and texting to capture and convert leads, then continues conversations in one inbox across SMS, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and your website—so customers can message you from anywhere and your team still sees it in one place. You can route conversations to locations, set automations, and use AI to respond instantly to common questions, which helps shorten the sales cycle without in-person interaction.
Podium’s webchat feature also lets you capture leads straight from your website. Answer questions, schedule appointments, and close deals while matching your brand with customization options for buttons, avatars, greetings, and after-hours reminders. It supports multi-location routing, autoresponders, smart responses, and performance reporting.
The Bad
Inconsistent Customer Support Experiences: Podium’s support continues to be a sticking point in public reviews. Many customers report long wait times to reach a human, follow-up issues, and having to repeat their story to multiple representatives. This is especially frustrating when a business is trying to launch texting, port numbers, or connect multiple locations.
Onboarding Can Still Be Slow: Several recent reviews say onboarding help is limited or delayed, even after signing a contract. That means some teams don’t get hands-on help with setup or integrations right away and end up trying to deploy Podium on their own. For a tool this central to customer communication, slow onboarding can derail the first month.
Cancellation Friction and Contracts: Podium typically requires notice to cancel and often uses annual contracts, and many users still complain that canceling can take multiple attempts or that billing continues longer than expected. If you prefer month-to-month software with self-serve cancellation, this can be a deal breaker.
Podium Pricing and Options
Podium still doesn’t publish a simple pricing table on its homepage, and you’re encouraged to talk to sales for an exact quote. But most current review sites and customer reports show Podium clustering around three tiers:
According to those sources, current ballpark pricing looks like this:
- Podium Essentials — about $249 per month for up to 3 users
- Podium Standard — about $409 per month with more users and automation
- Podium Professional — about $599 per month for multi-location teams and more advanced features
Final pricing still depends on the number of locations, users, and add-ons like phones, payments, or higher-volume texting, so you should expect to work with a sales rep to get an exact number. There’s typically no public free trial, but you can request a demo.
Podium Campaigns
Podium has a few other product offerings that help you create meaningful customer interactions and build a positive brand presence online. One of these offerings is Podium Campaigns, which lets you use text marketing on the same channel you already use to talk to customers. You can collect opt-ins through Podium tools, segment lists, send one-off or automated campaigns, and see performance in the dashboard.
You can send marketing messages to the same customers you are already building a relationship with by using the same SMS thread—no separate tool, no new login for customers. Podium gives you digestible reports, templates, and list management so you can tighten your SMS marketing without a full-time marketer. Podium Campaigns is a separate product, and you can watch a free demo to get started.
Podium Payments
Improve your customer satisfaction, reduce fees, and save time with Podium’s payments feature. Whether you need to send invoices or collect payments, Podium has got you covered.
The Podium payments feature lets you sell while you text by sending a simple link to close deals before a customer loses interest. And if you run a physical store, you can re-engage customers who have already walked out.
This feature lets you save valuable resources and cut back on postage, paper, and phone tags. You don’t need to do a great deal to send and receive payments when Podium does all the work for you. Not only can you save money, but you can get paid faster by requesting payment in an existing Podium text conversation.
Alongside many areas of the Podium software, you can create customizable invoices as well by branding them with your company name and logo. You can also establish different payment methods for certain types of customers and purchases, such as only allowing e-checks or removing credit card purchases.
You can export the payments feature to your favorite accounting software, as Podium offers integration-friendly data formats. These formats can help you see who has completed payment and who needs a follow-up message.
Podium payments also let you quickly process refunds straight from the dashboard, connect multiple bank accounts, easily itemize your invoices, and give flexibility to your customers with several ways to pay, such as credit, debit, Google Pay, or Apple Pay. The feature also offers advanced fraud protection and secure payments with PCI-compliant software.
Podium Payments is a separate product, and you can watch a free demo to get started.
How Podium Ranks
Podium is higher in the ranks when compared to other online reputation management companies on the market today. With its AI-powered inbox, omnichannel capabilities, and focus on SMS messaging, it’s no surprise that Podium is easy to work with when it comes to grabbing Google reviews.
Overall, Podium is a decent online reputation management company, especially for receiving Google reviews. Its messaging software makes it easy for you to create meaningful customer conversations and build brand loyalty.
With additional product offerings like campaign and payment features, there is a chance for Podium to help you improve your customer interactions and marketing efforts.
However, you should definitely consider where Podium falls short. Solid customer support and clean cancellation terms are critical areas for many users, and not having proper access to them can make or break a product, especially when other reputation management companies may offer better support.
