Table Of Content
- Why Should You Look For A Podium Alternative
- Top Reasons For Switching To Podium Alternative
- Top Podium Alternatives
- Feature Comparison
- Pricing Comparison
- Reviews Comparison
- Support Comparison
- Overall Comparison
- Emitrr Vs Podium
- Why Is Emitrr The Best Podium Alternative
- What Will The Migration From Podium To Emitrr Look Like
Introduction
Podium is a messaging platform that offers companies a platform to engage with customers and streamline their messaging workflows.
However, as businesses evolve and their needs change, exploring alternatives to Podium becomes imperative to ensure continued growth and efficiency. In this we explore the landscape of Podium alternatives, delving into the reasons for considering a switch and presenting a range of alternative solutions tailored to meet diverse business requirements.
Why Should You Look For A Podium Alternative?
If you’re reading this, chances are Podium isn’t quite meeting your business needs. We understand that, and in our extensive experience, we’ve identified a myriad of reasons why many customers are actively seeking a Podium competitor. Whether it’s issues with cost-effectiveness, scalability, or specific features, finding the right solution for your unique requirements is paramount. This is where considering a Podium alternative becomes not just an option, but a strategic necessity. In this dynamic market, making an informed choice can be a game-changer, and we’re here to help you explore the options that can better suit your goals and aspirations.
Let us look at the common concerns of Podium’s existing customers –
Top Reasons For Switching To Podium Alternative
Podium Support
- – Negative reviews about Podium highlight concerns regarding below-average support.
- – Upon payment, customers experienced a lack of support and training.
- – Customers report Frustration over repeated attempts to seek assistance without success.
- – Lack of follow-up and support post-purchase impacts user experience negatively.
- – Support team lack knowledge of the platform.
- – Cancelling subscription is not easy and customers report having to jump multiple hoops before product cancellation.
“The customer support could be better and more knowledgeable. The company is growing fast and they have a lot of new people who do not know the product.”
“Trying to cancel with Podium is the worst experience we’ve ever had with a company. My partner had to pretend to be a new client prospect to get Podium to help us because they will dodge and outright ignore correspondences about cancelling service. They’ve admitted their issues and told us they are letting us out of the 1-yr contract, yet they are still charging our credit card each month. We have finally had to take the issue up with our credit card company”
Source: Capterra
Podium Pricing
– Expensive pricing with the first plan starting at $399 per month.
– Hidden costs, customers end up paying more.
– Competitors offer the exact same product for 1/10th the price
– ‘Essentials’ package offers limited dashboard access for 3 team members and restricts contact management to 1000 contacts.
“The least desirable component of this platform is cost, especially if you happen to be looking at it as a platform to deploy for use with multiple locations. We were a 2 store implementation, so higher cost, but not large enough for volume pricing leverage. the interface for synchronizing contact database information was not overly straightforward”
“Very expensive. We loved the product but not the price.”
Podium Features
Podium offers a decent set of features but for the price, they should be offering a lot more! Essential texting features such as broadcast texting is limited and group texting feature does not even exist.
“Cannot be sent to multiple people. For example, there are times when I need to send a message to a husband and wife, I can’t do that via podium, so I am forced to go to my cell phone, which is not ideal for my job title.”
So then what are some of the alternatives that you should consider?
Top Podium Alternatives
1. Emitrr
2. Weave
3. Birdeye
4. Chekkit
5. Review Wave
6. Patient Pop
Let’s look at how these alternatives compare with Podium vis-a-vis: Features, Pricing, Reviews, and Support.
Podium Alternative Comparison Parameters
Feature Comparison
If you are looking for an alternative to Podium, you would preferably want to choose an alternative that has similar or better features than Podium. Similarity in terms of features will help you transition to a new software smoothly without compromising on business operations. Business communication and growth can be covered in three major feature bundles which are: Business texting, VoiP, and Reputation management. All the alternatives that we mention will be judged on the basis of the availability of these important features. Let’s have a look at the features some of the popular Podium competitors offer.
Key Highlights:
- Podium has the three main feature bundles vis a vis: business communication, VoIP, and Reputation Management. However, Podium lacks some extra texting features such as missed call-to-text and schedule-based texting.
- Birdeye and Weave lacks important features such as group texting, missed call to text, customer recall and cancellation follow-ups.
- Chekkit lacks important texting features such as broadcast texting and schedule based texting.
- Review wave only has 7 out of the 23 mentioned features.
- Among all the Podium alternatives only Emitrr and Birdeye offer 24/7 support.
Here is a comparison of Podium competitors based on the features:
Pricing Comparison
Pricing is undoubtedly a strong determining factor to narrow down on a service. Pricing goes hand in hand with features. Even if sometimes the price is high, but the service offers quality features one may decide to go with it. Here we’ve compiled for you the monthly subscription prices for the top Podium alternatives.
Key Highlights:
- Chekkit is the cheapest podium competitor however it only offers very limited features.
- Weave and Podium lie on the pricier end of the spectrum and also lack some essential features for the price.
- Review Wave is the most expensive option but lacks a lot of essential features.
- Birdeye’s standard package is more expensive than Emitrr’s.
- Patient pop’s standard package is costlier than Emitrr’s pro package. Patient Pop is missing the VoIP feature for this pricing.
- Emitrr offers all features within a very affordable price range.
Here is a comparison table for Podium and its alternatives based on it’s value for money:
Reviews Comparison
The best way to determine if a particular software is the one for you is to go through its reviews. What your peers have to say about a certain product can give you a peek into what it will look like for you as well. Here we have compiled for you some of the reviews for Podium and its alternatives.
Podium Reviews:
Comment: Podium can be a good software if it works properly. If you however have a bad experience, getting away from their contract is going to be troublesome.
Emitrr Reviews:
Comment: Emitrr offers great value for money for the wide array of features it offers. Any queries/requests by the customers are quickly addressed by the team and resolved, thus ensuring an impeccable customer experience.
Weave Reviews:
Comment: While the product itself has good reviews, Weave’s customer service and Support take a serious hit! Weave also misses out on some important texting features such as group texting and missed-call to text and is definitely priced at a premium.
Key Highlights:
Poor customer service – hard to get hold of
Good array of features
Overpriced
Birdeye Reviews:
Comment: Birdeye’s review management feature is usually the star of the show, but if somehow it fails to perform getting out of the contract is a nightmare. Birdeye also lacks important texting features such as group texting and missed call to texts along with 24/7 support.
Key Highlights:
Difficult to get out of contract
Poor customer service
Chekkit Reviews:
Comment: Chekkit is a popular Podium alternative because it offers similar features at a better price. Customers are also usually satisfied with their customer service. However, they do lack some advanced texting features such as bulk messaging which is essential for every business.
Key Highlights:
- Easy to use
- Inexpensive
Patient Pop Reviews:
Comment: Many Patient Pop reviewers have pointed out that they make huge promises while onboarding clients but fail to keep them over the course of the partnership. Patient Pop’s customer service is also termed insufficient.
Key Highlights:
- Poor customer support
- Poor integrations
- Poor capabilities
Review Wave Reviews:
Comment: Review wave is a popular choice for businesses using text messaging. Customers have reported that Review Wave’s customer service is quite good and they seem to love the features as well. Review Wave however has limited integrations which a lot of their customers have complained about. Review wave is also an expensive option compared to the other alternatives, also considering that the features offered are also same as the other alternatives.
Key Highlights:
- Good customer support
- Poor integrations
- Platform not intuitive
Here is a comparison table for Podium and its alternatives based on overall reviews:
Support Comparison
Podium Support
Podium provides support in the form of Chat, text, and call ( 6AM to 6PM) and a knowledge base.
Podium has a rating of 4.2 for Customer service on Capterra
Emitrr Support
Emitrr provides 24/7 support in the form of calls, messages, chats, emails (Tickets), and a knowledge base.
Emitrr has a rating of 4.9 for Customer Service on Capeterra
Weave Support
Weave offers support in the form of calls (available from 6 am to 6 pm), chat, and a knowledge base.
Weave has a rating of 3.6 on Capterra for Customer Service
Birdeye Support
Birdeye offers support in the form of ticket creation, knowledge base, and case creation.
Birdeye has a rating of 4.7 on Capterra for Customer Service
Chekkit Support
Chekkit offers support in the form of Webchat, Phone and Email.
Chekkit has a rating of 4.9 on Capterra for Customer Service
Patient Pop Support
Patient Pop offers support in the form of a Knowledge Base, Phone and through the practice portal.
Patient Pop has a rating of 3.5 on Capterra for customer service.
Review Wave Support
Review Wave offers support in the form of Phone and Email.
Review wave has a rating of 4.8 on Capterra for customer service
A summary of Support features for Podium Alternatives can be found in this table:
Here is a comparison for Podium and its alternatives based on the Support:
Overall Comparison
As you can see Emitrr ranks the highest in 4/5 of all the criteria making it the best Podium alternative to look out for. Emitrr offers way more features than the rest of the alternatives at a reasonable price making it the best podium alternative.
Emitrr Vs Podium
Here’s a comparison table between Emitr and Podium summarizing the criterias we discussed above:
Why Is Emitrr The Best Podium Alternative?
Emitrr like Podium is a complete customer interaction tool. Some of the features that both Emitrr and Podium offer are
- Reviews and Reputation management
- Webchat to text
- Text message Marketing
- VoIP
Apart from these mentioned features Emitrr also offers the following features that can help make business communication even more efficient.
Group Texting
Group texting allows users to text more than one person at a time. A single group thread will be created where all group members can see each other and respond to each other’s text. For eg, you can create a group of your team members and send any work-related matter to that group. Team members will be able to ask questions and respond to texts. Basically, any team discussion can take place in this group. You can also use groups for different use cases according to your needs.
Automation Capabilities
You can easily keep your schedules full at all times by sending automated text and email reminders, following for no-shows and rescheduling, and tracking fast-fill lists. For eg, you can send automated appointment reminders to customers based on the date of the appointment. You can also automate the number of reminders you wish to send.
Dispositions
When you open a chat, you can easily set a disposition or a status of the chat. Doing so will keep you updated about a certain conversation and will avoid any confusion. You can have your own set of dispositions to choose from.
Folders
You can put your conversations in different folders based on your needs. You can create as many folders as you like, and even edit or delete folders. Folders help you keep your conversations organized.
Assign Conversations
When you open a conversation, you have the option to assign it to your team members, mark it as read or unread, print the conversation, and even add it to one of your folders.
Unread Filter
The unread filter allows you to view only the unread conversations. Once you’ve read those, you can mark them as closed and they’ll be visible under the closed conversations.
Metrics
You can track your missed calls (Missed calls, booking requests, dispositions), texting usage (inbound, manual, automated texts), and reviews (summary, review requests) and make informed decisions based on the data.
- Text-enable your landline: Emitrr allows text enabling your landline number. This means that with this landline number, you can not just make and receive calls but also send and receive text messages. You need not have a separate number for text messaging. Emitrr can text enable your landline number for you.
- Broadcast texting: Podium does not allow broadcast messaging. The feature does not exist. In the case of Emitrr, there is no limit to the number of contacts you wish to send broadcast messages to in one go.
- Translation: This is a very important and unique feature that allows you to communicate with your clients who speak different languages. This feature translates incoming and outgoing messages keeping the language preference of the client in consideration. This further helps build strong relationships between you and your clients.
- Open/close conversations: In Podium, all conversations are docked in one inbox, irrespective of how old or new they are. In Emitrr, your closed conversations will come under a separate inbox, which in turn will make your open conversations inbox more actionable.
- Missed call to text: If for any reason you miss a call you wouldn’t want to miss that customer lead. With Emitrr, the missed call will immediately get converted into a text. This way you can capture your lead and continue the conversation with them via text.
Aside from the texting features some of the other reasons why you should think of switching to Emitrr include:
Easy Contracts
Unlike Podium’s yearly contract, Emitrr provides a month-to-month contract. If you decide you want to stop the service after a particular month, we can do it for you hassle-free. No binding contracts that will unnecessarily take up your time and money.
No Additional Fee Per User
Regardless of the plan you choose with Emitrr, you get unlimited user access. Podium, however, charges an additional fee for 3+ users.
No additional fee for contacts
You can upload unlimited contacts regardless of your plan of choice with Emitrr. You pay an additional fee for 1000+ contacts with Podium.
What Will The Migration From Podium To Emitrr Look Like?
If you’ve come this far, we are assuming you’ve made the decision to switch to Emitrr. We are here to tell you that it is completely an easy process.
Your contacts can be easily migrated from Podium to Emitrr. All you need to do is request Podium to provide you with an export of all your contacts and conversations. Once you have this, you can forward it to us and we will do the rest. That’s it, your migration process is completed.
You will be able to use the business phone number that you were using before with Podium. Nothing will change, expect a lot more cool features that will make customer communication a walk in the park.
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