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The inception of Podium started with a problem at a tire shop owned by the founder’s father. Google reviews became the next big thing, and suddenly they were affecting the way small businesses were perceived. Despite hundreds of hundreds of happy customers, a small percentage of negative reviews were leading the shop’s reputation.
Upon investigating, it was discovered that there really was no good way to get customers to leave reviews. By utilising SMS text messaging to encourage customers to leave a review — Podium was born.
“Podium is a customer interaction platform, making it easier to communicate with your customers and get the most out of them, for them. Local businesses can have the same convenience factor as massive eCommerce sites.” – Taylor Cutler
Sit down with host Robert Tadros as he talks all things reviews with Brian Rea, Podium’s Partnership and Business Development Manager, and the Marketing Director, Taylor Cutler
Fast forward to today, that cloud-based platform has grown from operating out of a spare bedroom to offices situated around the globe in just 6 years. The business boasts over 900 employees working with 6,000 businesses across US, Canada and Australia.
Brain and Taylor talk fundamentals, recommendations and the future of Podium. How can it transform your business and how has it broken down the sometimes discouraging barriers that exist for customers when leaving reviews?
“Our fundamentals are driven by macro optimise and micro pessimism. While we may dwell on the challenges that bog us down on the day to day, it’s important to take a step back and have a look at the bigger picture as a business leader.” – Brian Rea
The conversation covers:
- The birth of Podium (2:00)
- Managing the ups and downs of starting your own business (5:30)
- Tools that were used to pivot in COVID-19 (6:30)
- The core fundamentals of Podium (8:15)
- How business owners can respond to users (13:00)
- Personalisation is key (15:00)
- Recommendations for writing content on the platform (16:30)
- Encouraging a quality review (18:30)
- Take out the barriers for leaving a review (22:00)
- How Google and businesses handle reviews that aren’t legitimate (24:00)
- The future of Podium (28:00)
The future of reviews
“Don’t be scared of negative reviews. Find a way to overcome this and focus your energy to generate new ideas.” – Brian Rea
It doesn’t look like reviews are going anywhere. So, instead of dwelling on negative reviews you received from customers or combatting fake reviews from a competitor, it’s important to develop a strategy that encourages more positive reviews to overshadow the negative ones.
With Podium, you can connect with your customers on a deeper level and encourage a more relatable relationship. Centralised communication allows you to analyse website traffic, get more reviews, collect payments, and more by sending a quick message.
