Podium vs. Birdeye: Why Birdeye takes the crown for multi-location businesses

For any business, achieving success depends on accumulating positive reviews and maintaining an impeccable online reputation – an area where many tools in the market fall short. This is where Birdeye emerges as the comprehensive solution to all your online reputation management, social media, and customer experience needs. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the Podium vs. Birdeye comparison, exploring how Birdeye stands out as the superior choice over Podium.

With its exceptional benefits, such as 24/7 customer support, advanced functionalities powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and robust partnerships with Google and Apple, Birdeye empowers businesses like yours to dominate their online presence and build stronger customer connections.

Podium vs. Birdeye: What makes Biedeye unique

Birdeye, ranked as the #1 online reputation management software by G2, offers several unique benefits to its customers that set it apart from its competitors like Podium.

BirdAI

BirdAI, Birdeye’s AI platform, transforms your business by integrating AI into essential customer interactions — everything from managing online reviews to enhancing social media engagement. Utilizing advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, it offers tailored strategies that elevate customer experiences and provide actionable insights to help your business thrive.

“AI is changing the game and Birdeye is on the forefront of it. I’ve rolled it out to my customers. It’s making their lives easier and I’m really pumped about where Birdeye is taking it.”

Nicole Wood, Owner, Orange Fish

By automating routine tasks, BirdAI ensures consistent and personalized communication and delivers valuable data-driven recommendations to improve customer experiences.

In contrast, Podium’s AI offers limited capabilities, making Birdeye the better option.

Google partnership

Birdeye’s partnership with Google provides several advantages for you to optimize your presence on the world’s largest search engine. This strategic relationship enhances your Google ad performance, making your advertisements more effective.

Additionally, it ensures seamless integration with essential Google services like Google Seller Ratings, which can significantly improve your business’s online visibility and credibility.

Unlike Birdeye, Podium’s integration with Google is limited to reviews and messaging.

“I’m a huge fan of Birdeye. They are definitely one of the most integrated partners we have in the Google ecosystem.”

Uday Ghatikar, Field CTO, Google

Apple Business Connect partnership

Birdeye’s integration with Apple Business Connect is another standout feature that grants it a significant edge over Podium. This partnership allows you to easily manage your presence across Apple’s vast ecosystem, including Maps, Siri, Wallet, and more.

With Birdeye, keeping your business information accurate and appealing becomes a breeze. This smooth integration helps customers find and engage with you through their Apple devices, significantly enhancing your visibility and accessibility.

While Birdeye gives you a crucial edge in reaching Apple users, Podium simply can’t replicate this as it doesn’t integrate with Apple Business Connect.

Integrations

Birdeye boasts a strong integration ecosystem, seamlessly connecting with over 3,000 third-party applications across CRM systems, marketing tools, and business management software. This extensive integration capability allows businesses like yours to effortlessly synchronize operations across various platforms and streamline processes such as getting reviews, sending and managing messages, conducting surveys, and sending referral requests.

In contrast, Podium integrates with a limited selection of applications, focusing primarily on functionalities like messaging and reviews. This restricted integration scope may fall short for businesses seeking comprehensive digital marketing and operational solutions.

24/7 Customer Support

One of Birdeye’s key advantages is its 24/7 customer support. This means no matter when an issue crops up, Birdeye’s committed support team is ready to help, ensuring your business runs smoothly around the clock.

On the other hand, businesses are flocking to Birdeye due to frustration with Podium’s limited and lacking support.

Here’s how Eric Poupard, VP, Mission + Values at Hudson’s Furniture explained why his company switched from Podium to Birdeye:

“Prior to working with Birdeye our company was working with Podium to help collect more online reviews as well as use web chat. We were not receiving the level of support that we expected from our prior provider, and several other dealers that we were familiar with told us about all of the great support, as well as features that come along with Birdeye.”

Poupard continued:

“Switching to Birdeye has allowed our company to be able to grow our online reviews, grow our organic search visibility, and allow a more responsive and easier-to-use web chat experience, which is huge for the sales people in my industry.”

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Here’s what another Birdeye customer had to say about Podium:

“We switched to Birdeye because their customer service is outstanding. We were frustrated with Podium’s slow support and inattentive reps.”

Julie Coleman, Marketing Coordinator, Best-One of Monroe

14 key features where Birdeye excels over Podium

In the Birdeye vs. Podium comparison, Birdeye’s unique and superior features make it the ultimate choice for multi-location businesses seeking to effectively manage their online reputation and generate new leads. Let’s delve into the specific features where Birdeye outshines Podium.

Enhanced reputation management

1. Superior Google ad performance

Birdeye holds a distinct advantage over Podium with its partnership with Google. This collaboration enables Birdeye to enhance ad performance through Google Seller Ratings, allowing you to display trusted ratings directly in your ads – a powerful feature to attract more customers. Podium lacks this capability, limiting the effectiveness of its advertising solutions.

2. Centralized business listing management

When it comes to business listings across multiple locations, Birdeye offers a centralized platform to ensure listing information stays consistent and accurate across the board. Podium doesn’t offer this feature, which can result in inconsistent business information appearing online.

3. Extensive review generation across platforms

Birdeye allows you to generate reviews across a wide range of platforms, including Google, Facebook, and over 200 other sites. This gives your business a broader reach and visibility through diverse review sources. Podium only partially offers this feature, restricting the number and variety of review sites where your customers can leave feedback.

4. Automated review responses

Birdeye’s automated review response feature ensures every review receives a reply. You can set up auto-response rules and use personalized templates to respond to reviews at scale, boosting customer satisfaction and engagement. In contrast, Podium lacks automated review response capabilities, requiring manual responses, which could lead to delayed replies.

Since partnering with Birdeye, Smile Workshop experienced a 193% increase in the number of reviews. This surge in feedback was more than what they had accumulated over the previous decade. Read this case study to learn more.

5. “Direct feedback” button for reducing bad reviews

With Birdeye’s “Direct Feedback” button, customers can provide feedback directly to the business, making it less likely for negative reviews to be publicly posted. This proactive approach helps address issues before they escalate. Podium doesn’t offer any direct feedback channel, potentially leading to more negative reviews being visible online.

6. Review sharing on social media

Birdeye makes it easy for businesses to share and showcase positive reviews on social media platforms, amplifying their online presence and credibility. Podium’s offerings lack this capability to leverage social proof, which limits potential social media engagement opportunities.

7. Conversion of reviews into referrals

Birdeye’s referral program helps you turn positive reviews into customer referrals with automated campaigns and personalized templates. This feature is useful for driving new business by leveraging happy customers to attract new ones. Podium offers no such options for customer referrals.

Advanced lead generation

8. Unified dashboard for business listings

Birdeye offers a unified dashboard for you to easily manage the listings of your multi-location business across platforms such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Bing. This feature not only ensures accuracy and consistency but also boosts local SEO and helps you maintain a uniform online presence. Podium doesn’t offer this feature, risking discrepancies in business information.

“Birdeye brings the cacophony of 50+ location directory listings and reputation management down to a harmonious blend through a single, intuitive platform.”

Ken Norquist, Director of Marketing, Axia Women’s Health

9. Automated referral campaigns

Birdeye allows you to launch automated referral campaigns that encourage your satisfied customers to bring in new ones. You can collect referrals across various channels, including emails, text, and social media. Considering that 66% of consumers rely on recommendations from family and friends while doing local business searches, referral campaigns can significantly amplify your word-of-mouth marketing efforts. Podium does not offer this feature.

10. Scheduling and managing social media posts across locations

Birdeye allows you to schedule and manage social media posts across multiple locations, ensuring a consistent and coordinated online presence. Podium’s offerings don’t include this feature.

Unmatched AI prowess

11. Sentiment analysis

Birdeye uses AI to assess customer reviews and surveys, helping you better understand customer sentiment and make necessary adjustments to your marketing strategy. Podium doesn’t offer this detailed sentiment analysis.

Discover how Birdeye's AI-driven sentiment analysis offered National Storage Affiliates real-time customer satisfaction insights, allowing them to refine rate increase strategies based on market dynamics and customer expectations.

12. Trend detection

Birdeye uses AI to spot emerging trends in customer feedback, enabling you to proactively address issues or capitalize on positive trends. Podium doesn’t offer such advanced trend detection capabilities.

13. Automated insights

AI-driven insights from Birdeye automatically pinpoint key areas for improvement or success so that you can prioritize your marketing efforts effectively. These insights are more refined and actionable compared to Podium’s offering, giving your business a competitive edge in effectively managing its online reputation.

14. Content generation for social media

Birdeye allows you to use AI to craft and refine engaging social media posts, including recommended images, emojis, and hashtags to boost engagement. Podium doesn’t offer AI-generate content for social media.

Birdeye’s award-winning edge in AI and customer service

Birdeye has been widely recognized for its innovative AI-powered platform and exceptional service. Here are some of the prestigious awards Birdeye has recently won:

1. #4 in AI – Ranked fourth for Best Artificial Intelligence Software.
2. Best Customer Service Products – For excellence in customer service solutions.
3. Highest Satisfaction Products – For achieving high customer satisfaction.
4. Best Software as a Service (USA-Enterprise) – For leading the SaaS category in cloud computing.
5. Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in Cloud Computing – For exceptional AI integration in enterprise-level SaaS applications.

FAQs on choosing Birdeye

The bottom line: Birdeye, your obvious choice

Managing online reputation is a complex juggling act, no matter if you’re a small business or a large enterprise. While some solutions offer basic functionalities, they might not sufficiently address the unique challenges you face.

This is where Birdeye steps in as your all-in-one solution, providing a feature-rich platform specifically designed to address the complexities of multi-location reputation management.

But Birdeye doesn’t stop there. With exclusive features like real-time webchat, actionable customer insights through surveys, and in-depth analytics with benchmarking data, Birdeye provides the upper hand you need to truly understand and connect with your customers on a deeper level.

Ready to take control of your online reputation and strengthen customer relationships across all your locations? Sign up for a free demo of Birdeye today.