Podium is redefining the way businesses interact with their customers. Podium’s Interaction Management platform enables businesses to message leads and customers, get reviews and feedback, and communicate easily with their team — all in one easy-to-use inbox. It powers the conversations that matter most to a business, giving them an edge over their competition.

By connecting Podium to their business Tracker, businesses can monitor reviews and ratings across different platforms.

Podium powers the following new tiles:

Reviews and ratings are how your customers rate your business. Leveraging these can help you fine-tune your business and drive more web traffic and visibility. Use the Reviews vs rating tile to track your online reviews and ratings on various sites over time.

Customer ratings can affect your business' reputation, inform customer decisions, and impact your business' revenue. Use the Business ratings tile to track your business' ratings across various sites and ensure you can respond and act on them quickly.

Tracking your business' online reputation across various review sites is important but time-consuming. Use the Channel performance tile to track your business reputation across different channels at a glance. The tile provides a rolling 30-day view, helping you to monitor and leverage your online reviews.

Enhancement: sign-up journey

We've upgraded our sign-up journey for a more streamlined user experience. Users can now create their business Tracker in four simple steps:

1. Create a business Tracker account
2. Set up a business profile
3. Visit the connect page to add apps and tiles
4. Verify email for more features and unlimited access

When signing up for the platform, SMBs won't need to verify their email immediately. When they sign up, we will send a verification email; they will have a week to verify it. Once the email is verified, the user will have access to more functionality across the platform.

For a more personalized experience, users can also add information, such as location, industry, and role, to their profile. Users can edit their User Profile and Business Profile at any time after signing up by navigating to Settings.

Enhancement: multi-factor authentication

MFA is an electronic authentication method that grants users access to a website or application when they successfully present two or more forms of identity verification. MFA increases security and prevents unknown persons from accessing their data.

We’ve introduced a memorable word as an additional MFA security step. Memorable word is an enhancement to MFA that increases security and prevents unknown persons from accessing user data.

All users will be required to create a memorable word as part of MFA set up. The memorable word must be at least 8 characters and consist of alphabetic letters only (upper and/or lower case).

Feature: revenue forecasting

The Revenue tile allows users to track the revenue generated by their business over a period and compare it to previous periods. This tile is currently powered by FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Wave, and Sage Business Cloud.

Using machine learning models, the Revenue forecasting feature builds on the revenue tile functionality. It gives users a three-month forecast — from the current month — of their business' anticipated revenue with a confidence band to allow for uncertainties. The forecast is based on historical revenue data over the past three years. The tile is designed to help businesses in their business decisions. It is NOT financial advice.

Forecasting revenue helps businesses budget better by providing an estimated view of the total amount of money available in the short-term (three months). With this foresight, a business is more likely to spot deviations early, for example, if it is going off track — in terms of revenue predictions or on fixed expenses.