March 2, 2020—Podium has added Payments, a feature that allows local businesses to use text messaging to take payment from the Podium platform.
The price of sending a text with Payments is lower than mailing a statement and businesses don't need as many dedicated staff members to handle it. In traditional “card-not-present” transactions that are typically handled over the phone or via mailed invoice, these transactions have roughly a 2 percent completion rate, the company says.
With the companies in Podium’s Payments beta, that completion rate tripled as well as provided 80 percent reduction in staff time resources.
The platform also allows customers to respond proactively in the same channel in which payment was requested.
