Why did we build Podium Phones?
Podium is a comprehensive customer communication and payments platform used by over 100,000 local businesses. During research, we found a clear opportunity in building a new phone system that would be better for local businesses and their customers. We found:
Local businesses receive on average 60% of their new customers from phone calls.
48% of businesses using Podium indicated that phones were their primary way of communicating with their existing customers.
Businesses using Podium reported missing on average 21% of inbound calls to their business.
I was the Lead Designer on this exciting 0 to 1 project, and worked with a small team of 4 engineers and a Product Manager to build our first product in less than 3 months. Our work ultimately led to Phones becoming one of the flagship products for Podium.
Going from 0→1
Taking Podium Phones from 0-1 was no easy task. Our team conducted research on every part of the phone system experience for our customers. We spent countless hours on the phone with our customers, onsite at their businesses, shadowing them and their employees, and digging into the ins and outs of VOIP systems and desk phone hardware.
The unique insights we gathered from this research allowed us to move fast and ship small, MVP features to learn and create impact for our customers quickly. This included things like integrating their phone numbers with our messaging platform, installing desk phones powered by our system, allowing their customers on hold to text the business instead, and forwarding missed call notifications to their inbox in Podium.
Phones Becoming a Core Product
From our early insights and impact, Podium Phones quickly evolved into a robust and innovative phone system for Podium Businesses.
Podium Phones has helped businesses consolidate all of their customer communication into one platform with an intuitive web soft phone integrated in the Podium messaging platform, phone functionality in the Podium mobile app, and an innovative new desk phone that upgraded a business' hardware with Podium exclusive features and integrations.
In the first 3 months of customers using Podium Phones:
20% of missed calls were responded to by the business with a text.
10% of callers chose to text the business instead of stay on hold.
Podium Phones processed over 1 million customer calls.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Podium.