Podium

· #494 most-used

Reviews, payments, and messaging — all in one place

CRMMarketingCommunicationPaymentsPhone & SMS

Podium is an all-in-one customer communication platform that helps local and multi-location businesses collect reviews, send SMS campaigns, issue invoices, and centralise every customer conversation. Connect Podium to Actionist and your agents can request reviews from satisfied customers, send targeted text campaigns, create and manage payment invoices, respond to new reviews, and keep every customer touchpoint logged — without anyone manually opening the Podium dashboard.

Try Podium with Actionist Visit Podium

Average time saved

14 hours

per person · per month

≈ 2 workdays back

Eliminates manual work. Agents eliminate manual review requesting, invoice creation and chasing, review monitoring and reply drafting, and the repetitive task of keeping Podium contacts in sync with CRM systems.

Schedule

What your Podium agent runs on autopilot

A week of scheduled jobs your Actionist agent will execute on your behalf.

28Scheduled jobs

7Agents at work

24/7Always on

Agents

Mon–Wed

Mon

Tue

Wed

10a

11a

12p

Multi-app workflows

Podium × every other app you use

End-to-end automations that span multiple apps — each one a real business outcome.

6Workflows

6Apps spanned

~20 hrsSaved / week

5Personas served

For sales

Featured2 apps

Review invite sent the moment a job invoice is paid

When a Podium invoice payment is confirmed, the agent sends a personalised thank-you message and a review invite to the customer in the same conversation thread — catching them at peak satisfaction and converting a payment moment into a reputation-building opportunity. The review invite timestamp and customer name are logged to the CRM deal record so the sales team knows which customers have been asked.

~5 hrs

Time saved for your team — every week, on autopilot

The flow

Trigger·When a Podium invoice is marked paid by the customer

Trigger

Step 1

Podium

Detect new paid invoice event

read

Step 2

Podium

Retrieve invoice details and customer contact information

write

Step 3

Podium

Send personalised thank-you message to the customer

write

Step 4

Podium

Send review invite directing customer to Google Business profile

write

Step 5

HubSpot

Log review invite timestamp to the CRM deal record

Result

Send personalised thank-you message to the customerSend review invite directing customer to Google Business profileLog review invite timestamp to the CRM deal record

The win

Saved per run

8 min

Runs / week

~40×

Every paying customer gets a review invite with zero manual effort

Driven bySales Agent

ROI

Savings

What your team gets back — two angles: what you stop doing manually, and what that's worth.

Without Actionist

What you do manually today

With Actionist

What your agent runs for you

Sales
25 min / week
Manual review request after each job
A team member logs into Podium after each completed job, searches for the customer, and manually sends a review invite — adding 5 minutes of admin to every job closure, and often skipped when the team is busy.
Sales Agent
0 min
Agent sends review invite automatically on payment
When a Podium invoice is paid, the agent sends a personalised review invite within about a minute — no one opens the dashboard, no customer is missed, and review volume grows consistently week over week.
Marketing
30 min / week
Manual campaign coordination across tools
After creating a Podium campaign, the marketing team manually adds it to the calendar, opens a tracking sheet row, and posts in Slack — three manual steps that take 15 minutes per campaign and are often done inconsistently.
Marketing Agent
0 min
Agent coordinates campaign creation across all tools
When a Podium campaign is created, the agent automatically updates the calendar, tracking sheet, and Slack — all three happen in under a minute, every time, with zero manual effort from the marketing team.
Customer Support
35 min / week
Manual review monitoring and manual replies
The support team checks Podium for new reviews multiple times a day, drafts and posts replies manually, and escalates low-star reviews by forwarding them via email — a time-consuming process that often leaves reviews unanswered for hours.
Customer Support Agent
0 min
Agent monitors reviews and replies within about a minute
New reviews trigger the agent within about a minute — five-star reviews get a personalised reply posted automatically, low-star reviews generate an immediate Slack escalation to the support lead without anyone checking the Podium inbox.
Human Resources
20 min / week
HR manually chases interview and onboarding confirmations
HR sends interview confirmation texts and onboarding check-in messages by hand, opening Podium or their phone contacts for each one — 5 minutes per candidate or new hire, every week, across a growing headcount.
Human Resources Agent
0 min
Agent sends confirmations and check-ins automatically on schedule
The HR agent sends interview confirmation messages and new-hire check-ins on a weekly schedule — every qualifying candidate or employee receives their message without HR opening Podium manually.
Finance
45 min / week
Manual invoice chase and reconciliation
The finance team manually reviews Podium for unpaid invoices, sends follow-up messages one by one, and reconciles paid invoices into the accounting spreadsheet by hand — 2 hours of accounts receivable work every Friday.
Finance Agent
0 min
Agent chases invoices and reconciles payments automatically
The finance agent retrieves all outstanding invoices, sends follow-up messages automatically, and writes reconciled payment data to the accounting tracker every week — no manual AR chasing, no spreadsheet copy-paste.
Operations
30 min / week
Manual CRM-to-Podium contact syncing
The operations team runs weekly CSV exports from the CRM and manually imports them into Podium — a 30-minute task that still leaves Podium a week behind the CRM and frequently breaks on formatting issues.
Operations Agent
0 min
Agent syncs new contacts from CRM to Podium automatically
The operations agent pushes new and updated CRM contacts to Podium's data feed in a nightly batch — Podium is always within one day of the CRM with no manual export, no import errors, and no team member's time spent on it.
Legal
20 min / week
Manual audit of refunds and invoice cancellations
The legal team manually reviews invoices in Podium each week to check that refunds and cancellations have adequate documentation — a painstaking task that is often skipped when the team is under time pressure.
Legal Agent
0 min
Agent runs compliance audit and flags gaps automatically
The legal agent retrieves all refunds and cancellations each week, checks each one for policy compliance and documentation, and flags gaps immediately — the audit is always done, regardless of team capacity.

+ 100s of other Podium automations

Average time saved

21 hrs / person / month

Calculator

Calculate what your team saves

Team size

8 people

Hourly rate

$25 / hr

Hours saved / week

Hours saved / year

1,400

Annual ROI

$35,000

Based on Podium's typical team usage — the visible tasks plus a few other automations the agent runs: ~3.5 hrs / person / week of admin work automated.

Connect

How to plug Podium into Actionist

Pick the connection method that suits your environment.

Connect Podium to Actionist with a single authorisation click. Actionist opens a Podium OAuth window and you grant access — no API keys to copy, no credentials to manage.

Open the Apps tab

Find Podium in the Actionist Apps library and click Connect.

Authorise in Podium

A Podium OAuth window opens. Sign in to your Podium account and grant Actionist the requested permissions.

Test the connection

Actionist verifies the connection with a test call. You are ready to use Podium actions and triggers.

Actions

13 actions your agent can call

Read and write operations available to your Actionist agent.

Triggers

6 events your agent can react to

Events your agent watches for, and the actions it kicks off in response.

FAQs

Questions about Podium + Actionist

How does Actionist connect to my Podium account?

Go to the Apps tab, find Podium, and click Connect. The recommended path is OAuth — Actionist opens a Podium authorisation window, you sign in and grant access, and the connection is established in seconds. If you prefer to use an API key, generate one in the Podium Developer Portal under Settings → Developers → API Keys, copy it, and paste it into Actionist instead. Actionist runs a test call to confirm the connection before any actions run.

Can Actionist automatically request Google reviews from customers after a job?

Yes. The most common setup is to trigger a review invite when a Podium invoice is paid — the agent sends a personalised message and a review invite to the customer's mobile number via Podium within about a minute of payment being confirmed. You can also trigger the review invite from external systems: when a job is closed in your field service tool, when a delivery is marked complete, or on a scheduled post-service follow-up. The invite includes a direct link to your Google Business profile.

How quickly does Actionist react to a new negative review in Podium?

The New Review trigger in Podium fires within about a minute of a review being submitted. As soon as it arrives, the agent can post a holding public reply, create a CRM case, and send a Slack alert to the customer experience team — all within a minute of the review being posted. Recovery outreach can begin before the reviewer has closed their browser tab.

Can Actionist create Podium invoices automatically when a job is completed?

Yes. When a job is marked complete in your field service, booking, or order management system, the agent creates a Podium invoice for the agreed amount and sends it directly to the customer's mobile number via SMS payment link. The invoice ID is logged to the job record and the accounts receivable tracker simultaneously. Customers receive the payment request before the technician has returned to the depot, and you can set up automatic follow-up messages for invoices that remain unpaid.

Does Actionist support Podium's SMS campaign features?

Actionist can read Podium campaigns, retrieve their status, and react when a new campaign is created — for example, automatically adding it to your shared marketing calendar, opening a tracking row in Google Sheets, and posting a heads-up to your Slack channel. Actionist can also keep Podium's contact base current by pushing customer data to the data feed API, ensuring your campaign targeting audiences always reflect the latest CRM data.

Can I use Actionist to chase unpaid Podium invoices automatically?

Yes. The most common setup retrieves all open Podium invoices on a weekly schedule, identifies those older than a set number of days, and sends a polite payment reminder to each customer via Podium messaging. Invoices that remain unpaid beyond a longer threshold can be flagged in Slack to a manager for manual review. The chase runs without anyone on the finance team manually checking accounts receivable.

How does Actionist keep Podium contacts in sync with my CRM?

Actionist uses Podium's data feed API to push contact records from your CRM or booking system. New customers can be pushed individually using Process an Event by the Data Feed, or in batches using Process a List of Events by the Data Feed — useful for nightly reconciliation jobs. Updated contact details, lifecycle stage changes, and transaction events can all be pushed so Podium's contact base and segmentation reflect your latest CRM data.

What happens when a Podium invoice is refunded — can Actionist notify the customer automatically?

Yes. The New Refunded Invoice trigger fires within about a minute of a refund being processed. The agent can send the customer a confirmation message via Podium with the refund amount and expected processing time, log the reversal to your accounting ledger, and notify the finance team via Slack. Customers receive clear refund confirmation without anyone on the team manually following up.