Hatch and Podium are both communication platforms, but while Podium is great for local businesses looking to improve reputation, Hatch is the best fit for home service businesses looking to grow revenue.
You can read the full breakdown of Hatch vs Podium here, but below is a list of the top 10 reasons Podium users switch to Hatch.
A few things to know first:
Podium is largely focused on post-sale interactions (appointment reminders, payments, coupons, and reviews), with some pre-sale capabilities. Hatch covers both pre- and post-sale interactions (so this means everything Podium offers (except for payments) plus lead engagement, sales follow-up/rehash, and nurture.
You can only automate one-time texts in Podium, while with Hatch you can automate a complete campaign—a sequence of texts (and emails and voicemails) that send out over a set schedule.
While you can use Podium to text new leads, this is only available if the lead goes to your website and requests a text using the website chat widget. This means they have to reach out first.
Hatch syncs with your CRM and integrates directly with your lead sources (Angi, Thumbtack, and website forms, etc.) so that you can instantly text new leads as soon as they enter your system—with the automated sequences mentioned above.
➡️ Head here to see automated lead outreach in action.
There is no rehash/sales follow-up capability in Podium, while this is one of Hatch’s most popular options. You can automate your follow-up on recent quotes, old quotes, canceled appointments, dormant leads, and more, unlocking revenue you didn’t know you had.
➡️ Head here to see automated sales follow-up in action.
Podium users can only target based on a finite set of Podium contact properties. Anything custom must be done through manual CSV upload. With Hatch, you can target any lead source, CRM property, or value (and any combination thereof) allowing you to create highly tailored messages. Hatch will also automatically enroll (and remove) contacts from lists and campaigns as they meet your rules. It’s true and continuous automation.
Learn more about the Hatch Audience Builder here.
The 20 home service-specific integrations within Podium are only available upon request, require manual implementation and maintenance, and are often limited to post-sale behavioral data. Hatch offers 26 home service-specific integrations including ServiceTitan, Angi, EverConnect, Jobber, and more—20 of which are also Hatch partners. The integrations are bi-directional, available on demand through the app marketplace, and sync all data between platforms.
View all of our integrations to check and see if Hatch integrates with your tools.
The Hatch platform is designed for home service businesses and their call centers, so it includes messaging templates and pre-built campaign sequences based on data-backed industry best practices as well as our own data from analyzing thousands of customer conversations. Podium is industry agnostic and does not offer this specialization.
With Podium, you can view all your correspondence with one contact (text, email, social media, call, voicemail) in one thread, and you can categorize them into different inboxes (reviews, billing, etc.)
With Hatch, you can also view all correspondence in one thread (minus social media messaging), and you also can have separate inboxes (called workspaces) for different purposes, but the thing our users love is the Trello-like interface. Every thread is contained in a contact card which you can drag and drop into columns according to your pipeline.
By turning more of the leads you’re paying for into customers and mining the wealth of opportunities from your existing CRM data, Hatch helps you to improve your ROI on not just Hatch, but on all of your investments across marketing, sales, and customer service. And with more efficient and higher quality communication, businesses that use Hatch are able to significantly increase revenue using the same (or fewer) tools and team members.
What could your ROI be with Hatch? Try our calculators!
Podium is focused on quantity. It helps you to increase reviews, which results in higher website traffic, which results in more leads. It will also help you increase interactions with customers to retain them. However, it does not equip you to turn those leads into customers in the first place, or to upsell them.
Hatch, on the other hand, is focused on quality. It helps you to increase revenue by improving the quality and efficiency of your conversations, which results in higher set, close, upsell, and retention rates, as well as higher ROI across marketing, sales, and customer service.
If you found these Hatch features to be a good fit for your business goals, you can book a 15-minute demo here. We don't try any gimmicks or charm tactics. We just show you how Hatch can grow your revenue so you can get in and get out.