Curious Thing vs. Podium Comparison


Curious Thing	Podium	+	+
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About Curious Thing is a voice AI assistant designed to enhance business communications by proactively engaging with customers over the phone. It intelligently initiates and receives calls, detects and leaves voicemails, and sends dynamic SMS, emails, and instant messages. The AI assistant can also handle appointment bookings, modifications, or cancellations, integrating seamlessly with existing systems to optimize scheduling efficiency. By asking open-ended questions, it gathers valuable information and delivers insights, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions. Curious Thing's capabilities enable organizations to boost service capacity and improve customer engagement. It offers unlimited call summaries, providing concise overviews of interactions via text or email. Designed for businesses of all sizes, Curious Thing's voice AI assistant helps answer business calls, schedule meetings, and respond to frequently asked questions.		About Podium is a comprehensive AI-driven lead management and communication platform utilized by over 100,000 businesses seeking to enhance customer acquisition and retention. At the heart of Podium’s innovation is its AI employee, which ensures businesses respond to incoming leads instantly around the clock, dramatically improving conversion rates and revenue growth. The platform assists businesses in generating more customer reviews, improving their Google rankings, and unifying their lead channels into a single, manageable dashboard. Through the web and mobile applications, businesses can call and text customers, send payment links for quick transactions, and deploy bulk messaging campaigns to boost repeat sales. Podium’s powerful AI-driven automations seamlessly manage customer interactions across multiple communication platforms, providing accurate and timely responses that help drive sales.
Platforms Supported Windows Mac Linux Cloud On-Premises iPhone iPad Android Chromebook		Platforms Supported Windows Mac Linux Cloud On-Premises iPhone iPad Android Chromebook
Audience Customer support teams looking for a tool to enhance their service capacity and efficiency through AI-driven voice interactions		Audience Business owners
Support Phone Support 24/7 Live Support Online		Support Phone Support 24/7 Live Support Online
API Offers API		API Offers API
Screenshots and Videos View more images or videos		Screenshots and Videos View more images or videos
Pricing Free Free Version Free Trial		Pricing $399 per month Try Podium for free for 14-day, no strings attached. Free Version Free Trial
Reviews/Ratings Overall 1.0 / 5 ease 3.0 / 5 features 3.0 / 5 design 3.0 / 5 support 1.0 / 5 Read all reviews		Reviews/Ratings Overall 4.5 / 5 ease 4.8 / 5 features 4.8 / 5 design 4.7 / 5 support 4.7 / 5 Read all reviews
Pros & Cons from Real Users Pros If you have too much money and time, you can give it to them. The AI was flawless. It is extremely intelligent, and answers customer questions perfectly. Customer service had been wonderful until they merged with the other company, Trivoni Software. Cons They made $24 off me and wasted 2 hours of my life. Could not set it up with my phone, never got to use it. Also, they misrepresented what the product would do. I could only have 2 of their offerings even though I received an email saying this: With your current Lucy Professional plan, you will have access to all of this: -An AI agent available 24/7 to answer all your missed calls -Unlimited call summaries sent to you by text and/or email -Removal of Curious Thing branding -Custom message taking to help you qualify leads and capture detailed inquiries on the phone -Answer up to 3 FAQs such as opening hours, business location and product offering -Share important links with callers via text such as booking pages, pricing details, website or email address Don't put your payment info in, they will not refund you. They made $24 off me and wasted 2 hours of my life. I had two free lines with this company and one business line. I changed my business line to a free line last month. I had a notary client come into my office and ask what was wrong with my phone line! I called my business line and a recording stated that “all lines were busy right now!” I cannot imagine how many potential clients I lost because they believed my business was no longer viable or reliable because of my business line being out of operation. I went to my dashboard for my business line and it said my line was “CANCELLED!” I never cancelled my line, obviously, because it’s my business line. It offered to reactivate my line. I clicked on the link and it said the “Free” option was temporarily not available! My only option affordable to me was the “”Professional” service which had changed from $19.00 to $24.00 a month! I paid the $24.00 immediately, as I could not have potential clients unable to reach out to that line for information. Once paid, my $24.00 professional line was miraculously returned to operational. I don’t appreciate the fact that they held my business hostage, requiring me to upgrade from the free service to a $24.00 service, because “free” is no longer an immediate option. They reached out finally today…a month after my inquiry, to tell me that they are discontinuing the “Free Plan,” completely. Yet, their website still shows the “Free Plan,” as “temporarily unavailable.” They used to be a wonderful company with almost always a 24 hour turn around time when contacted by e-mail. Then, they “merged” with another company called, “Trivoni Software.” To be honest, when they announced the merger, I thought, “Oh boy, there goes the free service, and watch the other rates increase!” Little did I know then, that it was exactly what happened. I reached out to their support email, and what used to take, at the very most, 24 hours for a response, took a month to hear back from them, only to say their “Free Plan” was discontinued. I asked why it still says, “temporarily unavailable,” on their website. I received no reply.		Pros from Real Users Pros The best part of this software is that you can handle all of it from your phone as if you were just texting someone. If someone hops on your website and has any questions or concerns a notification comes up on the bottom corner of the page providing a way for the visitor to contact the company. These messages do go straight to the phone of the the individual over the website, which makes the communication personable and quick. Podium has an excellent interface; it has a high quality in sending files, I can send images or audios without losing quality. Besides that, I use it to create more effective communication and with guaranteed security conditions. Podium cloud is incredible for storing information. This is by far the best review gathering platform for Google around. I think they are actually backed by Google. To get all your reviews from different platforms makes it easier and saves time in the process. A very user friendly app which is easy to set up. It makes interactions easy. Using only one platform we can reply to each and every messages. Google, Facebook, Instagram we can easily connect with our customer on any platform using this software. Responses very quickly. Simple and easy to use. Also we can check the history of any customers interaction. Easy to use for both admins & users Efficient Review tracking Great dashboard for comprehensive view Integration with many platforms like Google, Facebook Automated Review invites feature Responsive customer service The interface for both the administrator and customer is very simple and attractive. I can easily send someone a review invite in within few seconds that goes directly to the customer's phone. It's very effective and quick. Clients can leave Google locals and Facebook review with some clicks. Which makes your business get recognized. Attractive and clean overall user interface. Easy to respond on negative feedback. We've used this with a lot of our clients and it's a great way to send out sms reviews on the go and live chat on your website. Easy to use and very simplistic. Encompasses everything you'd need to set up reviews to gather from customers.
Training Documentation Webinars Live Online In Person		Training Documentation Webinars Live Online In Person
Company Information Curious Thing Founded: 2018 Australia curiousthing.io		Company Information Podium Founded: 2014 United States www.podium.com
Alternatives Upfirst		Alternatives WEX Field Service Management
MrCall		Birdeye
CallReply.AI		KUKUI Kukui
Assindo		RedPodium Webconnex
Loman.ai View All		Podium DAW Zynewave View All
Categories AI Phone Answering Agents AI Receptionists AI Voice Agents Answering Services		Categories Agentic AI AI Agents AI Customer Service AI Customer Support Agents AI Employees AI Lead Generation Tools AI Marketing AI Phone Answering Agents AI Receptionists AI Sales Assistants AI Sales Tools AI Voice Agents Brand Management Bulk SMS Business Phone Systems Business Text Messaging Business VoIP Chatbot Cloud PBX Conversational Support Customer Communications Management Customer Experience Customer Feedback Customer Satisfaction Customer Service Dental Email Management Lead Capture Lead Generation Lead Management Live Chat Local Marketing Online Form Builders Payment Processing Reputation Management Review Management SMS Marketing Survey Video Conferencing
		Show More Features Customer Communications Management Features Batch Communications Chat / Messaging Content Management Email Distribution Interactive Content Multi-Channel Communications On-Demand Communications Personalization Print Management Template Management Video Content Customer Experience Features Action Management Analytics Customer Segmentation Dashboard Feedback Management Knowledge Management Multi-Channel Collection Sentiment Analysis Survey Management Text Analysis Trend Analysis Customer Feedback Features Alerts / Notifications Behavior Analytics Bug Reports Community Feedback Tools Live Chat Negative Feedback Management Net Promoter Score (NPS) Screenshot / Screen Capture Surveys User Testing Tools Video Feedback Visual Feedback Tools Voice of the Customer (VoC) Website Feedback Customer Satisfaction Features 360 Degree Feedback Analytics Call Reporting Complaint Monitoring Feedback Collection Survey Management Customer Service Features Alerts / Escalation Appointment Management Call Center Management Email Management Knowledge Base Live Chat Performance Metrics Queue Management Self Service Portal Social Media Integration Surveys & Feedback Virtual Assistant Workflow Management Lead Generation Features Contact Discovery Contact Import/Export Lead Capture Lead Database Integration Lead Nurturing Lead Scoring Lead Segmentation Pipeline Management Prospecting Tools Visitor Identification Live Chat Features Canned Responses Customizable Branding Geo Targeting Offline Form Proactive Chat Screen Sharing Third Party Integration Transfers / Routing Website Visitor Tracking Local Marketing Features Advertising Management CRM Email Marketing Feedback Management Live Chat NAP Management (Name/Address/Phone) Online Listings Management PR Management Reporting / Analytics Review Management SEO Management Social Media Management Store Locator Website Management Payment Processing Features ACH Check Transactions Bitcoin Compatible Debit Card Support Gift Card Management Mobile Payments Online Payments POS Transactions Receipt Printing Recurring Billing Signature Capture Reputation Management Features Campaign Management Gamification Response Management Review Generation Review Monitoring Sentiment Analysis Social Media Metrics Social Media Monitoring White Label Review Management Features Campaign Management Dashboard Negative Feedback Management Response Management Review Monitoring Review Notification Review Request Sentiment Analysis Social Sharing White Label
Integrations Agiliron ChatGPT Dentrix Ema Facebook Instagram Kindo Morphic Nango Nekton.ai Nextech QFloors ReferPro Refold STORIS SalesRabbit Stackreaction Tekmetric WildJar Xero Show More Integrations View All 1 Integration		Integrations Agiliron ChatGPT Dentrix Ema Facebook Instagram Kindo Morphic Nango Nekton.ai Nextech QFloors ReferPro Refold STORIS SalesRabbit Stackreaction Tekmetric WildJar Xero Show More Integrations View All 34 Integrations
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