Podium is a leading communication platform for local businesses, helping them generate more leads, convert those leads into real business, and maintain deep customer relationships at scale. "Podium is the communication platform for our customers. It's your sword and shield when you're out there," says Eddie Packer, Integration Engineer at Podium.

As Podium’s customer base grew, the need to connect with a wide variety of applications became increasingly pressing. However, building custom integrations in-house was time-consuming and resource-intensive. “We used to receive a request for an integration, build a case, and then have an integration specialist work with the customers to set up that connection. It could take up to 14 days to complete a single integration,” says Eddie.

As customer demand for integrations escalated, each with its own unique requirements, the Podium team knew their current in-house approach was unsustainable. They needed a scalable solution that could rapidly meet customer needs without overburdening their engineering resources.

After testing several vertical-specific integration vendors, the Podium team realized their customers had more diverse needs. This prompted them to seek a platform that offered greater flexibility and could be embedded within the Podium platform. “Tray offered the embedded functionality, scalability, and flexibility we needed,” says Thomas Mancuso, Director of Product Partnerships at Podium

By leveraging Tray’s native connectors and universal connectivity capabilities, Podium could effectively build any necessary integration, ensuring a fully integrated tech ecosystem for its diverse customer base. “The HTTP client, which lets you make calls to any third-party API endpoints, is very robust,” says Eddie. “We can rapidly build connections to any API-based service without requiring extensive technical resources or expertise.”

With Tray, Podium established a self-service integration marketplace, allowing customers to easily set up their own integrations. “The self-serve was a big driver. People being able to connect their integrations themselves without needing our teams to build them was a huge win for us,” says Eddie.

The implementation of Tray transformed Podium’s integration delivery process. The time required to set up integrations was reduced from 14 days to just a few minutes. This acceleration lets the Podium team focus on actively engaging customers with their platform, significantly enhancing customer retention. 

"Customers who integrate with Podium's platform are 70% more likely to be classified as active and 60% less likely to churn," explains Thomas. "It's more than night and day. It's just transformative as far as user experience goes."

With a self-service integration marketplace, Podium’s customers can quickly and easily set up their own connections, thereby improving their overall experience and satisfaction. "Embedded integrations, powered by Tray, have set our customers up for success and made our product much more engaging for them," says Eddie.