Scaling the personal touch at Bill Smith Appliances & Electronics.

The Challenge

Since 1954, Bill Smith Appliances & Electronics has provided quality sales and service to the communities they serve. Their attention to detail and quality customer service has helped them grow from a single location to seven showrooms spread throughout Southwest Florida.

Bill Smith Appliances & Electronics has tried and used nearly every method of follow-up over their 65 years in business.  But as the business grew, it became increasingly difficult to deliver an effective “Thank You” to their customers. “The scale became unmanageable,” recalls Bill Smith’s Vice President, Michael Lindsey. Rather than fall victim to their own success, Bill Smith searched for a solution.

The Solution

One day, while buying furniture from a local retailer, Michael found exactly what he was looking for. “When I left City Furniture they said, “Hey, we’re going to send you a text.” When I got the text it said, “Thank you for choosing City Furniture, please click here to leave us a review.” I scrolled down to the bottom and saw that it was powered by Podium. When we looked at Podium, we were like, wow, this is a unique way for us to thank our customers, while also soliciting reviews.”

The Result

“The first thing that stuck out in my mind regarding Podium was the ease of use,” said Michael. “I literally set it up from my office, one evening, in less than an hour.” It wasn’t just the simplicity that Michael and his team loved, Podium was also pulling in new customers. “Prior to Podium, we were 27th on the list when you Googled “appliances, Fort Myers.” Now due to the tremendous amount of positive reviews we’re receiving, as well as other digital advertising efforts, we show up in the shopping section, on ad links, as number one, two, and three on the local Google shopping map page, and second in organic search results.”

With a deeper appreciation for the power of online reviews, Bill Smith Appliances & Electronics could finally quantify the impact of their efforts. “We were making hundreds of customers happy and satisfied each day, however, the majority of customers were not going online and sharing their experience.  We’ve experienced a significant increase in all of our locations’ Google reviews and 5-star ratings.  Our results with Podium has exceeded our greatest expectations”