Thryv

Josie is my main contact. She helps me and she always replies back to me immediately if I ever have a question or when I had shared my concerns. I always feel like she's an advocate of ours. She always takes that and raises it up to whoever needs to and they try to figure out some things. Then there was Jessica that I've worked with on the website build side. She helped me with the print side as well. When I ask her to make some changes or do some things on our website, she does an awesome job of setting it up for me.

Then one guy called me and talked to me about the digital aspect of their business, of doing SEOs helping to promote our business. We signed up for that additional service. However, that has not worked well at all. We haven't gotten any response out of it. We've been tracking all the clients that we're getting and everybody is just word of mouth, or somebody drove by. We're not getting anybody from the internet in terms of searching the area and finding us. Also, I don't understand how the structure is. The silence is deafening when the guy who said that this is the greatest thing in the world never follows up to make sure that it works. Maybe that's how the company is set up. But we've been really pleased with their basic service.

Thryv makes us look more professional. We set the appointment and the Thryv software sends out three text messages as reminders to the client. That has been helpful. Clients have shared with me that they like that we send them reminders and all of this is being done without me having to always remember to do that. It just automatically does it so I'm very appreciative. I also have the ability to send them receipts once the services are done so, it’s good although they can only receive the receipt via email. In today's time, everybody doesn't wanna give out their emails because they're tired of getting spam mail. I would love to be able to send my clients a receipt via text and I have not been able to do that.

Also, when I first started, I used my mobile phone a lot because I'm in the field. I'm not in front of a laptop at the office so at the beginning, I was constantly calling the office asking how the service works on the mobile side. The gentleman who signed me up and the backup team that was assigned to me in case I had any questions were knowledgeable on how to operate the system from a desktop or laptop perspective but when I called in, the knowledge of the support team on how to operate the mobile device was very limited. I had to ask questions and they would have to hang up and call me back a day or two later. They always called me back and I'm very thankful for that, but they didn't know. They would tell me that they weren’t sure how that operates and they would need to find out. It sounds like more training will be needed from the mobile aspect. They got it done but it took a while.

We were with a major marketing firm right before we switched over to Thryv, and our rep worked with Thryv, formerly Dex, but before that, he worked with Yellow Pages. So, he’s had an established relationship with their owner for 14 years. I was ready to cancel everything last year, and I wanted to be done with our mega marketing one. I had figured out other ones that I was going to use. I sat down with our rep because he was doing Yellow Pages, and he also had to do some of the Yelp stuff. I was ready to get rid of the Yelp altogether. So, I went into the meeting ready to tell him to go away. Then I was telling him about everything and the frustrations that I was having with Yelp and with the different things, and that Yelp, for our business, was doing what it needed to do.

He started talking to me about how Yellow Pages is different. Then he started talking to me about Thryv. He gave me a demo on Thryv. He sat down and he went over everything with me. And because we were switching our website, whoever managed our website was being switched too. It was a really good trade for us especially because it gave it such a hands-on feel. So, even though we had people helping us and doing things for us and guiding us, we also could do things on our own. That was a big thing. He sold me that day, and I ended up just doing that. It’s been a really good change.

She was fine. I was in a bad mood because I couldn't get that damn app to work and I was trying to get an invoice out to this lady at her house before I left. I told her, "Hold on." But it just would not go. I think that was just operator error, that's why I called them so they could say, "Are you doing this or that and that?" She was like, "It's working fine on my end. So, just delete it." I think it's because I'm not super versed on that app. Every time I go to it, I have to relearn it basically. But I have liked the end product. It has helped me. It's a cool little program. I recommended it to people.

My program is super simple, but it's really outdated. I wanted to switch over to something more online than this. But it could be just my old ways. If I was a first-time user and never had anything else, it might be awesome. I'd be like, "Wow, this is great." But it could have a little more user-friendly interface. It is good, but there could be a slight bit of simplicity added to it, another button to click.

I submitted one request in regards to the workflow. One of my clients came on board and requested a Spanish-speaking rep. I've been managing it, but at some point, I wanted him to start going directly to Thryv. Although he speaks English, there's just that additional comfort level. The reason he came to me is mainly for the fact that he wanted somebody local. I told him that I'm always gonna be here, but I let him know that this is really where Thryv can help him. I was trying to delegate so I can focus on other things. So I did the onboarding.

We never had that piece completely resolved in the sense where there's been a relationship goal and I believe that could be a missing factor as we go forward because I'm in the relationship at this point. We are competing for my client's second line of business, which is a different market. We opened in Palm Desert, which is what I'm overseeing for him using Thryv, and I showed him that if one day I'm gone, it doesn’t matter since he has Thryv and he has a system that’s been built and he owns the system. But the only thing that I was hoping would be made available to him is that Spanish-speaking rep.

Also, the initial video that was published appeared that once the domain name was picked and it was published, the video quickly came right after that, and the branding was wrong because the new logo and the new colors weren’t established yet, but the video is produced. But that was resolved. We informed them that it wasn’t the right branding, right colors, and then the new video was shut, which was great. Overall, Thryv is a great product. It helps the business centers. But it would be very beneficial if we can plug an API into credit card processing.