In today’s digital age, online reviews have become crucial for local businesses to build trust and attract new customers.
According to recent surveys, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. With the majority of people reading reviews before making purchase decisions, positive online ratings and reviews are linked to higher conversion rates for local businesses.
To help manage their online reputation and get more reviews, many local businesses are turning to review management software like Signpost and Birdeye. Signpost focuses primarily on collecting customer feedback and generating reviews across various sites. Birdeye specializes more in monitoring online listings, reviews, and social media to help improve local search rankings. This article provides an in-depth comparison of the two platforms.
Key Features and Differences
Signpost and Birdeye take slightly different approaches when it comes to review management for local businesses. Here are some of the key differences in features and focus:
Signpost is focused on collecting customer feedback and generating online reviews across various sites. It integrates with CRM platforms to automatically send review requests via email and texts to customers. Signpost also provides review links that businesses can include on receipts, invoices, websites, and at other touchpoints. The Signpost platform is ideal for service-based businesses like home services, healthcare, and automotive services who want to generate more online reviews.
Birdeye offers a more complete online reputation management suite, going beyond just reviews. It provides features to monitor online listings, social media pages, and reviews sites. Birdeye also helps businesses engage with customers and manage their responses to reviews. This wider focus makes Birdeye well-suited for retail, restaurants, and professional services who want to control their brand image across the web.
Some reviews indicate Signpost is the better choice for businesses who just want an easy way to get more online reviews. Birdeye is preferred by companies who need full reputation management capabilities.
Review Generation Capabilities
When it comes to generating more customer reviews, Birdeye and Signpost take different approaches. Birdeye provides easy review links that can be sent via SMS, email, or embedded on a website to request feedback from customers. The links can be customized with the business name and directed to specific review sites. This makes it simple to reach out after a transaction and get the customer to leave a review.
Signpost, on the other hand, fully automates review requests through integration with CRM and POS systems. It tracks customer interactions and transactions, then sends timely review invitations via email or text. This saves staff the effort of manually requesting feedback. Signpost also provides canned review request templates that can be customized.
Overall, Signpost’s automated capabilities appear more robust and require less ongoing effort to generate reviews at scale. Birdeye still offers a solid self-service review link system, but businesses have to drive the outreach themselves. For set-it-and-forget-it style review generation, Signpost has an edge.
Reputation Management
When it comes to reputation management, Birdeye offers more robust capabilities compared to Signpost.
Birdeye provides a full suite of reputation management tools to monitor reviews across 100+ sites, flag suspicious or fake reviews, respond to feedback, and remove harmful content. Key features include:
- Review monitoring dashboard to track mentions across the web
- Tools to identify and report fake or suspicious reviews
- Canned and custom responses to engage with customers
- Ability to claim and update online listings
As per Birdeye’s online reputation management guide, their platform allows businesses to stay on top of their brand’s reputation across the internet.
In contrast, Signpost is more narrowly focused on generating reviews and does not provide the same breadth of reputation management capabilities. This platform focuses on sending review requests and aggregating feedback, without the more advanced features to monitor, analyze, or respond to online reviews.
So for businesses looking for an end-to-end reputation management solution, Birdeye is the superior choice over Signpost.
Ease of Use
When it comes to ease of use and user experience, Birdeye seems to have an edge over Signpost, according to reviews. Birdeye offers an intuitive dashboard and admin that makes it simple for businesses to get started. The onboarding process is smooth and allows you to easily connect your profiles, customize settings, and start managing your online presence. As per one review on Software Advice, “Birdeye is super easy to use. Even those who are not tech savvy can quickly understand how to use it.”
In contrast, some Signpost users have complained about the platform being overly complex and difficult to navigate initially. There is a steeper learning curve in setting up and customizing Signpost to suit your needs. One G2 reviewer wrote, “Not the most intuitive software. Took a while to figure out all the bells and whistles.”
When it comes to UI design and visual appeal, Birdeye seems more polished and modern compared to Signpost’s rather plain interface. The dashboard allows easy access to all the key features and data. Signpost’s UI has room for improvement with some users complaining about tiny fonts, unintuitive menus, and a lack of customization options.
Overall, Birdeye’s superior admin, intuitive onboarding, and simpler setup process gives it an edge over Signpost in terms of usability and ease of adoption for businesses.
Pricing Comparison
Signpost and Birdeye have different pricing models.
Signpost charges per location, with plans starting at $249/month.
Birdeye uses tiered pricing based on features, with plans ranging from $299 to $499/month for 1-10 locations.
In terms of value, Birdeye seems to offer more features and capabilities for the price compared to Signpost. Birdeye’s plans include reputation management, review generation, listings management, social publishing, and analytics. Signpost focuses more narrowly on review collection and referral features.
For businesses looking for an all-in-one solution to manage online reputation and reviews, Birdeye provides more robust capabilities for the cost. Signpost offers a streamlined tool just for gathering customer feedback and driving reviews, at a relatively lower price point per location.
Integration Capabilities
Both Signpost and Birdeye integrate with major review sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp to help businesses generate more reviews. However, Birdeye seems to have more extensive integration capabilities overall.
Birdeye integrates with over 3,000 software systems including POS systems, CRMs, appointment scheduling tools, and more to automate review collection and facilitate reputation management. Signpost has some CRM and POS integrations as well, but not nearly as many as Birdeye.
For social media integrations, Birdeye offers review links that can be shared via SMS, email, or on a business’s website to easily collect reviews. Birdeye also has Facebook integration to pull in reviews from Facebook pages. Signpost focuses more on using CRM workflows to send automated review requests rather than social sharing.
Overall, Birdeye seems better suited for businesses that want deep integration across their software stack to fully automate online reputation management. Signpost still provides core integrations for collecting reviews, but does not have the extensive library Birdeye offers.
Customer Support
When it comes to customer support, Birdeye seems to have an edge over Signpost based on user reviews. Birdeye offers phone, email, and chat support with extended hours on weekdays as well as weekend support. Users mention positive experiences with quick response times and helpful reps who are able to resolve issues.
Signpost, on the other hand, seems to struggle a bit more when it comes to supporting customers. There are multiple complaints from users about long wait times, lack of responsiveness from support reps, and issues not getting resolved. Some mention support being outsourced and reps not being fully trained on the product. Overall customer service seems to be a weak point for Signpost based on reviews.
For businesses that need ongoing support to maximize value from their review management platform, Birdeye’s superior customer service could be the deciding factor between the two options.
User Reviews
Based on reviews from actual users on sites like G2 and Software Advice, there are some clear pros and cons for each platform:
For Birdeye, users like the reputation management capabilities and easy-to-use interface.
Pros:
- “The platform is very intuitive and easy to use.”
- “Birdeye does a great job of consolidating review sites into one dashboard.”
- “Handling reputation issues is straightforward.”
Cons:
- “Could use some refinement on the keyword analytics.”
- “Technical support can be slow.”
For Signpost, users highlight the review generation capabilities but find the UI clunky.
Pros:
- “Signpost has been great for generating Google reviews.”
- “Review collection features work seamlessly.”
- “Increased my reviews significantly.”
Cons:
- “The dashboard is not user friendly.”
- “Too many features which over complicates things.”
- “Customer service needs improvement.”
Overall, Birdeye seems to have a better user experience with its reputation management capabilities and intuitive interface. Signpost’s core review generation features deliver results for many users, despite its weaker UI.
Recommendation
When choosing between Signpost and Birdeye, it really comes down to your business’s specific needs and priorities.
For businesses focused solely on generating more online reviews across platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp, a third option may be the better choice:
ReputationStacker offers a more well-rounded solution for businesses looking to monitor and manage their full online reputation. The features for responding to reviews, analyzing sentiment, removing fake reviews, and managing listings make it better suited for reputation management.
ReputationStacker also seems easier to use for small business owners without much technical expertise. Its interface and dashboard are more intuitive and user-friendly. Signpost may require more hands-on work to generate reviews.
When it comes to pricing, ReputationStacker has more flexibility with its tiered model but Signpost also offers good value for the money if you just need review generation.
Birdeye’s higher tiers get quite expensive.
Overall, ReputationStacker is likely the best choice for small businesses focused on their online reputation.
