Duluth, MN, (April 8, 2021) – Dealers with an ARI website can now communicate with their online leads anytime and anywhere through Premium Text, ARI’s dynamic texting platform, engineered by Podium.

Through Premium Text, users can leverage the power of texting with customers, promote sales, collect payment and request individual reviews. In addition, Premium Text can be used for other functions such as providing special offers on maintenance and repair services.

“It’s a real pleasure to collaborate with Podium to boost the impact of our digital services and drum up more business for our dealers,” says Chris Woerner, Chief Product Officer at ARI. “With powerful customer communication tools, dealers can create an outreach strategy that works for their dealership and makes it easy for them to increase lead engagement, build customer loyalty and grow their revenue.”

Premium Text is a welcomed addition to ARI’s suite of website and digital marketing services, which are designed to drive more online and offline traffic through innovative strategies. Included in the long list of services are industry-inspired websites, mobile optimization, ongoing ADA website compliance, prominent website lead forms and calls to action, online live chat tools, online inventory management and automated listings and 360-degree imagery. Premium Text enhances the efficacy of these services by providing dealers with a multi-use customer outreach tool to connect with their online shoppers.

“Consumers have increasing expectations for businesses to offer digital customer service, including a variety communication options, with texting being the most preferred,” says Ross Tinkham, Director of Business Development at Podium. “Most dealerships don’t have the time in their day to dedicate enough focus to each channel, and as a result leads start to fall through the cracks. Premium Text removes the friction of communicating across multiple channels by giving dealers a singular platform to track conversations and touch base with shoppers during crucial moments of the buying cycle.”

About ARI Network Services
For nearly 40 years, ARI Network Services, Inc. (ARI) has offered an award-winning suite of SaaS, software tools and marketing services to help dealers, equipment manufacturers and distributors in selected vertical markets increase sales – online and in-store. Business is complicated, but we believe our customers’ technology tools don’t have to be. We remove the complexity of selling and servicing new and used inventory, parts, garments and accessories (PG&A) so that our client base of more than 23,500 equipment dealers, 195 distributors and 3,360 brands worldwide can leverage our web and eCatalog platforms to sell more inventory.

About Podium
Podium is a leading interaction management platform that helps modernize the way business is done locally. By consolidating multi-channel conversations into a single platform, Podium removes the friction of managing multiple interactions and mitigates the risk of dropping the conversation. More than 65,000 local businesses trust Podium to help them get found, get chosen and get connected to their consumers online.