User Reviews Overview
About Swell
Swell makes it easy for local businesses to gain visibility into their customers' experience by taking the complexity out of it. By enabling businesses to gather real-time feedback, online reviews, customer satisfaction surveys...
Learn moreAll Swell Reviews Apply filters
Browse Swell Reviews
All Swell Reviews Apply filters
- Industry: Construction
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Better option than Podium
Very easy to set up and very nice to have a great customer support team.
Pros
Cost effective- easy to communicate with support
Cons
There are glitches that happen occasionally
Alternatives Considered
Zendesk SuiteReasons for Choosing Swell
Podiums customer service was pretty much non existent and also their review platform didn't work all the time. InconsistentSwitched From
PodiumReasons for Switching to Swell
Cost and similarity to what we were used to with Podium- Industry: Entertainment
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Swell with pride using Swell! They're as good as their name!
Well, after 10 years, I had the highest-rated and best-known company in my industry. But we were only sitting around with a few hundred reviews. I think in the first year with Swell, we accumulated 500 or 600 more. Like a dummy, a cheaper Canadian company came in with big promises and I took it seriously and switched to them. They stalled me for nearly a year with nothing to show for it and knew they were in the wrong. Not only did their CEO never return a call, that company hasn't been much heard of since. I consider that a huge mistake and personally believe that had I stayed with Swell, I'd be closing in on 2000 reviews today or nearly twice where my company currently sits. Not only did Swell show empathy to this error in judgment, they swung me back at a handsome discount which meant a lot!
Pros
Easy to use, attractive clean look on client's phones and makes them want to review. Really lovely staff and have always worked hard to improve their platform and take suggestions into kind along with taking care of requests. The pricing is hard to beat for the value.
Cons
I don't think using the phrase "don't like" is fair as it would sound overly critical. I think the more difficult part is the lessening of meritocracy at least on Google and if you're not playing their Google Ads game, the mountains of reviews, and my company has them at 4.8 rating which is nearly impossible in my industry to maintain, doesn't weigh in as it used to but I don't fault Swell there and of course, they have other review social media arenas you can opt for which I've not really attempted but when starting with Swell, Google was still more merit oriented. We'll see how it goes now that I'm doing some more Google Ads and haven't given up yet! I would like to see Swell work with Google as far as questionable reviews which sadly Google has ignored every appeal I've made respective of one in particular that uses profanity both in their handle and in the review. It would be cool if Swell had some inroad there.
Alternatives Considered
ChekkitReasons for Switching to Swell
I opted for Swell first for a year but they were still developing, no app yet, and it was clunkier for the money. Chekkit came in with big promises, very little result and so coming back to Swell was an easier choice, for a reduced rate and by the time I got set back up, Swell had made a ton of improvements I've been offered by other like companies to switch or to look at their programs but Swell has my loyalty especially having gone through a total dryspell for a year with Chekkit which was a complete waste of time and energy and probably cannot truly calculate the revenue I didn't receive with them.- Industry: Events Services
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
It's fine
Expensive and not amazing.
Pros
I implemented Swell because I was very impressed with the sales person [SENSITIVE CONTENT] and needed a software that I could add to my website to both allow potential clients to ask questions, etc AND encourage guests to write reviews.
Cons
I do not find the support to be great. In fact I initially stopped using Swell, because I did not like the person helping me and then when I was talked back into coming back, I was put with her again. She was not much nicer and then I reached out to ask question, she told me to go ask someone else because it was not in her job description anymore, so I did and I basically was told that I wasn't trained correctly...I wanted out of my expensive contract and was told no. So I am riding it out and hoping things get better and using it minimally. The app does not do half of what the website does. The back end of the website is not super intuitive. Review alert is slow.
Response from Swell CX
Hi Evan, thanks for sharing this feedback - especially about your experience with our support and app. I've shared it with our team and we will take it into account going forward to make sure we can offer the best product experience AND support experience. Thanks for being a customer.
Top Swell Alternatives
- Industry: Construction
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
Game Changer
Overall our number of reviews has increased and a step was taken off of our team's plate since the links are sent automatically. Swell has also relieved the stress that our team used to have about having to answer chats immediately or risk losing the lead.
Pros
We use Swell for two purposes, one being as our website chat and the other being as a way to request reviews from customers. The website chat feature has been a huge help because potential customers do not have to stay on the website for us to respond, all communication is to their phone, but through the Swell platform on our end. This has proved to be very efficient.
As for the review requests, our reviews have increased exponentially, and we credit it to how easy Swell's links make it to leave us a review. On our end, we also like that once we convert a lead in our CRM to a customer they are automatically entered into Swell's system. They are then automatically scheduled to be sent a review request at 6:00 p.m. that evening. Overall this has automated our system for reviews and made the experience easier for our customers.
Cons
It would be nice for the website chats to link up to our CRM so we can see if they are already a lead and be able to add them to our CRM from Swell if they are not. This is not a dealbreaker by any means.
The other thing is that the company we worked with before had a widget that we could put on our website so that our reviews automatically showed on our website. Something like this would be nice to have again, but still not a dealbreaker.
Reasons for Choosing Swell
We used one company for our review management system and another for our website chat. Swell allowed us to put this all on one platform. We were able to get Swell for slightly more than we were paying to just have a review management system before. With the previous company, our team had to send the requests and we were averaging one to two reviews a month. Now we average that a week.Reasons for Switching to Swell
Swell made the most sense for us because of its price and it had a seemingly easier platform, which has been proven true since using Swell. The initial meeting showing me the platform was very informative and I was never pressured into making a purchase, follow-ups were only done at agreed-upon times.- Industry: Entertainment
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
The SMS Marketing Platform that fits in your budget.
I see a lot of companies advertising themselves as the solution for small businesses. Yet, their pricing is high and honestly pretty restrictive in what you can actually do with it. Especially for small businesses.
Swell is the exception.
Their price point for the web chat, reviews, and SMS campaigns are totally fair. Not to mention their customer service team has gone above and beyond for us getting our integrations worked out.
I would encourage any company looking to implement a new SMS software to go with Swell.
Pros
We weren't restricted to a maximum number of contacts. No matter how many contacts we have, the price is the same.
Cons
Nothing notable. They're a smaller company which caused some issues between one of our APIs. (Likely because we are the first ones to need this certain API). That being said, the Swell team has been great with working with the other company to get things fixed.
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCampaignReasons for Choosing Swell
We didn't mind Podium. They worked great with some of our other software. The cost was just too much. We were looking at an additional $200 a month just to send a monthly SMS message to SOME of our customers. (We weren't restricted to the monthly messages. That's just the frequency of our campaigns). The cost increases the more contacts you have.Switched From
PodiumReasons for Switching to Swell
The cost and tools provided by Swell fit exactly what we needed.- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
BirdEye was good; Swell is GREAT!
I’m writing this review because I have been very happy with Swell in our first 3 months of use. The software has exceeded my expectations! I have also been absolutely thrilled with Swell’s customer service. I always get an answer or solution within the day of my inquiry. Fantastic!
Pros
Swell is very easy to implement, and the dashboard is intuitive and user-friendly.
My favorite Swell feature is one I thought might be a negative: customers leave a review after only one click. Why would a one-click system be a negative? We previously used BirdEye and were very happy with them. Unfortunately, a programming glitch did not allow our practice management software to function with BirdEye on our server, so we had to part ways. But one BirdEye feature I really appreciated was a system to help guide unhappy customers to contact us directly instead of leaving a poor review on Google or Facebook. As a marketer, I try to avoid negative reviews like the plague! What I didn’t realize was that BirdEye’s “safety valve” involved extra screens for even the most enthusiastic customer to click through. When we switched to Swell, our sales representative convinced me that, based on our practice’s outstanding history of 5-star reviews, we likely didn’t need that safety net. Additionally, he was certain the one-click-to-leave-a-review system would lead to more customers leaving reviews. He was absolutely correct! We averaged 1-2 reviews a week with BirdEye, but have already had several days in which we received 5-7 reviews per day(!!) with Swell!
Cons
The two details I have asked Swell to address are:
- A small review counting badge that we can install in the header of our website (they are working on it).
- For our replies to reviews to be visible in the Swell review scroll that we have on our website. Again, I hear the technical wizards at Swell are working to fulfill this request.
Reasons for Choosing Swell
As previously stated, a software compatibility issue between BirdEye and our practice management system required us to part ways. I was very sorry to leave BirdEye, but what a blessing in disguise! We have captured FAR more reviews with Swell than we ever did with BirdEye.Switched From
Birdeye- Industry: Construction
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
Not bad for the money, not amazing though.
My experience has been okay, but not amazing. Not the best, certainly not the worst. It's a solid ok.
Pros
The interface is easy to use. It's clean and easy to understand.
Cons
We were sold on an integration with our current CRM. Swell has not been able to deliver on that promise. I don't feel like they have a lot of support to troubleshoot these issues.
Alternatives Considered
BroadlyReasons for Choosing Swell
We made the switch because Podium didn't deliver on certain promises.Switched From
PodiumReasons for Switching to Swell
Price and features. Integration with our CRM, which is clunky at best.- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
Great alternative!
We love the product and feel like they really listen to their customers!
Pros
We love all the thoughtful extras they have built into the application. We made the switch and we are glad we did!
Cons
It needs to run a little bit better. Swell hasn’t worked out all the kinks
Reasons for Choosing Swell
Issues and lack of customer service with podiumSwitched From
PodiumReasons for Switching to Swell
Price and user interface- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
Swell is 5 stars
Swell is very easy to use and works well to communicate with patients.
Pros
I love the 2 way texting it is very convenient for chatting with patients for scheduling, rescheduling.
Cons
At times even when a patient is in the system it will not find them so then I try and add them into the system and then it finds the patient.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
Swell Review 2024
Great, It's an excellent service that allows ease of access for reviews to patients and User Interface for it's consumers.
Pros
The ease of access to view, reply and make adjustments when necessary to reviews, and contacts.
Cons
The length of time for implementation of Swell as a part of our workflow.
- Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
-
Review Source
Great Product/Sub-par Customer Support
Pros
The product works great at solicitating reviews and responding to the results.
Cons
The product is great, but the customer service sucks. We had an issue with posting reviews to our website using a widget they provided – it worked on the desktop but not on the mobile – and it was impossible to get help. Each time I reached out I got an email reply that said they’re working on it. When I called the phone number that they provided I got a message that basically said, “we don’t take phone calls so send us an email or text message.” After four months of hearing that the Swell development team is working on it, I finally resorted to posting a negative Facebook recommendation. That got some action. Within 45 minutes I got a phone call from someone at Swell. He patiently listened to my issues and said he’d check into it. Within an hour I got an email explaining how to configure things so it would work with our mobile website. Products like this are all basically the same – different price points and different features, but they’re basically the same – so support is the game changer. For us Swell flunked the test and we’re moving to a different vendor when our agreement expires.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Decent Product With Very Good Customer Service
We have used a different chat platform before switching to Swell. The other chat program seemed to be easier to navigate, so some of the employees feel annoyed by the switch.
Pros
It is a convenient tool that connects me with my customers. Though there are glitches with some of the features, the customer service has been good about looking into the problems.
Cons
There are parts of the design that are not easy to navigate. Some of the features I do not use because they are vaguely marked and I don't want to hassle with them. As stated earlier there have been glitches with the photo features when using my iPhone. The first issue was resolved, which was that the photo feature was not working at all. The second issue may have been resolved but I am tentative to attempt using this feature because it was sending the same photo with every text. I don't want to flood a potential customer with repeating photos every time I try to communicate.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
-
Review Source
Bad customer service
Pros
Sales people were strong at the time of sale.
Cons
customer service was horrible when I was using it. Could not talk to anybody. And when it was improved, they did not have any experience
Response from Swell CX
Hey Michael, I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with our support team. We're continuing to put more resources into helping our customers and we'd love to see if we can rectify some of the challenges you've had. Please reach out at [email protected] or give us a call at a (844) 560-2626.
- Industry: Recreational Facilities & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
-
Review Source
Very nice company
Nice people, not our favorite but we liked their staff
Pros
We found swell customer service to be available and helpful
Cons
The automation system never worked right
Response from Swell CX
Hey Karen, thanks for your review! If there's anything we can do to help out with the automations, please reach out to us. Our phone support is open from 8 AM - 5PM MT at: 844-560-2626. You can also chat in on our website 7 AM - 5PM MT.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Great as a texting platform
Although clumsy in some aspects it overall fits our needs at the time being as being a way to contact and stay in touch with clients without sharing our personal numbers.
Pros
Swell is easy to use and works well as a basic web chat/ customer text service. It's easy to keep track of each employees customer interactions. Uploading our client information was pretty seamless and our onboarding included a lot of support with even tutorial videos sent to share with the team at my request.
Cons
There is room for improvement. Sending photos to clients is hit or miss...when they do send it sends when you click...it would be nice if there was a preview so that you are sure you send the correct photo. We have had a lot of issues with the app for our team members that don't have IPhones. The notifications can feel a little clumsy at times. There is no real way to see who has sent reviews when...you can see the reviews and what stage they are in but further expansion would be helpful
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
Great Software, Working on the Glitches
We really like Swell, the concept, and the process. Once the bugs from the new program get worked out, we'll be extremely happy.
Pros
We love the ability to text our patients and chat with them when they are not able to take a phone call. We use this daily for appointment confirmations and send out our review requests. We also love that there is an app. I will be logging into that this week to see how it works. I'll be chatting with the other 7 clinics to update them on how to use it on a daily basis.
Cons
1) We are struggling with the restrictions on the phone numbers. If we block a phone number so they do not receive additional reviews (this is when they've left a review, we do not want them to keep getting those requests), we are unable to use the texting feature for their appointment confirmations. We would love a feature that disables one portion of the program but allows us to keep other portions. 2) We also cannot get OpenDental to work with Swell to stop texting children. It continues to text the children's parent but with the child's name asking for the review. It brings laughs from several parents who get this for each child but I do not think everyone smiles from it. We have tried numerous things such as setting a guardian, a parent, or guarantor but it has not worked yet. We'll figure out which one works but in the meantime, it's been a tough one. 3)
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Excellent product
Overall it has been a great experience and they are extremely easy to work with
Pros
We work with many dentists and have found that they have a hard time sending out review invites. They get busy and the front office forgets often. Swell integrates directly with the office software and automates the entire system. The result is hundreds of great reviews.
Cons
As they are a newer software, they do not have a help page yet with articles so I have to ask directly. But they have very swift customer support so all my issues have gotten handling rapidly.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Great Service and Easy to Use!
It has been very easy and the process has been great! No complaints.
Pros
I love that we can customize which providers patients are sent the text message to write a review. We have multiple providers in our practice and some providers team's choose to send them manually and some want them automatically sent at the end of the day. I also love that you can choose to send certain messaging contingent on the service that took place. Great Software!
Cons
I wish that it had the option to help with negative reviews. We don't get many, but it would be great if those could be filtered, in order to give us time to respond to them before they are posted. However, I know this is not possible for Swell to do, but would love that capability.
Response from Swell CX
Thanks for this great review, Jen!
- Industry: Consumer Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
-
Review Source
Swell makes communications with our customers quick & easy!
Pros
For my role in my company, I use Swell to reach out to customers to notify them of upcoming due dates, send review requests, and respond to online inquiries. Sometimes, previous customers even submit order requests by texting us on Swell. I find that most people nowadays (myself included!) prefer to communicate by text messaging rather than phone calls. Our customers often give us positive feedback about the ease of communication with us. I like that Swell gives us the option to archive conversations in case we ever need to refer back to them, and searching for a contact is a quick and easy process.
Cons
There are only a couple minor things that bother me about Swell. Often when I am adding a new contact, I can't just click "Start Chat" and immediately start a conversation. I have to click this button twice, and then click on the Message icon to refresh the page. Then, the new conversation will load and I am able to begin the chat. it would be quicker if the new conversation was ready when "Start Chat" was clicked the first time. Also, I think it would be very helpful if the web application for Swell automatically refreshed in real time, versus me having to manually reload the page to see if I've received any new messages.
- Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Amazing!
By far the best product of its type that I have ever used and I have used several.
Pros
Swell is the most effective review system that I have seen! It is very easy to use, integrated with our software seamlessly and our review count has gone through the roof!! Simply amazing!
Cons
I really don't have a lot of complaints regarding this software. It does the job very well.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Review by Sailing Client
Very good relationship with representatives.
Pros
Promotes feedback and client ratings to show the quality and variety of client experiences at Shamrock Sailing Adventures.
Cons
Pricing for seasonal plans. Need to explore campaigning options that may make more valuable to promoting business expansion
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Great software for Price
We have been very pleased since the switch!
Pros
Love the texting reminder for reviews! That has helped increase our review response quite a bit.
Cons
I wish I could text or email in the same area.
Response from Swell CX
Thanks for this review, Robin! I'm glad you've been happy with your switch to Swell.
- Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
We love swell
Excellent experience, I often do recommend Swell to my collogues at other offices to boost online exposure
Pros
Patient Reviews- Its an easy and convenient way for our patients to write us reviews which ultimately increased our business
Cons
I cant say there is anything I do not like about Swell.
Response from Swell CX
Thank you, Victoria! We're so glad you're enjoying Swell and we really appreciate you recommending it to your colleagues, too!
- Industry: Furniture
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for Free Trial
-
Review Source
Zak's Home Swell Review
I enjoyed my experience with Swell. Unfortunately, I was not able to continue using it due to a lack of a few features that are needed in my operation. Since then, two of the features have been added, but the notification feature is still missing. Once Swell becomes more feature rich, I will probably switch back to it. Again, the staff is great!
Pros
I very much enjoyed the support staff. They were very helpful. The software admin page is very useful as well.
Cons
It would be nice to select what notifications are sent. Right now, you either get them all or none. Being able to personalize a feedback template is needed as well.
- Industry: Financial Services
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
-
Review Source
It's swell!
Overall experience with Swell has been fabulous! Our CSM [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is absolutely outstanding to work with!
Pros
The ease of use from account set up to receiving your first review. I like that I'm able to connect all of our necessary review accounts and that we're even able to connect our Google & Facebook accounts so that we can respond in real time.
Cons
That there are still 2 version of the software available. It could be user error but there are still times where I'm unable to do something in the new version and have to revert back to the old version.