Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are well positioned to make huge strides in their industry through digital integration and modern tools. Helping SMEs directly to streamline their processes and optimize the customer experience is the key Dallas-based SaaS company which went public last year, Thryv. The company’s flagship platform is a large-scale CRM software application that enables small businesses to manage their customer experiences. By providing an intuitive end-to-end platform to modernize operations, Thryv ultimately positions SMEs for growth.
Thryv CEO and Chairman Joe Walsh recently spoke at the YSC New Ideas Annual Conference to provide expert insight into his business and the small business landscape, and to discuss what puts cloud services at the forefront of business.
Walsh began by guiding participants through the thryv story, the purpose of the company and where he sees the direction of the company. Thryv has an interesting story. What started out as a marketing business has evolved into a SaaS business. Walsh identified the unique opportunity ahead of Thryv – to pursue SME marketing with a niche audience ready to act. His insight led Thryv to pivot to target these small business owners and help them envision digital long before it became mainstream.
Joe Walsh recognized early on that small businesses would likely use the cloud every day. He believed that one day business leaders would be:
- Search for real-time updates
- Calendar management
- Social media update
- Communicate with clients
At first, Walsh recalled how foreign his vision for the future was to most small businesses – only a few SMEs were ready to test the waters. Over time the belief grew and people started to see what CRM (customer relationship management) software could offer their small businesses.
People have identified with the vision and now everyone is ready to take that leap, he told the conference. It didn’t take long for the Thryv SaaS crowd to grow. The company has continued to update the software to meet the changing needs and demands of its customers.
Walsh said the pandemic has only increased the need for small businesses to embrace the cloud and go digital. He says Thryv customers have been able to reap the benefits of COVID-19, including:
- Contactless payments and delivery
- Upgrade protocols
- Virtual connection with customers
- Keep teleworkers informed
Thryv tools are specially created to facilitate the operation of SMEs.
Thryv can also help you manage business details, automating your ad updates in over 60 places on the web. This is extremely important when something like COVID causes daily changes to schedules, policies, offers and more.
Finally, ThryvPaySM is the in-house payment tool that offers lower fees, real-time confirmations and faster payments. According to Walsh, it is the most widely used payment tool on the Thryv platform because of the benefits it offers to businesses that use it.
Walsh says Thryv has builds a whole customer experience and that is why the SaaS company has been so successful.
“Mom and pop’s small businesses didn’t even know what the cloud was,” he says. He recommended early on that Thryv use their assets (thousands of SMB clients) to look to working with small businesses as their primary target audience. He wanted to focus on the needs and pains of the small business owner because that was the crowd that was largely ignored at the time.
What started as a marketing department has now spread to SaaS for which Thryv is well known today. While both sides of the business are flourishing (pun intended), the company claims it’s the SaaS side that brings freedom to its customers in the form of the cloud.
“There’s just a lot of technological advancements that have happened,” Walsh explained at the New Ideas conference. “And a lot more openness to embracing technology.”
About Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh is Managing Director and Chairman of Thryv. He joined the company in 2014 and has helped implement many strategies and changes to support growth and development. He is perhaps best known for his stint at Yellowbook, where he was CEO and Chairman. There, he took the business from $ 38 million in revenue as a small public directory publisher to over $ 2 billion in revenue. He was also CEO and President of Walsh Partners, a firm specializing in advisory and investment services.
About CJS Securities, Inc.
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About Thryv Holdings, Inc.
The company has the easy-to-use Thryv® end-to-end customer experience software, designed for small businesses, that helps more than 40,000 SaaS customers meet the day-to-day demands of running a business. With Thryv, they can get the job, handle the job, and get credit. Thryv’s award-winning platform provides modernized business functions, enabling small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to reach more customers, stay organized, get paid faster, and generate reviews. These include creating a digital customer database, automated email and SMS marketing, updating business listings on the internet, scheduling appointments online, sending notifications and reminders, managing ratings and reviews, generating estimates and invoices, and processing payments.
Thryv supports franchisees and multi-site business owners with Hub by Thryv
, a software console that allows business leaders to monitor their operations using Thryv software.
Thryv also connects local businesses with consumer services through our search, display and social media management products, our directories printed with The Real Yellow Pages® tagline and our local search portals, which operate under the names DexKnows. .com®, Superpages.com® and PagesJaunes.com URL and reach some 35 million monthly visitors.
Thryv provides business services to over 400,000 SMEs around the world that enable them to compete and win in today’s economy.