CoStar Group reviews

CoStar is a company that talks a lot about being proactive, unfortunately this is the most reactive company I have ever worked for. It is known to all staff that when CoStar does a 'client survey' that means usually a small number of clients reply and on the basis of a small number of clients they go into panic mode and start reinventing the wheel as such. If you ever ask how many clients have replied to the survey the question is pretty much ignored or avoided. About three years ago they changed up a research process that was working well based on a few comments from clients, They then did a trial run of this process for 3 months based on a market that liked CoStar ignoring all other markets and deemed it a success. They then changed the entire process, this process was then run for the next two years based on CoStar's so called ideas (from upper management) when staff would point out processes were not efficient and did not work they were shot down. The all of a sudden it was all change again, because higher management finally had the 'duh' moment and realised their idea was a flop and once again jobs were changed, people were demoted and we went back to the old way of research. Now again in January we were told that we weren't doing our jobs right and needed to change. A speech was made about CoStar does not sell calls but sells data, but all of a sudden staff were told to make out 20 calls a day over 90 seconds. Now in reality this might not seem a lot to people but in CoStar, trying to to get agents, investors & property owners on the phone is difficult without high call volume targets. On the back of this the volume of data that cannot be added is just stupid, as we are constantly being told that we need to be on the phone more. We get data but we can't add it because we need to be on the phone to get more data. The term 'respect your clients time' is constantly being thrown about but at this moment CoStar has no respect for clients time. As another message being sent out is every time a client sends you data you should phone them. So if a client sends you data several times a day then they need to be called. If you are not calling them then you are questioned as to why because all incoming emails are audited to check response levels. Now CoStar has pushed their American branding & benefit statements on the staff making it compulsory to say specific statements at the start and end of every call irrelevant of how many times you have spoken to that individuals that day. This also includes tenants that have no idea about CoStar, have really no need to know what CoStar do because why would someone working in a retail shop need to know if all you are calling to do is confirm they are in that address. If you tell upper management that the UK & US markets are different you are shot down. These compulsory statements are making staff look like a joke in front of clients who previously stated they didn't want to talk to a call centre. Staff have worked extremely hard to become important to their clients and forge good relationships that are now turning sour. But in reality, in true CoStar fashion its always the same thing they tell you again and again that calling agents is what makes them different. Staff know this but also ask for realistic targets and understanding the meaning of truly respecting a clients time and not turning experienced and professional staff into script reading robots. If you say anything you are made to feel like rubbish, the morale is extremely low and the sickness levels are extremely high due to stress. Management are so desperate to keep their own jobs they are pushing pressure onto the the research staff that are falling to pieces trying to get everything done. Not so subtle comments are being made about working over time because 'you get paid well enough'. If you can't work the extra hours you are being pretty much told you are not a team player. The sad thing is people are looking to leave, its not that easy to find a new role but people are trying the best that they can until they can get a new job. For a company that once would have been a good place to work as the research role itself is interesting, they have lost the true value of staff engagement and instead become a company that pushes until staff break.

Where do you start with cons? Could be here forever. The training is abysmal, 20 odd people crushed round a projector trying to view some slides is amateur at best but that's how you get shown new processes, etc after that there is no staff development and coaching, they would rather sack someone than show them how to improve at their job. There is a revolving door of staff, the staff turnover rates must be really high. People seem to get fired constantly, very American. Staff leave constantly due to varying factors like unable to progress, being treated unfairly by management and HR, and the boredom of the job. The management seem to get rotated constantly, I was there just under a year and had 4 different managers. Every manager done things differently from the last and would describe your role in a different way so you were never sure if what you were doing was actually correct. There are far too many young managers who lack basic life experience. They all become soulless corporate robots who can no longer think for themselves and become brainwashed into thinking everything Costar says is right, never questioning these decisions even though they could impact on their own staff. The management need a lesson in basic people skills. The HR department was a joke, there ended up being no HR presence in our office so you were just emailing faceless people who didn't seem to care about any problems you had. Instead of being independent they were pumped full of Costar propaganda. Staff were often paid incorrectly, almost on a weekly basis in my department especially when it came to bonuses. The bonus system was changing all the time so the payments were always incorrectly processed. The rules seemed to change depending on whether your manager liked you or not, if you ever spoke up or questioned anything your card is marked, any excuse and you will be out the door. Most of the work seems to be copying and pasting information from other sites onto Costar's systems for them to sell the information or cold calling people who don't want to know anything about Costar. People might read this and think I'm a bitter ex-employee but this information can be verified by countless people. I found the office lacked a professionalism that I had got used to with previous employers.