FastSigns Customer Service (CSR) reviews

I worked for a summer at a different location which wasn't bad and I somewhat enjoyed my time there, until I got to Bloomington. Since it was a franchise, it was a completely different owner. I came in and applied for a Sales position while I was in school but came into a disaster fire. The previous CSR left and the only sales guy was also leaving. Instead of me shadowing and learning from the sales guy, I was given one day of training videos that were hard to hear while also attending customers in the front desk without any training. I was weirdly given a mistake allowance by the owner and was told that I could only commit a mistake once. Yes, I was cursed at if I committed a mistake again. During the first week, the owner and the sales guy fought in front of my and the rest of the team and I could tell we were very understaffed. The Owner at a similar location had 12 employees for one building, at this one there were 4. The owners justification for that was because of a branch in another state only had 3 employees and somehow brought in triple what we did. He failed to mention that that specific branch outsourced most of their work. There are many more observations that I noticed that ranged from mistreating the rest of the employees to the brink of tear to racism against the hispanic cleaning guy. There was an instance where a man who recently had his son die from an accident wanted to have some vinyl stickers done for an event to celebrate his sons life. While I was in the middle of talking to him, the owner interrupted us both and asked him what he wanted. Yes, as in "what do you want?". The man explained and showed us designs he was looking for, but the owner just kept rushing him so he could get to the point. At the end of the conversation the owner gave him an outrageous price, which the customer agreed to. But in the end, the owner refused to do this one job because "we would still lose money on it". It wouldn't sound that bad until you realize he gives massive discounts to his friends who own multimillion dollar corporations. The team itself was a great one that actually came to bat for me many times and were the real ones who helped me out. They are, and possibly still are EXTREMELY under-valued. Some of those employees have been there for more than 5 years, yet the owner still refuses to hire more help in order to aid those workers. My breaking point was a meeting we had with everyone where he individually yelled at every single employee for a mistake they committed and slammed his fists down in anger. I realized then that no amount of money (Which wasn't alot to begin with) is worth your dignity.

Working at Fastsigns was an extremely stressful experience. Days were either overwhelmingly busy or completely unproductive, with very little balance. The environment was highly disorganized, with poor management and employees contributing to a chaotic atmosphere. As a franchise, there is no corporate oversight or HR department, leaving employees entirely at the mercy of the owner. In my experience, this created significant challenges, as complaints were rarely taken seriously, and micromanagement was pervasive. Customers could also be verbally abusive, and management offered little to no support in dealing with these situations. The workplace culture felt toxic and unprofessional. Inappropriate comments and offensive “jokes” were commonplace and were often brushed off as harmless, even when they were clearly not. This created an uncomfortable and, at times, hostile environment, particularly for minorities, POC, and women. There was a clear lack of accountability, and professional boundaries were often ignored. On top of these issues, commissions that were promised were never paid, and the so-called “bonuses” were negligible. There were no benefits of any kind, making it difficult to find value in the role. This job might be suitable for someone fresh out of high school looking for basic work experience, but for anyone seeking a professional, respectful workplace, I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere. I couldn’t leave this place fast enough.