I have gone back and forth about writing this review for quite some time. However, since we are now actively hiring for the role, I feel compelled to let the potential candidates know what type of a company and role they’re getting themselves into.
As you’re reading throughout the rest of the reviews, I think you’ll be able to find some common threads across the negative reviews, as well as the positive ones. Management has offered gift cards on multiple occasions to write positive reviews for the company….keep that in mind.
First, I must discuss management at Houzz. As I had mentioned in the pros above, the CSM channel has some strong managers directly leading the teams that truly care about the success and well-being of their reps. Unfortunately, upper management is the opposite. She could care less about the extremely high turnover in our position, how low the channel’s morale is, and how the ineffective product reps are defending everyday isn’t working. She completely disregards the feedback that we have given to try and improve the role. Her lack of responsiveness in regards to all things - including our commissions/paychecks is extremely disturbing. Often times we won’t find out what we were being paid until the day before our paycheck comes...and by often...every month. If they don’t listen or respect outcries from our direct managers, how do you expect them to listen and respect us as reps?
We recently brought on a new member to the leadership team. He doesn’t acknowledge problems within our department and refers to reps as lazy and spoiled.
Now back to the high turnover in this position. Let me tell you a few reasons why all of the top reps are continuing to quit and look for other jobs. About a year ago, they switched the renewal process in our role to an auto-renewal model. Although pros had been having renewal calls for years, we were instructed to not inform them of their upcoming renewal and instead auto-renew their program for an entire year without warning. Although being auto-renewed for a full new term, the cancellation option we give them is paying for another 120 days before being removed. As you can imagine, this has turned our job into a customer service role, where we are no longer servicing accounts, but instead are being yelled at daily by pros demanding to rightfully cancel their programs. Due to the high turnover, our account load has tripled, which gives us even less time to effectively service our accounts. The department that is actively selling the accounts is so desperate to make sales at this point (because all of the leads left are so overworked and awful) that they have resorted to dishonest sales practices in order to hit their goals for the month. They are selling to people that aren’t a fit for the program and then wiping their hands clean once the pro requests to cancel two months in. The pro has already given their billing information, so once they’ve signed on the dotted line, it doesn’t matter to the initial sales rep. Guess whose paycheck it then affects? The CSM that was unfortunately assigned that account. This isn’t few and far between. This happens everyday. We are the only department that is held accountable for anything within this company, including blatant snake oil sales and beta tests where the product ultimately ends up failing.
Overall, the program that we’re defending everyday is a completely confused product. It’s not being managed the way it’s being sold, and not performing the way that it’s being sold. The disconnect is evident and continues to go unaddressed. The unethical business practices do not help. They coach us not to discuss renewals with the pros and the auto-renewal is hidden and buried within the fine print of the agreement. Run if you have any moral compass.
If you come into the office for an interview and are directed away from certain areas of the pods, it’s because there are so many empty desks and the poor recruiters don’t have a good excuse as to why so many people have left.
