concierge

customer service representative

consultant

travel advisor

junior reporting analyst

Aspire Lifestyles

This company does everything to bring employees in; extensive recruiting, hefty referral bonuses for current employees, and there is a long, in-depth training period that is very welcoming to new employees and really helps you feel as comfortable as possible when starting a new, challenging position.

And that's where the support ends.

Once you're doing the job, there are very few people in the office above the colleagues you share a job title with, who actually care about how hard you work there.

If you finish a call and need (key word; NEED) 15 minutes to work on something based on the call, most of the time your superiors (at various levels of the company) will disregard everything you are telling them about the responsibilities your previous customer has provided to you, and will simply tell you to take another call.  Even if they completely understand what it is you have to do, they will avoid rational thinking because their only desire is to eliminate the calls in queue. If you do not comply, then 2-3 different people will call you or walk over to your desk and take the same approach of simply telling you that you need to take another call, and completely disregard your workload.

If you spend an hour resolving a major company issue by both helping a customer and preventing the company from having to pay out to that customer, or save your supervisor the tirade of dealing with the whiny customer, you're only going to be asked to hurry up and finish documenting the work. You will not be thanked for your efforts.

Keep in mind, this isn't a regular call center where you CAN just take call after call. Each call regularly requires 5-15 minutes of work after.


Additionally, your bonus is routinely taken away by things that are completely out of your control, such as customer surveys that clearly have nothing to do with you. They actually have a system in place to eliminate those surveys, but they still end up counting despite the system. You'll lose hundreds of dollars every month based on idiotic customer survey responses.

Also, the customers, who you have to speak to, or are at least as awful as the people that you have to report to. They have unrealistic expectations about how the world works and expect you to fill their void of self confidence by pretending they're far more important to the world than they ever will be.


There are extremely limited advancement opportunities, and next to zero opportunities to make a higher salary (pay increases based on performance and despite having next to perfect statistics, you will not get more than 50 cents an hour for your annual raise, if you don't quit before then). If you are planning to submit an application to this company, you should also plan to leave quickly. 

The only reason to stay here is that you haven't found a new job yet. The only thing tenured employees have in common is that we drink a lot and are looking for somewhere else to spend 40 hours of our lives each week. Save yourself the depression and keep looking. No former employee misses working here.

Do you enjoy near impossible standards? Then Aspire is the right place for you. You're working third-party for a major credit card company with extremely high standards and wealthy clients. They expect that you get everything written down for each call as detailed as possible (in the event that someone else has to take over due to schedule conflicts or the such) but refuse to give you enough time to do so.

Did a client just make so many requests that you need to open and document twelve difference? You had better learn to be the faster typist in the history of forever, because they'll be bugging you to get back on those phones within ten minutes (they claim they give you five minutes to document per event.) But tough that your client is going on a vacation and needs a bunch of information for the many cities they're visiting in Europe.

Why is this? Because they're constantly understaffed because of the horrendous requirements they place on you and no one wants to work there. I wasn't there long, but while I was there at least three team leaders quit, but it could have been as high as five. Also, one of the highest ranking employees left to pursue other opportunities. Seven months after Aspire became Aspire.

There's also the constant fighting between the branches of Chelmsford, MA and Burlingting, ON over who gets to have "close mode." Basically, the company argues who gets to be the most useless between the two branches, and usually Canada wins that one, meaning that the people in the Chelmsford branch have to do even more work, and have added stress to people as they don't have time to do the job they're told to do.

So this company is new and "still learning," but doing a miserable job at it. The turnover rate is absurd and the expectations are not worth the pay they give you.

A typical day at work, you sit down to your assigned seat which you may share with other employees. Log into an outdated system which takes about 20 minutes, so be sure to be early, or you will be late, even if you are sitting in your seat. If you have any technical issues, you won't be paid unless it's approved ie. you may be at work, not getting paid for their own issues. You are given about 5 minutes a week -yes a week- for bathroom breaks that will be paid, otherwise wait for your breaks. You are given ample break time. two paid 15 minute breaks, and an hour unpaid lunch. The work environment is very fake, and people frequently burp, curse, and talk to themselves loudly. People are nice to your face, but will be quick to alert management about anything that bothers them. No clear leadership on the floor as different unofficial titles are given out like candy. You take back to back inbound calls daily, with no aftercall work allowed, or you will get in trouble. There are some good people who work there. If you choose to work here, steer clear of the Citibank concierge area as it is an unsavory work environment, chaotic, and you have no job security as the contractor threatens the contract almost daily. The actual working with the card holders is fine, learning about new destinations is rather riveting. However, most card members are extremely unhappy due to hold times and unkept promises. Management style is very old fashioned. It's their way or the highway. They claim to have an open-door policy, however many have found themselves out of work for speaking up. At the end of a work day you have to go through and approve your statuses of what you did exactly through the day. Company has been known to short employees of wages if they're not properly documented, and employees rarely see the return.

I should have read all of the bad reviews before accepting this job. I was referred to this job my friend that currently works here. They told me really good things about the company and how much they liked it. My experience with the recruiter was very poor. They were extremely condescending. That should have been the first red flag. The training period for this company is extremely short before they expect you to get on the phone with customers. It was very fast paced leaving very little room for questions or comprehension. I did not feel prepared  enough to take calls. There was no call flow and very little guidance on what to do. I encountered many situations with customers that I was not prepared to handle. This is a highly stressful job and there are multiple things you have to remember to do with very vague instructions from the trainers on where they go in the call. This company is extremely disorganized. Navigating through their resources is not easy to find answers quickly. I had let them know my concerns about not fully comprehending where to fit things into the call flow….. I received extremely limited feedback and they continuously referred me back to their vague call flow. The trainers are extremely condescending and will make you feel bad if you don’t understand or meet their expectations. To this day I still don’t know how exactly I was going to meet their expectations to improve. This is by far the absolute worst company I have ever worked for.

I was really excited about a remote position, thinking there would be more flexibility.  What I got was the expectation to be chained to my computer for 8 hours a day with a short breaks.  It wore on me mentally after a few months, and unfortunately, management did not care.  The micromanagement is insane, considering how straightforward a customer service job should be.  The bonuses were never paid as expected because calls would be analyzed down to the smallest, nit-picky detail.  The expectation of "white glove" service took every bit of humanity out of the calls, and ironically, the customers never seemed to mind more of the human touch.  That didn't matter though, because if a call with too much "casual language" was pulled for review, you'd be penalized even if the customer complimented you.  The pay was good, but not necessarily enough considering how often certain people were expected to take on other's responsibilities when they were too lazy to complete tasks themselves.  Supervisors were rarely helpful, even if we were being berated and cursed at by customers.  The lowly concierges were expected to take the mistreatment, and often asked to call irate customers back even after they'd demanded to speak to someone in a higher position.  Overall, it was quite possibly one of the worst jobs I've ever had which is sad because it had the potential to be one of the best.  

The best part about this job was the customers I spoke to everyday and only one colleague I enjoyed talking to. My TL was a joke, the only and I mean ONLY time I heard from him was when he needed to publicly belittle me in front of others via Skype. The HR department, every single one of them needs to be terminated ASAP. When I mentioned how I was treated by my TL,  (which they knew since it was publicly done via Skype) my emergency contact (who was a family member) was called and asked how my home office looked (which HR knew how it looked since sending a picture of it was a condition of employment) That is not an emergency so there was no need to reach out to my emergency contact whatsoever! When I said something, I was told they had the right to do that since I had their equipment (which is a clear invasion of my privacy) and since I had no one else to turn to, I quit and gave back their equipment. I basically had to leave a job I absolutely loved because I was harassed by my TL and HR. I had no one to turn to after that. Wonderful customers, verbally abusive management and HR. If you want your personal privacy violated under the guise of "you have our stuff so we can spy on you whenever we want" then come work here.

I have been with this company for a few years now and, seen a lot of turn over in my time. Managers seem to come and go and while most are there to help some are there to help themselves. Since the pandemic life here has been drastically different. They have made several huge cuts while our client has made zero. This puts a real bad taste in the employees mouths as it comes off as being viewed in dollar signs rather than as a person. You can be dedicated to your work, out perform your peers and still you’ll be laid off without a second thought. It’s disheartening when you see others who should have left still around and, others that were let go that would have been value to keep. Upper management really doesn’t say much and, will tell you to keep quiet about serious things - like being laid off so others don’t get panicked. There is no loyalty in that at all. The client we serve has not laid off a single person but aspire has laid off nearly 400 people and, some right after the holidays. It just says a lot about a company. 

Aspire Lifestyles offers substantial compensation as well as proficient benefits like medical, dental, etc. While the mission of the company is good at heart (Extraordinary Every Time), it often takes a massive toll on employees; those who work the front-end are often asked to assist with back-end work and are only compensated if the work load causes them to go past the end of their shift - on top of that, you need to have your Unplanned Over Time approved if it's longer than 5 minutes. 

All in all, the job is relatively easy, and you find yourself learning a lot about things you might not think about like world class dining and one of a kind tours. Additionally, you find that you learn more about the things you thought you already knew about like buying tickets for concerts or researching a reliable service. 

As with any job, you'll have your good days and your not so good days when you work at Aspire Lifestyles; it's a balancing act for sure, but proper balance comes from assistance on both ends.

The Hiring process with them is just dumb - while they are running a background AND credit check on you, they require you to have a land line installed in your residence which has to be a different company than your internet.  They do not pay for the installation of the land line and they do not pay your phone bill once you start. 

They also require a Cross Cut Paper Shredder (again, you pay for out of pocket - and you are not reimbursed) also before your background and credit check clears. You will also continue to pay for your own internet as well.

What you are paid for the position you are doing is not good, especially since you are dealing with the Elite Card Holders of American Express. 

If you are willing to pay for everything that is required out of pocket and BEFORE your Background and Credit Check clears and be ok with paying for your phone bill and internet with NO Reimbursement from them, good for you. If not, go find a good position elsewhere that actually pays for your phone and internet when you work from home.

The SDM's will help you in anyway to make your job easier and help you move up in the company. But Upper management has forgotten what it is like to be on the phones 24/7 if they have every done the job we are hired for. 

They are not giving raises this year and moved them to Jan 2024 which means we will get two raises in 2024(hopefully). But the cost of living has gone up along with the medical and it's hard to make a living. I was hoping to get enough to cover the $60 insurance premium raise this yr but NOPE!!!!

I truly believe that the chiefs cannot understand what the Indians are doing for the company if you have never done this job and dealt with the CM's!!!

We are the ones that answers the phones plan the trips and deal with Clients all with white glove service!!! 

PTO is a joke!!!! We can't occur time off with as slow as we get it and we only get 80 hours of PTO and that includes sick time!!! I have not worked for a company that only gives 40 hours for vacation and 40hours for sick time with us not being able to every get more time off paid. It does not matter how long you have worked for Aspire you never get more than 80 hours a year!



Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Concierge 2 salaries reported	$16.00 per hour
Customer service representative 13 salaries reported	$18.12 per hour
Consultant 3 salaries reported	$16.33 per hour
Travel advisor 1 salary reported	$24.00 per hour
Junior reporting analyst 1 salary reported	$78,380 per year

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