software engineer

customer service representative

senior software engineer

implementation specialist

warehouse clerk

CDK Global

From the moment I finished the interview I just felt this place was off. If you are reading this I am going to do my best to explain why a lot of people didn't like it there. 

First off, the job may say Customer Service Rep but really I was an Appointment Setter which is basically Inside/Outside Sales with their own version of incentives. Problem is you are to represent over 100 dealerships you simply don't know much about. The only thing they care about is you do not mess up any dealership's names when it immediately prompts on a new call (with no hold button mind you) because they want you to pretend that you are well versed with each dealership and are up to speed when in actuality you don't know anything at all and are just trying to book as many appointments as possible for them to come in person so that the car dealer there can close a sale.

This place is insanely script base. When you are in customer service, one of the biggest things is having solid product knowledge to help problem solve for servicing customers. We didn't know anything about anything outside of this giant packet they send you that had a bunch of scenarios of customers asking specific questions on being hesitant to drive out of state to not be guaranteed the car they want is even there and your scripted responses are so robotic that when my class roleplayed in break out rooms we all laughed heck even my family said they would just hang up on me if I said these things. And a very extensive number code system you had to add on your after call where if you put the wrong number it's a possibility for immediate termination.

The training was all over the place too. Not even two weeks in training I talked to the entire class and the entire class wanted to quit. If you mispronounced a few dealership names or if you had an accent (out of over 100+ mind you) trying to pronounce some of these foreign names then you got terminated mid training. The nitpicking, training methods, and source materials made you question your sanity at times and question how can you represent over 100 places you have no idea about or have any and I mean ANY idea how to help any customer at all outside of "I don't know but we should schedule you to drive 100 miles to meet the manager because he can probably work something out to get that sale." You end up feeling like your whole job is pointless. All I felt like I was doing was being a sleazy salesman pressuring people to close out sales with places I have 0 knowledge about and have no clue if they can actually help all the while you're part of an auto dialer that keeps calling these people nonstop unless they ask to be put on the Do Not Call list. Boy that sure does sound like good rapport all around with happy customers don't it? 

Also the interface is outdated. Not to mention every call when you try to go on you have to remember the script lines applying them to the newly generated customer info on the screen that is different from training, while simultaneously jotting the notes to pass on to the dealership at the bottom when talking with the customer, while also simultaneously typing up in another glitchy interface each car dealership name that is on the customer info page where they were window shopping to look up their specific check-in policies for appointments, while checking if they'll even accept appointments at the time while you are still talking through the script hoping the screen won't crash mid sentence as you are speaking. Oh and did I forget no hold button?

Overall, just look at the constant amount of turnover rates and constant job postings of this place that should tell it all. It's pretty low paying, high stress, very unorganized, and some of the management you just don't like. I genuinely don't even see the customer service part because we had 0 answers for anyone outside of you'd have to speak with the manager on-site there or I'll add these notes for the manager on-site there. You can find better options trust me.

So I'll start off with the system I was expected to support. I worked in the Fixed Ops support department. The system I supported is entirely proprietary, and will provide no experience useful outside the company. It's a very old legacy system stuck in the IT stone ages. Most of the work you do has to be done through a terminal emulator because significant portions of the system still do not have a GUI. There are outstanding bugs with the system that were documented over a decade ago, that still have not even been looked at by R&D. 

As for the training and documentation for the job: It started out with a 2 & 1/2 month training period. This may seem like a lot but this was largely spent inside a classroom style setting with a large starter group and I only received 1 or 2 days of actual on the job training with a senior agent before they basically threw you to the wolves. Once actually taking calls and chats you find that a good 50-70% of the interactions coming in have nothing to do with what you were trained on. As for the documentation side of things, CDK's knowledge base hasn't had any proper maintenance in years. You're very likely to find that the only article you can find that is has some relevance to the issue you're seeing was created 15 years ago, and has not been updated since. There are also many section of the system that just have no documentation period, and that even the highest tiers of support have never seen before. And I'm not just taking about complex troubleshooting documentation, even basic how to guides on how the customer is supposed to be using the software are missing. I've asked multiple management multiple times about possible updates to this, but have only ever been given a run around or a vague "We're working on it." with no actual details.

On to the management. I had no real problems with my direct manager. He did his best to answer questions I asked him, but a lot of the time he couldn't answer me because upper management refused to answer him. The "Be Open" section of the company values never really caught on with upper management. 
I did however have many issues with the director of my department. One of the first things she said to the starter group I was was that her inclement weather policy was that if she could make the drive in to the office, everyone was expected to make the drive into the office, even though many employees lived in a completely different state. Then a month or so later, she confronted a few member so my starter group, screaming at them, and accusing them of lying and stealing. A week or so later, she then threatened our entire starter group with termination over a harmless game not did not violate any of the company's policy's that was being played during breaks and lunch hours. She is now being promoted to head of all customer support, and I am doing everything I can to leave this place before that change comes into full effect.

Benefits and Pay:
The benefits here are one of the few things I'm satisfied with. There are multiple plan options for Health, Vision, and Dental. There are also electives for legal, life, and disability. The pay on the other hand, I'm not satisfied with. I've had multiple forced increases to my job responsibilities without any increase in pay, and my first yearly pay raise keeps getting pushed farther and farther back and I'm starting to doubt that they have any intention of ever following through with it. It was supposed to happen after my first year, and I'm well past the year and a half mark now.

Overall, I'd if you're looking for any sort of career in IT, I'd stay far away from CDK as will likely lose more than you gain.

I’m gonna to try to be as honest as possible here. I been here almost 5 months and I would not recommend this job. I feel like the pay is to low for how long we have to sit and the continuous calls. Every month the stats requirements change or new policies are put in place or a new way to code. Nothing ever stays the same which is fine but it’s frustrating when your trained one way then it up and changes for no real reason and most times mangers give you different answers. I don’t think I would mind the job if the dealerships we were calling for were actually updating their information it seems like they have no clue who we are. Most times if I have an issue with a customer I’m told to just get their info and somebody will call them later which I doubt. The scripts are never updated so you end up sounding like you have no clue what you are talking about. The people we call are so rude (I think this is any phone job really people have more heart on the phone) and I think that’s the worst part nobody warns you I learned to have tough skin but it’s annoying when your calling to help them and they think your scamming but that’s their fault as well because we literally come up as spam on the customers phone. If you not setting enough appointments they push you which in my opinion should not be the case because we are not doing sale calls if they say no that should be the final answer and I hate that this was not told to us. If somebody dies they still push to sell an appointment Not only that these people we call are different (being nice )  and don’t understand what the word BEHALF means and think you are inside of the dealership calling them and even associate you with the dealership so if the dealership loses somebody car (yes I have heard this has happened) then they think you stole the vehicle and your about to get it. Nobody’s stays at this job maybe if the pay was higher they would. Very boring and depressing. The script we have to go own sounds unnatural. We are calling people who own millions of cars so the customers tend to be snobby/arrogant. They cry if their information is not up to date like it matters because they won’t schedule anyways just want to argue. You occasionally get people who are acting like you called them neglectful because you simply asked if they service their vehicle yet. I can go on and on. The job would not be terrible if we could block people who are clearly just giving us a hard time or calling us out our name. Or they paid us more bottom line this job is not so easy as it seems that’s why people leave so much. I come in having a beautiful day and this job ruins it every time ( it never fails)  but I will say it’s getting you ready for life so if your young and want to get some experience learning how to take punches this is the job for you. It shows me how selfish and disgusting people really are and how they only care about them selves. It’s like they forget that it’s a human on the end of the line it’s ridiculous so it’s not all CDK fault but they could put steps in place to make sure the process goes as smooth as possible like updating information, taking accountability, more incentives, and communication. 

They lied in the interview and told us we would have have 5 (10%) weeks of non travel days (not including vacation, pto and sick). They informed during traveling that the position has always been a 100% or more travel. I quite my last job to join CDK I would've stayed at my last place of employment if they would've been honest from the start. I regret taking the job. This is my current situations each week.

Monday:Take a flight or drive to client location. I usually have to be on the road by or at the airport as early as 6 a.m. You have arrive at the client site by noon. So that means you may have just enough time to grab lunch and check-in at your hotel.

Tuesday-Thursday:Normally consist of long work hours. You'll arrive to the client site as early as 6 a.m (you may get lucky an have a client that open at 8 a.m. but that less than often).  

You typically want leave a client site until 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Some clients are open until 8pm and a short few until 11 p.m. Which mean you'll be there until their closing time to.

Understand that clients have long work hours and CDK requires you remain on site until they close (even if you've finished your work). 

Friday: You can't leave the clients site no earlier than noon, cool right? No because you'll drive to an airport an hour away (pray there's no traffic). Your typical return flight will depart to your home location around 3pm or 4pm. 

Remember if you live within 5 hours of a location CDK wants you to drive so you'll spend that next half of your day in and out of traffic. 

Once you do arrive home which is normally after 7pm you'll probably sleep your day away because you're exhausted. 

Saturday you'll probably hang with friends and/or family (you probably haven't talked to them because you've been at work all day and oh yeah you don't get any breaks (sometimes you have lunch sometimes you don't). You're usually in a different time zone than you're family and friends as well. 

Sunday: You'll probably spend it packing and doing laundry and catching up on your favorite TV shows (remember you've been in a hotel room all week there's only 10 channels).

Monday-------wash and repeat!


Please be aware that CDK sends their US employees to Canada more than often (Hulu and Comcast online doesn't work there).

You normally are in small towns with little do which doesn't matter because a typical work day for CDK is no less than 10 hours (you'll be too exhausted to do anything else).

Traveling wouldn't be so bad if they allowed us to work from home one week a month. It's cool to travel but it also doesn't matter because your working 10 hours instead of 8. 

Please think long and hard before taking the BSC Role. Once you're in this role you want be able to interview for another job because your PTO and Vacation has to been taken in 5 day blocks. You will need to quite to actively look for another job.

Hired on at a flat rate no bonus structure rather than the lower pay with possible bonuses. Told the choice is up to you to make and it's done. I chose the flat rate as I'd rather know I can pay my bills off hourly not stress over bonus. I ran the numbers makes more sense for me. Doing good my stats improve constantly each week going up and doing better so when I get pulled into the office of one of the head bosses I'm a bit confused. He hands me a paper saying my status I was hired under 'phone pro' is discontinued and they would drop my pay $2/hr starting at the beginning of the next month. You're doing great but some are not motivated with 'a carrot to chase' and we can't cut some and not others. First I wasn't hired under a phone pro listing I was hired at regular status with my choice of options and assured I would not have to mess with bonuses. Second it speaks to horrible management that you don't fire or demote those who are slacking off and not doing their job but instead decide to punish your employees who are exceeding expectations. But you still expect the same top performance even though you want to pay less.  Then there is the other matter of being assured you would get proper training in a campaign before being put into it and it would be your choice which campaign you moved to.  Nope never trained in a different area they knew it said per head boss if you can read you can do it..... So much for quality if people are stuck into something they don't even know what it's about and expected to figure it out on their own.

Then there is the preferential treatment of some over others basically a big high school lunchroom full of cliques and teams.

If you are sick and go to the Dr and get a note with your treatment the note does nothing for attendance unless you miss multiple days and it covers those days. It will not cover the one day you miss only additional ones if it says so.

Some people like to pin you into the little cubicle desk and invade your personal space/touch you when you ask them to not touch you and when you try to go to the higher ups they just make excuses for them or seem like this is an annoyance to them. Sorry I don't like to have someone pressing me into a desk where I'm trapped and stroking my arm leaning over me and I shouldn't have to explain why I don't find that appropriate.

So much at CDK depends on the office you work in, your role at the company and the products you work on. Some are new and fun, some are dinosaurs. It's a really big company. There were times I really liked working there and times I was desperate to leave. Since the company spun off from ADP, benefits have gotten leaner and the company meaner (in the financial sense). Their vacation policy is generous. Depending on your role and organization, you may be able to work from home a considerable amount of time. There are some great people at this company especially in front line management roles.

Like anywhere else, there are talented people who are good at their jobs and then there are corporate drone types who have been there forever and want to pretend that it's still 1998. In the development and creative spaces it is very hard to innovate at this company, largely because middle management has been there forever and always takes the safe path. It is very frustrating not to be able to do your best work because it is hard to convince the powers that be to change or deviate from the way things have always been done.  I have seen talented people in the marketing space stay for only two or three months before giving up and moving on. HR continually turns over as well, there is no relationship building there at all. Exec level turns over about every two years, as does lower management. Lower management either quits or gets RIF'ed. Upper management moves on to other big name companies, no matter what their performance.There is no path for advancement for the front line supervisor or manager, no matter how suited they are to move up. The old guard at the director and Sr director level never move on. Likely there is no path for them either as CDK brings in most new VPs from outside.

Since spinning off from ADP to become CDK Global, there have been so many RIFs that workers simply expect it twice a year. The office population has dwindled and some of the locations are quite depressing - empty desks and whole sections of the office wiped out. Many people try to work from home so that they can avoid the office altogether.

You'll be introduced to managers with 15+ years of experience that will tell you how great the company is to work for. What you won't realize until later is that the old guard is rapidly being dismissed to be replaced with offshore assets or cheaper new hires that don't have the seniority or skills to ask for a higher wage.

A typical day at work varies widely by location and department. Management styles are very individualized. "Bureaucratic responses" (aka: non-responses) are becoming increasingly more common when concerns or issues are raised.  The new CEO (2018) has not been in his position for long enough to gauge how serious upper management is about sticking to the new company goals and guidelines. The available healthcare is nothing special, and their 401k match is essentially industry standard minimum. Vacation accrual, however, is much better than most other companies in the greater Cincinnati area.

Advancement within the company varies between departments. Some will promise advancement by X# of years, and when you complete the promised time, the position they intended to advanced you into has been mysteriously "filled" by outside labor. Some managers actually do promote from the inside and care about their people to provide them with a fair opportunity, but these managers are receiving a tremendous amount of pressure to cut costs and fall in line. The new culture of cutting costs no matter the expense comes from the top down and who would normally be good managers are being pressured into mediocre management styles by the change.

Starting pay at CDK is better than what most other tech companies offer in the area (Cincinnati), but they do not make good use of the talent that the higher base pay attracts. Information is heavily segregated by department despite initiatives to spread knowledge more widely among support staff. It's a good company to start off with and learn industry workflow, but do not expect to advance more than one or two rungs within the company.

I would not recommend this job to anyone, and here’s why.

If you aren’t already aware, E-Leads makes calls on behalf of hundreds of dealerships across the country. Every call you receive is from a different dealership, requiring you to quickly gather information such as the dealership and customer name, vehicle, and the type of call as fast as possible. And while you scramble to find this information, you’re having to pull up your scheduler and read outdated or confusing dealer notes, which are specific requests that dealer makes. Did I mention you can’t provide any pricing or address specific customer concerns and are told to tell them to wait for the dealership to call them back prior to the appointment you’re pushing for, which feels borderline misleading.

Additionally, you are required to be on Microsoft Teams with your camera on for the entire shift, offering absolutely no privacy. You’re told by management that it’s to help you feel less “lonely” which is nonsense since you’re taking calls back to back with no time to even look at the chat it’s just more unnecessary micromanagement. Not to mention If you clock in one minute early or one minute late you are required to email your manager to have the time card corrected. This is an absurd waste of time considering you are not allowed to be off the phones for any reason unless it’s for your 10 minute break or lunch. 

Oh and after training you will be “coached” multiple times a day for various calls you made. If a customer says no to an appointment the higher ups don’t take that as an answer. You are trained to push for an appointment regardless of the situation. There’s even a section of the training manual on how to move forward with an appointment even if the owner of the vehicle has passed away. They don’t care if the customer is in the hospital, broke, busy, etc. All they want is appointments.

With all that being said feel free to decide if you want to work for them. The answer seems pretty clear to me. 

I was only contracted for 3 months and it ended up not being the environment for me so I am not sure how much I can say about finding stability. But there seems to be a decently high turnover rate.

What I can tell you is that taking initiative is a must; upper management is scatter brained so they are quick to forget that you are new and need help with things. You're going to want to be someone who can learn independently and quickly. Most of my colleagues were new people training other new people (all of us were at least 2 weeks old before we were put on the phones on our own) and no one really new the ins and outs of each program we were required to use other than a handful of vets and our IT guy, who was always away from his desk. So if you had an issue that wasn't covered in the most basic training you either had to figure it out yourself, find a vet, or sit with your customer on hold and be confused like the rest of us. 

Most call centers are like that, but in an IT company it doesn't really reflect well on the managers if their staff is poorly trained and left twisting in the wind while they're all having 4-5 day long meetings a week that are apparently more important. Our department worked with software for online DMV processing across the country so we had to have access to each states rules and regulations to effectively assist our customers, depending on which version of our program they had. Our biggest client is California so you can imagine how irritating it is to not have the tools and info you need to get through phone calls and still have good call times and metrics. 

On top of office politics and being an African American woman in the tech department it was overwhelming to say the least and ultimately a detriment to my mental health.

Again, this was just my experience, so good luck.

Detroit office.

Don't be fooled by recruiters or inflated job titles/postings. You're customer service or a call center. Specialists roles can be managed with 25hr work loads. 

Processes are always changing just to "change". Nothing is efficient. Software and offerings (websites, inventory management, CRM tools) are always breaking. I know technology and any company experiences "bugs" but this is beyond normal expectations.

Good for fresh college grads looking for 1-2yrs experience. Or, 55+ year old sales professionals who are in the sunset of their career.

People fall asleep at their desk (with their socks off). Managers look to coast. Any ambition is smothered. Not good for mid-career or Senior roles/transitions. 

Front-line management is clueless. Essentially Walmart management. Lack of professionalism. Some always look tired, paired with poor appearance on top of lack of follow-through and empty promises. Poor time management. Zero consistency.

Peers perpetuate gossip consistently. Join a clique and you'll be promoted. Brown-nosing goes far. Join "project" teams that are essentially equivalent to high school student council. If you're able to assume the persona of a con-man, you'll also go far. You can fake SalesForce numbers to hit "requirements".

Overall business model always changes. If it wasn't for GM partnership and mandating that GM dealerships have a CDK website, dealers wouldn't be with the program. CDK does not have a good rep in the market or in Detroit. 

It's a joke.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 37 salaries reported	$24.39 per hour
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Senior software engineer 3 salaries reported	$126,167 per year
Implementation specialist 11 salaries reported	$60,568 per year
Warehouse clerk 11 salaries reported	$20.27 per hour

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