software engineer

business development representative

merchant

business development manager

account executive

Groupon

Although Groupon Customer Service has been a apart of my life for the last 2 1/2 years, I really enjoyed working in the Getaways department. A typical day at work would consist of me being a liaison between the customers and hotel management to resolve reservation issues.

During my time here, I've learned to multi-task effectively, find multiple routes to resolve issues, and adapt quickly to change. 

Our management department(s) had gone through several changes over the past 2 years. However, management remained consistent in being a informative, and dependable source when needed.  

My position was remote, which was the best and the hardest part of my job at times. Working from home had major benefits such as saving money on transportation, and me being able to spend more time with my son. However, there were times when I thought being in office, would provide more resources, and aid me in elevating within the company. 

The most enjoyable part of my job was the Customer Service chat rooms. Us representatives were able to consult with our managers, and one another, concerning customer issues, conflict resolution,  and our daily lives. It helped many of us feel like we were a part of the overall team, and was a huge help for the challenges we faced at work.
I also enjoyed  the semi-monthly seminars our Development Team hosted. These seminars provided information on a wide range of topics including how to deal with issues in customer service, how to build your own brand, and how to stand out within the company. 


Both the Customer Service chat rooms, and the semi-monthly seminars,  were critical towards representatives professional growth and development.

Groupon's amazing culture and employees has always been the bedrock of its success. Unfortunately the employees don't come first in all verticals. Local and other local-like products/teams/employees come first long before other successful verticals get the things they need to succeed farther. 

 Additionally, Groupon doesn't do a great job of managing communication amongst all levels of seniority or verticals. It's one thing for an entry level or other lower level employee to not know all the things going on, but completely another thing if your Global Head doesn't know. That isn't right. And I'm embarrassed for the Global Head. 

If you ever wonder where bad managers are born, they're born at Groupon. It's amazing the number of promotions I've seen to the untalented and immature. It's mind-blowing the number of people I've seen get promoted and then fired for not being able to do the day to day tasks that others are capable and have proven to perform. They don't want the best, they want to promote yes men and friends instead of the right people. The only saving grace is that they've hired a few outside hires in years past that were amazing. However, due to lack of communications and more interest in making out stockholders happy, those amazing individuals left for something better.  

I would only ever recommend working here for an entry level position. Or, if they ever realize that we need stability because we're not a start up anymore. We're a full-fledged company that needs to update how competitive they want to be to keep people around. Groupon has so much potential and so many amazing humans working for them. I only wish them the best, though expect the worst.

A typical day at work would depend on the month. 

Management is very inexperienced and is a revolving door. I've had 8 different managers within 2 years. 

Co-workers are great because they are younger tech-savvy individuals with high intelligence. It's a work environment unlike any other corporation.

-The hardest part of the job is dealing with the constant tumultuous changes ranging from the the sales incentives & goals, management, and company policy. It would change on a monthly basis.

- Enjoyable part of the job: 

I sincerely enjoyed working there overall though. I am grateful for all the great experience and invaluable business knowledge acquired during my tenure. I can't thank everybody enough for that opportunity; it was a privilege to represent the top company in the industry, for which one this company was the creator and industry leader. I'm confident I will never experience another company with such a uniqueness to it; everything from the culture to the actual role itself, where one has the ability to work with so many different industries and utilize so many different skill-sets. I can say confidently I've acquired more business knowledge at this company than anywhere else...school, previous roles, etc. I say this based off the fact my role there has taught me how to improve my overall self by helping me realize what are my overall strengths and weaknesses are in the workplace, which is invaluable knowledge in order to progress a career and in learning to be an overall better person.

A typical day of work as a customer support representative at Groupon consisted of six and a half hours fielding phone calls from customers, while the rest of our day was spent answering emails or following up on pending issues.

I learned a lot about working from the point of view of "what's best for our customers" as that was always the approach we took. My last manager was great and we saw eye-to-eye on everything. Groupon is a startup, albeit a pretty large one, but still a startup, so there was a lot of room for discussion about ideas for improvement and accessibility to follow through on those ideas.

My co-workers were great and were valuable resources whenever problematic issues came to the forefront.

The hardest part of the job was the constant change of job function and responsibility. When I was first hired, the job consisted of three hours of phones and 5 hours responding to emails. Over the course of two years, those numbers gradually went in opposite directions and the nature of the job was changing on an almost daily basis.

The most enjoyable part of the job was that it was unlike any customer service job I've seen. The culture was very laid back and customer-focused. There wasn't any pressure to upsell or anything like that. We just needed to help take care of as many customers as possible as efficiently as possible.

I learned to work very closely with multiple team members to execute a great ad on time for the client even though I was home based and my team are in Chicago. I also learned communication is very important on both sides of the parties especially from management when dealing with a very large company. The most enjoyable part of my job was seeing the success the merchants had when they were very reluctant in the beginning to work with Groupon and myself. The most difficult part of the job was moving to North Carolina and being assigned a territory so underdeveloped that I had no back up power to help me launch this market. Instead I was told to close business in Fayetteville NC where the actual landing page and majority of the businesses closed were from Raleigh. Majority of the subscriber base was from Raleigh. Fayetteville needed a marketing campaign to launch this city and to have their own landing page with their own deals not combined with a very large city over an hr away. The management staff who have never visited Fayetteville didn't see it worth their time to make the necessary changes to develop this market.

While admittedly, I was first drawn to Groupon due to its young and energetic vibe, the regular company events, and just being an overall quirky place. Little did I know that this is all a coverup to the many problems that exist within the company. Groupon Goods, specifically, was basically a popularity contest. Who is the loudest? Who is the most emotional?.... Those are the people that are valued. Management would much rather give praise and promotion to those people (despite their work quality or ethic) as a "OK be quiet for now." Such a shame to see truly talented and hard-working people passed over time and time again. Goods Management (especially Buying) need to seriously re-evaluate how they manage their teams. Get over your favoritism and find the guts to properly manage problem employees while SIMULTANEOUSLY making sure the people that are adding value to your team are getting what they deserve. (Not that Groupon Goods will be around much longer anyway, just saying.........)

One of the few upsides is that the pay is pretty competitive and it's pretty easy to meet your goals which almost always guarantees a bonus. There's a small 401K match but I guess better than nothing for a broke company.

When I started with Groupon I was extremely excited! What a cool job! This changed drastically after a few months. The Inside Sales person was obviously "Managements pet" and the the Outside Sales person was NOT! Inside Sales got his choice of all the best accounts while Outside Sales was stuck with businesses that would not run a Groupon because they didn't need too or businesses that Groupon would not run because they would not have good gross profit. Management would simply say that the OS person was wrong and just couldn't sell..
Management also had very little if any real sales experience and had no idea how to manage a sales team.
Groupon managed in a culture of hostility and intimidation. It didn't have to "be fair" they could do whatever they wanted. This was across the entire team, not just OS Sales. Everyone hated their job.
When I left they seemed to be stunned..."What could we have done to keep you?" I answered with everything I have said here and my DSM acknowledged that I was correct and "They were working on it" Really? I was a High Preforming Sales person in every other job I had until Groupon. It was not me....it was them.

Groupon's environment is fantastic. You work with great people. The work life balance is great. They're flexible. It's relaxed. However, it's the only thing that keeps you there - people & comfortability. They now require that you make 35 calls a day which is nothing, but it's how they compare you. They quota you based on points which have 0 compatibility to the amount of profit you make for the company or how good the business is. It's a completely unknown number. They change their goals, mission, outlook, and commission every 2-3 quarters based upon Wall Street. It's senior leadership, specifically on the sales side, is incredibly poor and short sighted. Very good people, but they have no idea how to run a sales force. They reward behavior that shouldn't be rewarded. Most importantly maybe, they have zero clue on long-term outlook. For example, if an employee leaves there is no procedure on accounts, etc. They make decisions without knowing how to manage the rippling effects. Very, very poorly run. If you're a kid out of college go for it. However, they don't know how to develop sales talent/skills, nor retain it.

Direction is something Groupon doesnt feed through until after the event takes place. Communication has always and still is a great deficit in all aspects.

Groupon is a US company and not sharing the same options throughout the world? More should be and could be done, but nobody listens.

With no support from Head Office and being in the lonely place of working from in the field and team meetings taking place that isnt fair to everyone and some travelling 2hours.

Management change quite often and to have old school managers now giving up and leaving its leaving lots of uneasy atmosphere through the grapevine.

Co-workers are the only thing that keeps the workforce sane! 

Working in the field is getting more difficult and Head Office are very focusing on Head Office to help and assist field in everyday support. Commissions used to be quadruple of what is now currently available and now having to change home comforts and lifestyle to suit lack of previous earning potential.

The variety and diversity is also quite enjoyable, with talking from all the small to medium business.

Good times were had but they are quite few and far between now.

Starting in a new department was a lot of fun. The team grew from 3 to 80 team members in only two years. I've learned how to manage my time and make certain tasks priority over others. The hardest part of the job was constantly adding daily duties to the department. More work lead to less time with client interaction. High call volume was very frustrating as well. Employees were busy with follow up, and had little time to take inbound calls, which makes it difficult on everyone because the call logs get backed up. Management was in meetings all day long and were not around when escalated situations occurred. Sometimes it was a good thing because you make the best decision for that client, and you do your best at coming up with a resolution for the client as well as the company. There was no advancement within the department. Most of the moves with the company were lateral with no additional compensation. I've learned a lot working for a start up company, I don't regret any of it.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 7 salaries reported	$156,429 per year
Business development representative 15 salaries reported	$40,333 per year
Merchant 5 salaries reported	$41,000 per year
Business development manager 5 salaries reported	$54,400 per year
Account executive 4 salaries reported	$39,000 per year

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