warehouse associate

service technician

driver

service coordinator

customer service representative

Patterson Companies

I was Job hunting for a period of time after college and I ended up working here. This environment was a complete culture shock. First of all if you work at the branch(at least the one I was at), you're going to be surrounded by middle aged women. The only men that work at the branch are the managers and in the warehouse there's a guy normally in the back. Basically you're surrounded by women all day. The individuals that worked on the outside such as the  techs and sales reps tend to enjoy their jobs the most and i liked them a lot. 

When hired, I wasn't given an actually probation period unlike normal jobs, and was expected to know everything within a month. Even the manager had no clue what I was talking about he had to look in the book. I had a co worker with a chip on her shoulder who was a single mother training me which went well initially. As time went on though, she began to get annoyed by me asking her "too many" questions and would rat me out to the boss. The other lady that was nicer was a Service Coordinator as well, but she was only teaching me certain things just like the other lady was only teaching me only certain things. Between these two(they are childhood bff's), it was very hard to learn what I needed to learn and was often left out on my own. The operations manager was spineless and always took the sides of the women. The branch manager was cool, but he always wasn't there. 

The software we used was called Clearview. They were going to switch over to SAP, but it was a delay. The software I used was slow, out of date, and would crash every other day which made it harder to work with the customers and the techs. 


This place was also very cliquish,from the managers to the the female employees. I originally applied for the Customer Service Rep position, but was talked into working as a Service Coordinator. The job was given to a woman that worked with and was friends with the receptionist. I told my manager that I would like to switch positions because the Customer service position seemed less complex and he  said he will get back to me. A month later, I hear that they were hiring a Customer service rep that was friends with the receptionist and I asked my manager about what we previously talked about and he didn't have a clue. So at this point I was done. I submitted my 2 week notice. I was straight up lied to.

Working at a Patterson Dental branch is not the place for a young person coming out of college especially a young man.If you are working as a technician or if you're good in sales, then it's a different story. If not, look elsewhere. The office environment is also very dark and depressing looking. There are no windows in the office at all you're staring at concrete all day. 

And PS, the Service Coordinator position was posted on indeed the whole time I was working here. They hire another Customer Service rep but no service coordinator ? I don't think they wanted me from day 1. Stay away.

This place can't keep good people.
The supervisors are spiteful and rude. They are extremely two faced. 
The work itself is easy. Picking can be exhausting but packing is the best function to be on. They change the schedules and break times often. Second shift has to work until the work is done.
First shift gets to slack while second shift hustles to finish the work or we're there all night. So many people are being demoted because they don't make rate due to constant changes to lines per hour goals. I actually do make rate and still want to leave. 
The management is terrible, they love to promote the laziest people who are literally fresh out of high school and who openly talk bad and gossip about employees. It's extremely unprofessional and it makes me sick working for people like this. If you get on their bad side for whatever reason they will schedule you on things you don't like on purpose; they love to be petty and set you up for failure just because they can.
This place is filled with people on restrictions. If you got a doctors note to only work a set amount of hours and never have to do anything but pack tiny boxes then this job is a great fit. To those who don't get the note you have to be thrown around the warehouse all day. They just simply don't care for the employees and their strengths. Everyone has to be great at everything or youll get coached about it. Its crazy seeing supervisors ask basic employees to do THEIR job like plug shipment info in the computer. There's 3 supervisors in each department and all they do for the most part is refresh the que over and over while literally just hanging out chatting but if they see you chatting they get aggressive. 
There's a new Operations Manager who wants to mimic all the other facilities except our facility is filled with ambitionless people who change their job function punches around to make rate or just straight up blame any old thing for them not making rate. This facility cannot fairly move people around because of this; they end up babying certain people and I'm not even talking about the people on restrictions. Perfectly capable adults. It's an awful environment when it comes to the people in general and I'm glad I'm finally out. The only thing I'll say is it's good money.

Employed at the PTC. You start work thinking it's a good day. Then your manager comes along saying you need to do these things before the end of the month, granted half the month is over. Now all the normal work your supposed to do is pushed back 2 or 3 weeks just to complete these pop up goals to make their bosses happy. Then when that's over its crunch time to catch up to all the things you pushed back but still being expected to make your own goals. Really bad if you value mental health. Your opinions will be heard, but only in a way that makes it seem like it was. It will go in one ear and out the other as higher managment only cares about the numbers they set, and expect it to happen from those below. They train you like every customer scenario is the same when it's not. If you try to be personable to a customer and go off their "engagement model" and dont mark off their checklist of things to do, you get punished. They dont realize not everything is by the book, so when you stray from that you will get looked at like your not a good worker no matter how long you've been there. Your once a year mess up as a human being will severely outweigh the 1000 good deeds, and may put you out of the job. Many good people come and go from this place either by choice or fired. Also, if your one of the popular  in crowd people or one of the many people who are related to each other working there, you'll progress higher in the company regardless of your actual skills. I could continue complaining, but just do your research before making the jump to this stressful company!

Management pared back the sales force by 20% last June. The expectation was that the reps that they kept would grow the business with those customers whose reps were terminated. These customers followed their former Patterson reps to other dealers. You don't need to be a C level to predict the obvious outcome.
It will take at least 3 years to get a scratch territory going.
If you develop a multi location customer into a significant account, you can expect to have that account eventually fall into "special markets" which is a euphemism for a corporate or a house account. You will loose commissions.
Patterson made an ill-conceived foray into the medical market over 8 years ago. They have since spun this division off. Patterson today is a larger veterinary dealer than a dental dealer.
Their ESOP was great years ago (between 10 and 15%) and had much to do with the loyalty of seasoned sale reps and technicians. It has been 3% for the last 5 years.  Consequently, the have lost talent to the competition or other fields completely apart from dental.
Technical service is great for the most part, although somewhat more expensive than the competition and significantly more expensive than independent tech service. You don't get paid on service or parts anyway.
This is not an easy job. The implementation of SAP has been filled with challenges and has not proven to be an asset to the sales force yet. Like of other dental dealers, you enjoy a lot of autonomy.

This company comes off as genuine and supportive but in actuality its everything but.  You're thrown into the field with no training whatsoever!  My training date was scheduled a full year after my start date and I had no prior medical sales experience! Still I succeeded and was sacrificed/thrown under the bus as soon as there was any mistake!  The only positive about this position is the actual clinics.  Vets are wonderful human beings and I feel sorry that the only value they have to Patterson is dollars!  My territory was empty for years before I accepted the position because no one wanted it.  Some accounts/clinics kick you out as soon as they see the Patterson logo.  No expectation/rules are given and if you slip up one bit you're canned immediately!  The reputation this company has in the Vet world is extremely negative!  There is no diversity whatsoever!  The entire company is either older white men or young white women!  I am a middle aged white man and I even felt extremely out of place!  We had one black gentleman that I know of that worked for the company and I can only imagine how he felt.  Also you're low balled on your pay.  It seems good when offered but when you understand the work that goes into the position its not worth it at all.  Also pay is based on a draw system.  You won't get a penny of commission until you far and beyond outsell your salary and the commission rates are terrible!  Most products have to be discounted to cost plus15% just to be competitive and your commission is a fraction of the 15%! Just trust me when I say Run and RUN FAST!

You'll start on 2nd shift more than likely where the shift manager is actually the better of your two options at the company. If you're looking for 1st shift you might want to try another company as you'll be on a long waiting list. You'll be an orderfiller with a certain quota to make or as they call it LPH if you don't make this quota you don't get raises so do everything possible to make these numbers if you want your raise that means don't worry about errors and learning anything else but orderfilling because it will only slow you down. There's a few people who I see working all over the place in the warehouse but when you ask them they get paid less than the people who only do 1 job task. The raises are also weird because part timers seem to be on the same raise and pay scale as the full time employees. The company has a huge turnover also since i've been here it just seems to be a revolving door of employees and 2nd shift always pays the price because you have no set time you leave it's whenever the orders are done where 1st shift gets to leave at 5:30 everyday. If you're looking for just part time work though this is your place you can set whatever hours you want and get the same raises or better than full timers without having to be there nearly as much.

As one of North America’s largest distributors of dental merchandise and technology leaders for dental practices, Patterson Dental offers over 105,000 products and a wide range of leading equipment, software, technology solutions and services.
From humble beginnings in a one-room Milwaukee drugstore in 1877, Patterson has grown to meet the needs of dental professionals through more than 80 branch offices nationwide and over 1,300 sales representatives and equipment specialists in the United States and Canada (Patterson Canada).
As part of its commitment to be the one source dental professionals can depend on for everything they need, Patterson acquired software developers EagleSoft, Inc. in 1997 and CAESY Education Systems in 2004. The Company further expanded its technology offering with the acquisitions of Dolphin Imaging Systems and Dolphin Practice Management, the world’s leading providers of 3D imaging and practice management software for specialized dental practitioners (including orthodontists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons and oral and maxillofacial radiologists).
While dentistry has experienced many changes over the years, relationships with customers remain strong and growing – built on a solid foundation of trust, tradition and technological innovation.

As a former employee of the San Antonio facility, I can tell you that if you desire to be in a dead end, monotonous, physically demanding, dirty, disorganized and behind the times technology environment, then this is the place for you. If you seek advancement opportunities, learning new procedures, friendly co workers, clean working environment, modern organization, fairness among all personnel, and management competence, then you will be seriously disappointed. This facility has SOP that resemble something out of the 80's. There are fairly modern computer programs that would make the standard daily operations much more simplistic and organized, but the warehouse manager will not use them nor does he plan to. Day to day hours vary depending on when staff completes daily orders. What should take 8 hours per day often takes 10 or more, therefore, don't make plans for the evening because you probably will have to break them simply due to lack of organization.
There is some serious favoritism over some employees than others which is often obvious and insulting.
Overall, I would pass this one up, you will be disappointed, which is a shame because other company locations seem to be much better work environments. San Antonio Animal Health/Patterson is the exception.

Trust me,  don't get sucked in to this absolutely horrible place! Many coworkers are great which will make you want to stick it out, but Patterson sucks the life out of you! Management lies,  makes excuses,  and doesn't care about their employees.  Unless you like to play the victim and run and tell on everyone like a child you will get no where with this company.  I was told give it 30 days,  give it 30 days. 30 days went by and nothing got better.  After hearing that multiple times with no change,  it was time to give them a taste of their own medicine and walk out!!! I am so much happier now that I left this ridiculous place they call a business. They will tell you it's not a call center,  but that's definitely what they're working towards. Be prepared for unattainable goals and micro management to the extreme.  This "run your own business" garbage they sell you is just that - a pile of garbage! Patterson does not value its employees.  I'd rather stand on the side of the freeway and beg for money than even think about working for another company like Patterson.  Good riddance!!!

A typical work day would be as follows. checking the website for orders from our veterinary customers across the USA. evaluate any issues.Add product promotions and any notes for the where houses.These are located through out the USA.Communication is of high importance here so that we work efficiently with UPS. Answering phones. answering questions or concerns that a customer may have. Multi task between handling personal information between our licensing dept and AR. Going over any recommendations and any Items that for a customers may needs.  I have certainly learned time management, multi tasking is key so that we  get out the orders and keep customers happy. Knowing where to find key information that will help any situation. For example,A customer needs someone to go to the hospital. Workplace culture is keeping customers happy. Help any way we can.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse associate 185 salaries reported	$18.09 per hour
Service technician 305 salaries reported	$25.05 per hour
Driver 50 salaries reported	$25.20 per hour
Service coordinator 59 salaries reported	$26.39 per hour
Customer service representative 50 salaries reported	$20.12 per hour

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