customer success manager

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The Book Nook

I truly loved being a reading tutor for Booknook. The children were so lovely and the flexibility was a huge advantage. The curriculum is easy to get a hang of. You don't have to deal with parents or teachers, you chose your own hours and how many hours you wanted to work.

But I was devastated to have two years of working for Booknook come to an end last week when I received an email on a Friday afternoon that all California-based tutors were terminated immediately. For those who depended on this income for living, it must have been a horrific blow. A lot is asked of Booknook tutors - consistency, professionalism, being a self-starter, being a mentor to very young children. To not be given any notice to be able to say goodbye to my students was disgusting - we were always reminded to be reliable and on-time to set an example for our students. It made me lose all the respect that I had for this company. 

The worst part was we were being promised some great upgrades - a pay raise, a more streamlined scheduling system, and then given no notice when we were terminated. This is a California-based company that has contracts with public schools in California, but refuses to now employ people in California. Dissapointed and ashamed I ever believed this company actually cared about helping underprivileged children learn to read.

BookNook is a company with an amazing mission and the innovative program product is great.  Being a completely online company, you are unable to establish a camaraderie with others and the support is limited at best.  It was stressful when BookNook HQ employees would show up for demos in schools.  Some schools had great technology and some did not.  I had two very different experiences at each school I taught at and it would be better is the program was implemented in a more uniform manner. I felt like I had to relearn access between two schools.  I would have liked to have a time to give them personal, confidential feedback on what the students did or did not like about the program. Some of the logos and graphics (the various cute monsters) are great until third grade, then the kids in the higher grades feel like they are doing "baby-stuff" and belittled.  

The best part of this job was working individually or within small groups with students.  The kind of attention and care you can give to an individual (or a very small group) in need of reading skills is bar none, the very best way to increase their abilities and confidence. Although the primary goal is increased abilities and skill in reading comprehension, building their confidence in their abilities, showing their improvement, and motivating them further are also what personal reading guides could provide.  Although the company wanted to help entire classrooms on a more macro-level, the micro-level was more beneficial to the students falling behind.

The onboarding process is thorough and requires completing many steps, which can feel overwhelming at first. Once completed, however, work can be sporadic — I personally waited several weeks before being assigned my first gig. The community page is friendly and supportive, which is helpful for sharing experiences and advice, but many of the same issues appear repeatedly, which can be frustrating. The tutoring sessions themselves, particularly the reading groups, are very short at 30 minutes and move quickly, so it can be difficult to gauge the actual impact on students’ learning. Technical issues do arise, and support is often automated or slow to respond, which adds stress and complicates scheduling. Compensation is low compared to the time and effort required, especially considering the onboarding process, troubleshooting, and session length. While I enjoyed working with the kids and appreciated the work-from-home flexibility, the limited opportunities and inconsistent pay make this platform challenging as a reliable source of income.

What is the best part of working at the company?
They offer paid training and reimburse for any required background check fees. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It’s very hard to get assignments and once a tutor has one the students may or may not attend the class.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There is a support website if a tutor needs help with something, and they offer frequent help workshops. However they are slow to respond to emails and there is no phone number to reach out for direct help.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
To get new assignments, you have to log on at around 11:00AM EST on appointment release days. Then you have to move fast to grab the appointments before they’re taken. I’ve been a contractor for several months and have only gotten 1 assignment. When I finally attend my first assignment with them, there were no students. That seems to be a common experience with many other tutors.

I really enjoy tutoring with Booknook. You decide your own schedule and pick up classes based on the grades you would like to work with. I usually have groups of four students, but they don't always show up. Sometimes they join from school and occasionally they will be at home. So far the only problems are technical problems on the students side and unbalanced reading levels in groups. I have had situations when a student is at home, and their parents are not around to help them or don't want to. So it can be frustrating because the students become upset. The problems could range from connection issues to the not being able to navigate between their Booknook screen and zoom. So far i really love working here! it can be hard claiming classes sometimes, because you to do do it quickly when new sessions are released. There are so many tutors and only a certain amount of sessions released at a time.

There are new people in charge now. Formerly, there were employees like Daniel and Mindy. They cared about tutors, but now they are gone.  The new management is not like that. There used to be an order to picking up classes, but now there is chaos. Opportunities drop randomly at different times of the day or night. The company over hires tutors and there are not enough opportunities for all. Tutors find out by surprise that an opportunity has been cancelled or otherwise removed from their schedule.  I used to recommend the company highly, but I can't in good conscience do it now.

I love booknook however there is no 9 to 5 schedule, when the schools have an opening for classes you need to compete with other tutors to get those lessons, at best I cn get about 15 hours of work a week at booknook. most lessons are under 30 minutes and the schools are very strict about not being late or leaving early, if they find anything they do not like about your performance there is no warning you are removed from the course.
Overall booknook is a good place to work if you have another income to make up for the long downtime during winter and summer breaks. Do not try Booknook as your only source of income.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Meeting with the kids, and helping them experience succes in reading.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The kids often experience tech problems or are in an unfavorable environment for learning that makes teaching very difficult.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is gtreat.  The company stays connected with the teachers and the teachers share experiences and ideas that help make the job very enjoyable.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
There is no typical for me.  I enjoy the flexibility of choosing my schedule.  I teach classes throughout the day.

A typical day at work consisted of pretty much just taking care of the store. That ranged from organizing and shelving books, to interacting with customers, to carrying boxes of books to storage, to anything else the store needed.

I learned how to work hard doing the simplest of tasks. I often carried large heavy boxes of books to storage in the blazing Georgia heat, and although this was sometimes unpleasant, working hard through it with a good attitude was very fulfilling.

Management was there to let me know what was required of me and guide me in what they wanted me to achieve.

My co-workers were very good friends, and work became very fun because my work involved those relationships.

I've been working this summer through Vipkid at Booknook doing their math intervention program. The curriculum itself is great, but interface is very glitchy and often leaves the teacher and the student trying to figure out what to do, but when it works it's great in helping the kids gain confidence with math through number sense practice. The pay has been great as we get a bonus from BN which we completely deserve for being available for sessions last minute and never knowing if we will be asked to join a session. For that reason it is not reliable income. Overall, it's good money and the math program has been great. I am sad the summer one is over.  I hope I'm invited to do the fall session.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer success manager 3 salaries reported	$80,000 per year
Secretary 1 salary reported	$17.50 per hour
Operations manager 1 salary reported	$15.50 per hour
Business 1 salary reported	$16.00 per hour
Warehouse lead 1 salary reported	$16.75 per hour

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