product specialist

software engineer

customer service representative

Whisker

The product specialist team deals with a lot from customers. Customers can be very demeaning and rude and it can be very stressful to deal with day in and day out. Management is all about numbers and posts daily numbers for everyone in the department to see to compare yourself to others. This could be good or bad, especially if you're newer and feel you're learning slower than others. There's not enough agents for the amount of work the call center deals with between emails, chats, and phone calls. If you're on phones, it's call after call with maybe 3-5 minutes in between. If you're on chats, it's non-stop your entire 8 hour shift except for your breaks. The easiest job is if you're assigned to emails only which very few agents are. Organization is basically non-existent. Things often change and the customer service department isn't informed of said changes until last minute and expected to know how to handle the customers or aren't even informed at all until a customer brings something up to them (website changes, bundle changes, subscription changes). The communication between departments is terrible which creates frustration and negative feelings. Marketing makes a lot of changes without considering the Customer Service department because they don't have to deal with the backlash from the customers being upset. Team leads are too busy to help agents with questions. Newer agents often wait 20+ minutes for help and sometimes don't even get an answer. Senior agents jump in a lot to help more than the team leads do. Management plays favorites and promotes their friends to team lead positions. Some agents have made it known they want a more serious role and they are ignored or expected to jump through a ton of hoops and ridiculous "management" training. Agents are told they are going to do one job then get assigned something completely different or are left in the dark completely. The product itself makes for a tough job in general with frequently failing parts. The teams who research, design and build the products know there's flaws with the product but do not care to change them. They are focused on new products/future products instead of fixing what's broken. Customer Service frustrations would be dramatically reduced if some of the known issues with the unit were fixed.

Aside from these negatives, most of the people in the Customer Service department are very friendly, funny, respectable and there's a good vibe most days. Having the option to work remotely is amazing and a positive that most companies do not offer. The pay is very fair for "call center work" and the company offers a higher starting pay than most other call centers. The health insurance is decent and they offer PTO days as well as additional vacation days. They do fun parties and work events for the employees which does show that we're appreciate to some degree.

TL:DR
Pros: Agents are friendly and funny which creates a good vibe and work environment aside from the stress. Good health insurance and pay and remote work is a huge plus.
Cons: Stressful, hounded about numbers/calls holding, too much volume for the number of agents. Organization is poor. Communication is poor.

The product specialist team deals with a lot from customers. Customers can be very demeaning and rude and it can be very stressful to deal with day in and day out. Management is all about numbers and posts daily numbers for everyone in the department to see to compare yourself to others. This could be good or bad, especially if you're newer and feel you're learning slower than others. There's not enough agents for the amount of work the call center deals with between emails, chats, and phone calls. If you're on phones, it's call after call with maybe 3-5 minutes in between. If you're on chats, it's non-stop your entire 8 hour shift except for your breaks. The easiest job is if you're assigned to emails only which very few agents are. Organization is basically non-existent. Things often change and the customer service department isn't informed of said changes until last minute and expected to know how to handle the customers or aren't even informed at all until a customer brings something up to them (website changes, bundle changes, subscription changes). The communication between departments is terrible which creates frustration and negative feelings. Marketing makes a lot of changes without considering the Customer Service department because they don't have to deal with the backlash from the customers being upset. Team leads are too busy to help agents with questions. Newer agents often wait 20+ minutes for help and sometimes don't even get an answer. Senior agents jump in a lot to help more than the team leads do. Management plays favorites and promotes their friends to team lead positions. Some agents have made it known they want a more serious role and they are ignored or expected to jump through a ton of hoops and ridiculous "management" training. Agents are told they are going to do one job then get assigned something completely different or are left in the dark completely. The product itself makes for a tough job in general with frequently failing parts. The teams who research, design and build the products know there's flaws with the product but do not care to change them. They are focused on new products/future products instead of fixing what's broken. Customer Service frustrations would be dramatically reduced if some of the known issues with the unit were fixed.

Aside from these negatives, most of the people in the Customer Service department are very friendly, funny, respectable and there's a good vibe most days. Having the option to work remotely is amazing and a positive that most companies do not offer. The pay is very fair for "call center work" and the company offers a higher starting pay than most other call centers. The health insurance is decent and they offer PTO days as well as additional vacation days. They do fun parties and work events for the employees which does show that we're appreciate to some degree.

TL:DR
Pros: Agents are friendly and funny which creates a good vibe and work environment aside from the stress. Good health insurance and pay and remote work is a huge plus. 
Cons: Stressful, hounded about numbers/calls holding, too much volume for the number of agents. Organization is poor. Communication is poor.

  The leads and supervisor enjoy whispering and laughing at new people. I felt like I was in high school again. Everyone always trying to push people further then they need to go. Training was honestly NONE EXSISTENT. 
  I was never told about the phone number to call if your late or sick. So I got into trouble for not using a phone number that I was never given. 
   The hiring manager has respect for his employees i will say that. But he needs to get a different supervisor and lead. I was there like 3 days and was my first assembly job the LEAD chick would try and make me feel less if i weren't as fast as everyone. She would whisper about drinking and talk about her parties. She treated some people like dirt!! She is allowed to make all the noise in the world but one other person she doesn't want talking she makes sure they know she doesn't want you enjoying yourself!!  Honestly it was a terrible experience for me, I've been through alot in my life, the blaten disrespect and rudeness I've incurred in that time was by far the worst managed facility I've seen. 
    I'm not the first and won't be the last to express myself about this one employee. But I'm happy and HEALTHY AND HAVE A GOOD LIFE!!
   

The company is very forward thinking and has implemented many cool things like bring your pets to work, work from home snow days, flex scheduling, and company outingings.  You will be privy to these benefits as long you do not work in customer service. In the call center, there was an overwhelming amount of work for not enough employees. Only one of us could go to lunch at a time so there were no fun lunches with co-workers like the other departments enjoyed. Everything you do is timed on a computer system so if you got up to go to the bathroom, the system showed you were pooping for 10 minutes... was once accused of over using bathroom privileges and bathroom time was then only for when we were on one of our two 15 minute breaks which only two people could be on at once meaning you often just had to hold it... a lot of the customers who called in were mean and terrible to help but I feel like that is going to be most call center jobs. I was brunt out and desperate for a new job in 1 year.

I was fortunate to join while the product specialist team was growing. At this time there was a Director and Sr Manager who were amazing, absolutely understood how to work with people and how to motivate employees. Sadly, both of these guys ended up leaving the company, not long after each other which seemed strange considering all of the success they had. It definitely said a lot about their own management. And I bet the company wasn’t ready for the number of my peers who decided to leave after these events unfolded. Ever since their departure, the department just hasn’t been the same. This company goes through leaders like crazy. They don’t know how to hold on to the good ones and seem to continue to randomly place unqualified replacements in these roles. They really had no idea how good they had it until they lost 2 of their best assets in the customer service department.

By far the best company I have the pleasure to work for. As a person who got hired during this crazy COVID time, their onboarding process is on point and no question is a dumb question. 

 As a quickly growing company, the CEO, COO are very personable, they really go above and beyond to make sure their employees are taken care of. I love my job and the endless amounts of growth opportunities. I am able to take on tasks and be guided in the right direction while still having that sense of independence and responsibility, rather than a manager who micromanages. Like any job, there are days that are more “ stressful” and I put that in quotes because I would not say the job is stressful, just busy. I really get to be myself at this job and I can proudly say I love what I do and go into work excited for the day. 

The company has been experiencing tremendous growth which is great for job security and development opportunities.  This has made it tough to achieve work/life balance this year but the long stretch of mandatory OT is getting reduced in September.

Management is trying hard to improve the culture by trying to find a balance between the family feel of a small company and the professional expectations of a larger company.  They want to treat people in a fair manner and care about individual employees.  They know their people and call them by name.

The work is not too hard if you can keep up with the pace.  The day goes by quickly and employees get a break every couple hours or so.  You can even listen to your own music while you work.

Over the past 7 years, each day has been a chance to learn and grow as an individual. I'm provided with autonomy and empowerment from my direct supervision. Not only does this make me feel like I'm valued, it provides me with a great feeling of success at the end of each day. Yes, some days are harder than others, and sometimes you have to think on your feet, but it's that which makes this job so exciting for me. This is a reflection of the company culture and intense desire for success shared by the team members. Individuals that are hired in are both extremely capable of doing their jobs and they're a culture fit. The teams work together in a way that is organic and actions truly speak louder than words. The overall company vision empowers employees to do their jobs and it leads to success for everyone in the organization. 

Most miserable job I've ever had. I used to like it until the higher ups decided we're all disposable robots. Been working "the holiday season" hours since Oct and it's July! 60+ hour weeks, mandatory Saturdays, unachievable and rising daily production goals. Then there's the pay; it's been peanuts from the start. They don't pay enough to keep workers so they offer these "incentives." The most recent one is a real slap in the face. They tell us the home office won't sign off on raises so they'll bump our pay up $2/hr if, and only if, we don't miss a shift in the 2 week pay period. Sounds straight forward until your kid gets sick and you have to call out for the day and all of a sudden your bimonthly paycheck is short by $400. Stop screwing with peoples' livelihoods! No one should work here. I don't plan to be much longer.

Management and Systems did not exist at a company that from the outside looked like they had their stuff together selling a single product line with American jobs and partners. 

The work was fun but the management team is somehow too big and too small. Too rigid and too flexible. Too loose and too thrifty. It's clear they have no long term planning abilities and no people or work management skills. 

The core values and super powers seem to be a ruse. 
I wanted to believe and build with them, but they valued the razzle dazzlers over the team behind them. How many VP's does a small company need? They are hiring 2 more right now? Wish the team actually knew what was expected from these people.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Product specialist 8 salaries reported	$17.81 per hour
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$74,333 per year
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$22.33 per hour

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