Yodle Employee Reviews about "business owners"

Pros

- Lots of fun people - Opportunities to see the inner workings of a business in very upfront - Lots of problems to solve

Cons

I really want to believe in this company. Their values on the coffee cup are excellent. The mission is admirable. All the positive words about small business owners and the desire to help them is great. But the actions at Yodle don't match the words. The product, while actually having value and probably being a pretty good deal for most of the customers, falls far short of what the company is actually capable of. And no matter how enjoyable and lovely people that work there are (and they are mostly a joy), the overall culture is poisonous. I've never seen a place that was able to turn such enthusiastic and friendly people into cynics. Mostly, this is because the company has no idea what it actually wants to do besides make a lot of money. Management with Yodle's several business lines generally has huge egos and is very uncooperative. There's also the garden variety upper manager who spearheads an "initiative" just long enough to be promoted and hop ship to another company. I like most of the people I work with, but the culture of confusion makes it very difficult to make real progress or feel proud of what we as a company do.

Pros

A very "millennial-type" atmosphere. Hang out spots that have ping pong and air hockey. A kitchen area with free food, drinks, and coffee. Food trucks everyday. They do more than other companies in terms of employee training. If you can read a script without sounding like reading a script, that's how you ace the interview.

Cons

You literally read a script for everything. Every potential customer response has a script, which must be memorized. The product they sell isn't a scam but they're not completely honest with customers regarding their product. And I did feel their was a moral conflict of interest that sometimes came up. Every call is a cold-call. The product is a tough sell and you can expect to make 300-400 calls, per day, in your first 30 days. As you get better, you'll probably be making 200 calls per day with 60 days. Some of the elite salespeople only make 50 calls per day or less, but those are a select few. Most are doing 200+ calls per day with many hang ups, dead numbers, and annoyed small business owners.

Pros

I have nothing good to say

Cons

Terrible turnover rate. Sitting behind a phone headset all day with cold leads that amount to nothing. The product is a joke too. Stealing money from small business owners.

Pros

Some good employees make it somewhat bearable. I guess beer on Fridays (after you are off) and free lunch (if you like processed meat-like cafeteria food)

Cons

Every aspect of this place is scripted. You ask a trainer a question and if it is not in his script he memorized you will get something not even pertaining. Cold-calls all day to people that can't afford the service, and if they politely try and say no you berate them with pages upon pages of rebuttles until they are worn down. Super sketchy sales practices, lying to business owners telling them it is not a "contract" yet they are charged and prevented from cancelling, so they will be auto charged monthly. Great job for someone without a soul. Don't let the sales managers fool you with money to be made. They provide you with a lot of hypotheticals, but when it comes down to it, you won't become rich here. 20k base and avg sale commission in the low $300s (and you wont be making sales daily...trust me)

Pros

9am-6pm; 8 hour workday, with no work expected to be completed at home Enjoyable work environment (with the right manager) Strong benefits - 401k, tuition reimbursement, snacks in kitchen Great first role to learn how to manage a book of business and tough clients.

Cons

The role was quickly transformed from a “Consultation” role to much more of a “Call Center” and “Customer Service” role, with the introduction of mandatory script reading and day-to-day KPIs. Having 150-200 clients, shifts your mentality into a complete reactive one, instead of proactive, as a strong Account Manager should be. One of the most frustrating aspect of the role was the clientele of our book of business. Small business owners with limited knowledge of search marketing, only care about their bottom line and if they were bringing in leads. Having to listen to curse-outs, threats, and BBB complaints was a common occurrence. The company has zero direction of where they would like to be, as they hire new consultants one month, and lay off an entire department the next.

Pros

Great company culture- young, smart people hungry for success. Fun perks like free snacks and company outings, and a fun work environment. Training is very robust, and coworkers are eager to help new employees get on board. Great place to get your foot in the door in digital marketing (but not if your too experienced). My managers were really supportive and great career coaches.

Cons

While management preaches a mission that is built around honesty, work ethic and putting the client first- they only really care about making money at the client's expense. The main product we sell- an SEM bidding algorithm- doesn't perform for the majority of our clients, mainly because we accept tiny budgets and niche businesses that paid search simply isn't right for. Therefore if you are client facing role, be prepared to be cursed out on a daily basis from angry business owners wanting their money back. You end up feeling like a scam artist conning people out of their money instead of a marketing professional, and if you bring up any suggestions on how to make the structure better to actually help our clients, you are reprimanded for being "negative" or ignored. My team saw a 15 person turn over within one calender year...TWICE. You'll be pressured to work holidays like Thanksgiving, and forget about having a manageable work load. You'll be slammed with 200+ screaming angry clients you're forced to speak to regularly. Despite pulling from top tier universities, search consultant roll is basically a call center, where you are forced to read off scripts or get reprimanded. They don't want you to use your brain, just parrot the same script over and over again until the client cancels. If considering a client facing role at Yodle, get ready to be miserable and acquire a drinking habit.

Pros

It is certainly a great place to get some experience in phone sales. I have learned a lot of new skills that will carry over to a new job soon....... Oh, and free coffee and snacks.

Cons

Cold calling is the WORST !!! Business owners HATE getting sales calls and will either hang up on you or yell at you about how much they hate sales calls. Your success is also very dependent on which segment aka profession you're calling into. Only take this job as an absolute last resort.

Pros

Very motivating commission structure, great training, free lunch, great culture. You can make a lot of money in a short period of time. Good people, free parking, more work equals more money. But you have to work, base pay is practically minimum wage.

Cons

Low base, it's hit or miss with getting a good manager, no room for advancement, you'll never have a steady pay check no matter how hard you work. I worked at yodle for a year, I learned a lot in terms of aggressive sales, rebuttaling, tone, influctions, they are great on training you to make deals. It's at a point now that the company is so big there's not much room for advancement. A management position means working more and getting paid less anyway. Free lunch is a plus but it tastes awful, but hey, it's free right? Some managers there push and push and push you, make you feel guilty for not staying late or going to lunch trainings 5 days a week and starving. Their minimum is 900 dollars every 2 weeks. Let's say you hit 4k in one, but 800 the next - it'll be counted against you even though overall you quadrupled it. There we guys on final warnings to get let go even though they had 10 grand months. They make threats you'll get fired just to push and push you more and suck out every last drop they can out of you. The product is a cookie cutter for every business. Whether it's an attorney in New York or a plumber in the middle of nowhere. You'll learn to make deals and guilt trip business owners into giving you their last penny, only to see their account cancel because they got no results. This company used to be great, but with hiring guys from DOW Jones and raising even more expectations for sales, they're burning everyone out and the culture Is slowly deteriorating.

Pros

Hour lunch. Friendly people. Positive, constructive coaching if you're willing to say anything to make a sale.

Cons

Pushing business owners to sign up with Yodle even though you can tell they would be spending more on Yodle's services than the extra money they would be making using Yodle's services or if they clearly do not need Yodle's services. Inflating numbers to make Yodle's services look more attractive i.e. adding up the lifetime value of new customers and comparing that to just first months payment to show value of the services.

Pros

NONE at all , all smoke and mirrors false promises . Don't believe the hype. Pros work anywhere ELSE , not here .

Cons

Unless you worked at MCI , forget it !! 401k doesn't match , lose all your vacation time , no stock , ridiculously expensive health insurance , their "bonus" plan needs a PHD in math to figure out . Cultish , childish management , lie to business owners , inferior product , false promises , and "free lunch" is now beans and rice every day. RUN don't walk away from here !!!!!!