Customer Success: Change and Impact - Director, Customer Success Glassdoor Employee Review

3.0
Jan 4, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked at Glassdoor for well over three years. During that time, I was fortunate to be a part of incredible growth. Being part of that growth, especially in a leadership capacity...was challenging but rewarding. I hired some wonderful people, collaborated with them, watched many of them grow and flourish...had a lot of fun, and learned a ton along the way. There are a lot of wonderful things about Glassdoor. I moved across the country in 2013 to take the position I did, and that type of a move isn't something I took lightly. I did it because I believed in the mission, and wanted to make an impact with an organization that expressed the need to grow the Customer Success division. At my core, I'm more passionate about the customer than the average person, and I knew Glassdoor was creating something that felt different and they expressed the need to bring in someone like myself with industry experience. I couldn't have been more excited to start. I was provided with an opportunity to help product development, scale multiple divisions all while managing and supporting the Glassdoor Customer. Over 3.5 years in my role, and in leadership, we grew the team from 4 to 55 and had almost no employee attrition. We were able to do this because of the culture we created. Even with flat budgets, under-market compensation and lofty goals of 10-15% retention increases, this was never easy but we were united in the mission and hit our goals.

Cons

Even with this success, it was always challenging to work at a company that doesn't provide professional development. I had no leader/mentor focusing on my individual abilities, recognizing strengths (properly rewarding them) and most importantly, helping me improve and my professional flaws. I was hungry for someone to teach me more of what I needed to know to take myself, the organization we built, and the customers I so cherished to the next level. It became clear Glassdoor and I had different ideas for my future. I was ready to help continue growing the company, where our CEO preferred to hire from the outside. Admittedly, it was painful given all I'd been a part of. Rather than use my industry knowledge of nearly 10 years and more than 3 within the organization to help continue growing what we had built, I was asked to focus and build out a new division that wasn't part of my skillset, wasn't what I was hired to do and certainly not what I moved across the country and worked so hard for. It was clear this was the beginning of the end. Since the new leader was been hired, the CS culture has changed dramatically. Maybe that was the intent? If so, it has worked. The new leadership's actions, behaviors and words are contrary to the spirit of teamwork, and the culture that Glassdoor was founded on. Chastising/scolding individuals in meetings when asked about how changes impact others, and have people coming to me crying on a daily basis at how unhappy they are - I knew it was time. Knowing that our CEO was allowing this to happen and turning a blind eye because it's not an area he knows well, it just takes a toll on you, no matter how much faith you once had in the organization. I left a company and a team I loved because I no longer could sit by watching the team and culture we built change so dramatically. It wasn't something I was on board for and several others since I've left have felt the same. Attrition has gone from nearly nothing to incredibly high (for Glassdoor, and specifically for the past history of the CS team). But like many of the reviews here, maybe attrition is the goal. To turn over the old and bring in the new. And if so, it is working incredibly well.

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Glassdoor Response
9y
Hi - I appreciate your thoughtful review and the great tour of duty that you had at Glassdoor. It's fair that we haven't provided new leaders with a lot of professional development in the past - as a startup, we relied on people to figure much of it out. And you largely did! But as we've grown, this is definitely an area that we are investing in more. It's also true that our CS team had to change as we scaled. It's been a bumpy ride and certainly leadership has gotten some things wrong, but the core structure is right and we are beginning now to see the benefits of this change. We have a strong foundation on which to build. I am really grateful for your contributions to Glassdoor. Thank you for the hard work, the candid feedback, and the unwavering support. robert

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