ALLTEL Reviews

Pros

Great benefits, good pay for entry level sales, but that is all you will ever be.

Cons

Sales management above store level totally disregarded the issues that made our job difficult. They trated salespeople with 10 years experience like rookies. No level of sales was sufficient. If you are over 30 they don't want you. They want entry level people they can indoctrinate and coerce. My regional manager was condescending, disrespectful, and totally focused on herself.

Advice to Senior Management

Examine the sales management culture that sees employees as expendable idiots.

Pros

Progressive environment, balances between being cutting-edge and playing smart (not conservative, but not overly agressive in strategy). Atmosphere was congenial, easy to make friends.

Cons

Easy to get overworked; workload was not really monitored correctly to ensure even distribution. Too much ebb and flow when it came to projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't forget who makes the engine run; sales and support people deserve the recognition for a job well done, and the corporate support structure is consistently overworked.

Pros

Opportunities are available if you apply yourself. Upper Management knew that including the employee in decision making only improved the company's profit and appeal to customer. Always felt challenged and respected by both peers and management.

Cons

As with any company there is some management that shouldn't be in a position of authority but overall they had excellent leadership that realized when we were getting off track and included the team to get us back on. Long hours, lots of travel, and projects that can be demanding at times and seem unreasonable.

Advice to Senior Management

I think we have a tendancy to blame our executives for the outcome of the Verizon buyout. Their primary function was to run a company that produced a profit for the shareholders. I think if anything the miss calculation of the outcome by Golden Sacs maybe could have been avoided but how was anyone to know the events that were to play out in this country. It was a gamble and we lost. If we had a chance to do over I'm not sure the results would be any different.

Pros

Do a good job and they will leave you alone
GREAT 401K plan - matching from Day 1 !!!
Great health, dental & vision
pleant of resources

Cons

micro managers if you are not careful
quotas are strict
it is a challange to develop new business, month in & out, all while helping to manage accounts (which you do not get compensated for).
Be a very good at balancing Customer Service and new sales

Advice to Senior Management

It is toomuch of a balance act to sell new business and customer serve accounts. It is too tough to be local to the accounts but have to ignore phone calls so the key account rep will do the customer service work for you.

Pros

Paid Hourly + Overtime + Commissions + Bonuses
401k
2 weeks paid vacation
Sick Leave
Insurance, etc.

Cons

Horrific Schedule
Sometimes 12 hour work days
Frequently 11 work days before 1 day off
Not allowed to take off for emergencies with respect, in spite of excellent track record of attendance, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be to Alltel's advantage to be more careful in screening new employees and not allowing workers to cheat and steal from the company and customers. It would also be better if Alltel would be a more work friendly place by taking in consideration of the employees personal life and sanity and the need to have decent schedules.

Pros

Employees receive a free cell phone and free basic monthly service. You have set schedules in the call center.

Cons

The daily/weekly team recap of stats and posting on the board like its kindergarten. The one 4 min discretionary break. It's very easy to get burnt out if you work in the call center. I lasted only a few months there. Of course I never intended to make a career out of it. It was good work while in college, but it's call after call. Often lots and lots of calls in queue, you can barely catch a breath between calls. Turnover seems high and I bet its due to this.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow your call center employees some breathing time. I know they are there to take calls, but it burns you out fast. They should allow employees to have a rotational schedule between the admin work and the call center work.

Pros

Competitive salary, fair advancement opportunities, LOTS on ongoing training and professional development, great flexbility with family, etc.

Cons

Same as every company .... politics!

Advice to Senior Management

Listen, listen, listen! Don't let too few people rule the roost!

Pros

If you are willing to be on the pavement a lot you will succeed in very good commissions; the benefits: 401K, great profit sharing and great health insurance.

Cons

they like to change the commission scale too much- i think when you keep making the money then they take away by revamping the commission scale which is ludicrous.

Advice to Senior Management

keep you in the loop about changing plans and new phone training.

Pros

Great company with friendly atmosphere toward employees. Sales quotas can be high, but pay-outs are very fair. Store manager has significant authority over employee morale and can be great if you fall under a good manager.

Cons

Sales quotas can be difficult to reach at times due to seasonality. Also, there is a lot of pressure to push cellular accessories and a nice slice of your incentive is derived from accessory sales.

Advice to Senior Management

Please take steps to ensure product line is up to par with competitors. Sales can be difficult to close when the company's product offering is 12 months behind its closest competitor.

Pros

The pay is commission based. So for those employees that are excellent and aggressive sales people, the pay will be a positive factor.
The company is very aggressive and fast track. There is no boredom.

Cons

The company has strict quotas that must be met by the sales staff. A new employee has three months to learn all that is required to meet these quotas. Not everyone learns this type of technology at the same pace, for most a minimum of 6 months is needed. Termination for not meeting monthly quotas is 100%, there is no personal consideration given for an employee of high integrity, strong work ethic, excellent attendance, customer concern. To survive at Alltel you have to sell at the quota requirement every month.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your employees with more depth than your sales quota requirements. You have terminated employees for no other valid reason than not meeting sales quotas. This is a very demoralizing practice for everyone within the Alltel retail environment. The pressure to sell smart phones to those that do not truly have need for a smartphone drives up the cost of these products, as many 'over sold" customers return them. The push to sell these products puts intense demand on the entire management and sales staff.