Houzz Reviews

Cons

More of a challenge then a con, but we need to put more large scale processes in place that are sustainable for our rapid growth. Things that worked when company was small start up, might not be best way to do it as we get larger.

Cons

Cold calling
Can be monotonous work
Incentives decreased while I was there but I earned the same with promotions

Cons

Everything else.
CONS:

Management: It's a running joke that almost every single manager at Houzz sat in the wrong chair by accident to become "THE DIRECTOR" or "THE MANAGER" of any given department. What gives a few 25-year-olds the experience to lead a bunch of other 20-something-year-olds? Nothing, except the fact that they probably have nice hair and a nice smile. What do these managers do? Honestly, after three years, I still don't know. What I know they don't do is help their employees.

Compensation: This isn't worth spending time on. They pay you a dirt minimum HOURLY salary. That means you still have to put in a time card every single day. Want a promotion? Cool! You're not getting paid more. Oh, and annual raises? Never heard of 'em.

Schedule: Some departments have mandatory hours, while others have the liberty to come at their leisure. Only certain departments get the special treatment to come in when they want, so it sets up for a superiority complex for those who can get to work whenever.
But don't worry, everybody MUST stay for a full 8 hours. Finished early? Cool, don't walk out the door until your 8 hours are up. Not done yet? Go home, you must be here for 8 hours tomorrow and you won't be paid overtime if you stay.

Growth: The company is NOT set up to support career growth because the incompetent managers have been there for years and will stay because they are getting paid 50%-80% more than everyone else. Here's to hoping one of them gets pregnant or quits! And then maybe you'll be considered to get interviewed internally 4 more times to maybe take their place! Good Luck!

Layoffs: Houzz had 3 different rounds of layoffs between Q4 of 2017 and Q4 of 2018. What does that tell us? Leadership has no real business strategy, they eliminate and rehire because they're focused on short term solutions to long terms problems. Three days before the company holiday party in 2017 an entire department was laid off for the sake of restructuring. In November of 2018 nearly 200 employees were laid off. It's just a mess.

Work: Let's face it, I worked full-time but only half of my time there was spent working. In high school, all you really did was show up. Welcome to Houzz. You show up, you do your work at a mediocre level, but you're talking to your friends and hanging out most of the time. I'm not kidding when I say people spend an hour getting toast each morning. Then an hour at lunch. Then you go on a 30 minute walk, or two, or four, depending on where your manager sits in relation to you. It's all fun and games until someone notices though, if so you're chained to that 3x3 cubicle forever while you're friends get to play around half the day without you.

While that might sound appealing to some, the truth of the matter is the work is not challenging and when you do try to make improvements or go above and beyond - nobody cares. You won't be recognized for trying to actually do something unlike everybody else. You will not be promoted. You will not be compensated. Sit down, look at your computer and enjoy the poorly brewed Stumptown coffee and you'll collect your pathetic paycheck like everybody else with hardly any transferable skills for your future.

Cons

Young Leadership, not a ton of transparency

Cons

Straight off, the pay. Compared to industry standards, Houzz severely underpays its workers. Instead, they throw food at the problem, and I mean that literally. Snack time this...potluck that. It's their way of navigating around the real problem of raises of any sort. I was there over two years and never once saw a pay raise and neither did anyone that I knew unless they were promoted, which also is a rarity for such a growing company. The food-over-money theory works for awhile for Houzz because the vast majority of workers are under 30, but even they get wise to the workings of the company and jump ship. This will continue to be an issue for this company's turnover until it is remedied.

The motto of "We Are A Family" is hogwash. I think their hearts are in the right place, but for a company that makes as much as it does in profit, they do not share the wealth. Furthermore, when entire teams are laid off it's done as if both partiers were complete strangers. To have "We Are A Family" be a focal point of the office and not just an internal motto is very odd considering how cold management can be, but I suppose that is also just the ways of a multinational business. Lastly, the upper management should find a way to motivate its workers in a genuine and honest way. Myself and others had promotions dangled over our heads that never came — and never were coming — while more work was piled on top of us. I can say that everyone I met at Houzz enjoyed working hard and meeting stretch goals, but when there isn't any reward for additional work (aside from saving the company "millions of dollars" — yes, that was communicated), then what's the point?

Cons

Upper management hands down initiatives with no prep to either employees or our direct managers. I personally watched them over hire for three departments (including my own) and then slash wages or layoff people. Job satisfaction and morale get super low because nobody feels in the loop or like there is any real plan for the company.

Cons

I know some people have written that Houzz has been like a sorority with everyone being approximately the same age and demographic, but I really do think that is changing. I’m definitely older and there were others like me with sales experience in my class. I think it’s just going to take some time to see the changes across the board.

Cons

It's funny to read all of these positive reviews. In my two years at Houzz I met only a handful of people who really loved working for Houzz-- most people refer to Houzz as the Titanic. You know the ship is sinking, and you either decide to stay aboard or jump off. I found that 95% of people felt like Houzz was misleading in their hiring process. I worked with people who were recruited from Boston and California for their positions at Houzz. They were duped in to believing they would make 100k plus in a year. Unfortunately this wasn't true and when the department suffered, these women who were recruited from different areas, were laid off within 8 months of moving.

Houzz is a great idea in theory. But the website is flawed. As an AE, I was overwhelmed with the pressure to sell a service that no one wants, and ultimately most professionals are unhappy with once they're locked in to a year long commitment. I kept tabs on every account I sold, and while some had few complaints, Houzz CSMs did not reach out as we had suggested, and they were auto renewed after not being in contact with a CSM for an entire year.

Pay is a major issue that the CEO continues to ignore, regardless of how many "employee surveys" we engage in.

Leadership is mostly flawed. I worked for a director who I didn't meet for 8 months. Management style is really different depending upon your team. You can have really overbearing managers and you can have really great managers it's totally luck of the draw. Don't ask to change managers because they'll push you to leave.

Anytime you find an issue with a department system, you're approached with defensiveness from all angles. Leadership is hesitant to take on new ideas unless it's one of their own.

Before I started at Houzz, I read a review that said you will hate your life working here. The only thing you will look forward to is spending time with your colleagues who you'll bond with because your work life is so damaging. I found this to be the most accurate description after working there for 2 years. You'll hate working there. The first 6 months are good, and then you recognize all of the issues, and have difficulty paying for rent. You'll bond over this and you'll find Houzz does hire some of the best women I've ever met. It does become a family.

Cons

Relatively low base salary comparing to FAANG.

Cons

Please note: this review is specific to the Client Success Management channel.

I want to start by saying it saddens me to write this review. I wanted to be Houzz's number one fan through all the tough times--we were a start up, we were bound to experience hiccups and speed bumps along the way but it was exciting and we believed in the journey so we all put our heads down and pushed through it together. Towards the last year of my employment, I realized I didn't believe in what we were doing or how we were doing it. Possibly worse, I found that our feedback as reps and even the feedback of our direct managers was not being heard and addressed effectively (or with any sense of urgency) which made it very difficult for us to effectively advocate for the best interests of our clients. My moral compass told me to run in the other direction because it seemed there was a growing negative trend: many of the changes I had a hard time swallowing were to the exclusive benefit of Houzz and had a direct negative impact on reps and pros (our clients). I'm going to try to outline the issues as concisely as possible. I want to be clear, I still believe this is an incredible company that has a ton of opportunity but I was never going to have a loud enough voice from within, so I hope this review will be used to better the CSM channel.

New Sales: I'll keep this brief. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel with leads and it shows in our sales. Furthermore, we've built a system that consistently rewards AEs for getting the signature and credit card and CSMs are left to clean up the mess. Major issues with new sales include: pro is truly not a fit for what we offer, they are sold into a failing category or an area that consistently under-delivers, they don't realize the importance of their involvement for their own success with it, or more broadly, the expectations were not effectively set from the start.

Product: Roughly 2 years ago we completely changed the product by adding a lead gen element in. This change caused irreparable damage, not because the concept or intention was bad, but because we refused to listen to what pros had to say about the low quality/low budget and fake leads they were receiving as a result. If time is money, our pros were suddenly wasting substantial time following up with bad leads and this loss of time and increased frustration meant a loss in credibility for Houzz. This shift towards lead gen also created confusion about how to sell the product (AE side) and how to effectively manage clients through their lifecycle (CSM side)...why work on building a compelling profile when you get the same leads either way? The "data" was telling us things were going well, so the direct feedback of pros and reps was ignored for months and now we're seeing the rising volume of cancellations as a result.

Process: Roughly a year ago, we were told that we were going to start exercising auto-renewal. This wouldn't be a problem, had we been transparent about the process change and sent one email out to all our clients telling them this was going to be the new way we manage renewals. Instead, we were asked to "not poke the bear" and avoid triggering conversations about renewal because we wanted to see if anyone would really even notice. There was a distinct assumption made with this decision that pros were truly happy with the program, which given the product changes and various challenges with new sales/expectations outlined above, was not the case. Now people were upset with the leads and even more upset that they have been auto-renewed without notice and CSMs were left to handle it. I and many of my coworkers experienced anxiety (literal panic attacks in some cases) about coming into work because it was so deflating to face these negative conversations day in and day out without any sign of improvement on the forefront.

Lack of Professional Growth: My professional growth at Houzz was in large part due to the lack of training and structure as I entered into the role. It was trial by fire and I failed often and learned to figure it out on my own as a result. My interests and skills were not nurtured or grown in a real way, despite the mutual efforts of myself and my direct managers. Unfortunately, since it’s not really encouraged to seek out opportunities in other departments, once you hit a dead-end in CSM, the only viable option is to leave.

Leadership: There are some exceptional leaders at Houzz, but unfortunately the best ones don't really have any autonomy. We have a few of what we call "right time, right place" managers who moved up the ladder rather quickly, despite their lack of experience and exemplification of any leadership skills. Some leaders rose to the occasion when given the opportunity to advance, others most certainly did not and there was nothing CSMs could do about it since we don't have an opportunity to review our leaders. It's offensive to come into sales meetings (which are largely AE focused) and be told how great things are when our job is largely comprised of cancellations and our paychecks are diminishing as a result. We do not need to be reminded of our great benefits; we need to be addressed like adults and have an honest conversation about the state of the business, victories as well as pain points and the clearly defined actions being taken to make the job and product better. As another reviewer mentioned--benefits don't pay the bills and frankly, Houzz cannot rely on their great benefits and perks to keep people around because it's industry standard in the tech boom to offer perks that keep great talent around. I would argue that reps 1) want to feel the work they do is impactful 2) want to be heard 3) want to feel valued in their role and 4) want to be compensated fairly for controllable job responsibilities. I'd bet if you ran anonymous surveys with the CSM channel, you'd see that is far from the way your reps feel today.