Smith.ai Reviews

4.2

85% would recommend to a friend

(279 total reviews)

Aaron Lee

85% approve of CEO

75% positive business outlook

Smith.ai has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 279 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Smith.ai employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Human resources and staffing industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

279 reviews
1.0
23 Nov 2018

Misleading and Counterproductive.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work from home. Paid weekly. The callers are nice.

Cons

Not a real job. They do not operate under logical thinking and are extremely counter productive. You would think taking phone messages would be easy (and it is). This company thinks they are reinventing the wheel however. Most jobs have a set of guidelines that are consistent, not this company. If you get one tiny thing wrong they will berate you non stop and speak to you like you aren't smart enough to read their forever changing irrational instructions. Their support agents nag endlessly like a mother who tells their children to clean their rooms (while they are in the middle of cleaning their rooms). They will tell you that they are easy going however they are not. Do not get comfortable at this place.

1.0
2 July 2018

Virtual Receptionist Review

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Federal holidays off - No weekends or overnight hours - Easy to get hired

Cons

- They deduct your pay for every mistake you make on the job (RED FLAG) - Pay is lower than advertised. Service fees are taken out of your check, plus you are an independent contractor and have to take out your own taxes. Add on any penalties you have from making mistakes and now you are working less than minimum wage. - No benefits - Appears to be a high turnover. They hire anyone and everyone.

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Smith.ai Response
6y
Feedback from our team, current and past, is exactly what has helped us grow to be a great place over the years. Thanks to helpful, honest, unfiltered feedback like yours, we continually make changes in our policies, procedures and even pay and benefits. (In fact, one criticism we’ve heard is that we change things too much!) However, we need to correct a few inaccuracies here as they could scare off potential candidates. There are absolutely no deductions in pay for mistakes made — in fact, we made the change to reward our team for praises from our clients and we have dedicated a channel to promote that. We have even created a new department (as of 2019) that focuses solely on on-going training and coaching for all of our agents in an effort to ensure that each agent has support in their growth and career with us. I believe that there is some confusion over our needs for documentation and compliance when mistakes are made, how that feeds into employee growth and development, and how you are compensated. Regarding service fees: the service fees are taken out from a third-party, Upwork, which is due to the contract role. However, we have actually transitioned all US-based employees to payroll. As a new hire, you still start out as a freelance agent. But, after just a few short weeks, each agent in the US is switched to payroll. This removes the service fees and offers a wide range of benefits, based on the state. The payroll status also alleviates the burden of self-employment taxes. From your response, it is likely that in your time with us you were not converted to payroll and perhaps did not make it fully through our training and evaluation period (note for readers: we pay you for your evaluation and training time). Perhaps we did not communicate this well enough to you, or perhaps you were not a fit for the team and let go before the end of evaluation. Lastly, I wish we could hire everyone and anyone! Last we checked, we were only making offers to very few applicants. Our requirements are not crazy, we need candidates to have reasonable typing speed (40 WPM with 100% accuracy), reasonable internet (10 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload), but most importantly, good work ethics and willingness to follow our clients’ instructions. On top of that, we provide excellent career path to our team. Our managers, assistant managers, and team leads are all promoted from within and they all started as answering calls or chats. We are working daily to ensure that each and every agent's needs are being met to help balance work and life. Thank you again for your feedback. We are sorry your experience with us was not ideal and we use your honesty to illuminate our blind spots. -Aaron (Founder & CEO)
1.0
16 Oct 2023

Horrible Company and Leadership

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Honestly there is nothing I can think of.

Cons

I strongly advise against considering employment with this company, unless you find yourself in an exceptionally dire situation and are willing to endure extreme unhappiness and the risk of swift termination shortly after your hire. The organization appears to be primarily governed by a single individual, reporting directly to the CEO, who exhibits a level of disrespect and toxicity that I have rarely encountered. She fosters a hostile work environment through fear-based leadership and public humiliation, often hindering employees from fulfilling their duties by micromanaging and belittling them in public Slack conversations and meetings. Her consistently changing directives lack coherence, causing confusion and frustration among the workforce. Moreover, the company recently engaged in a deceptive hiring spree to inflate their numbers and deceive investors into believing they were thriving. However, this facade crumbled as investors saw through the ruse, prompting a mass layoff of approximately 40 recent hires without explanation or severance. This callous disposal of employees, especially after failing to secure funding, reflects a profoundly cruel and unethical approach, indicating a complete disregard for the well-being of their workforce. In addition to these issues, there is a notable absence of transparency from the company's executive leadership. Important decisions are made clandestinely, leaving employees uninformed and voiceless in the company's direction. This opacity breeds distrust and frustration, creating an atmosphere of profound dissatisfaction among the workforce.

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Smith.ai Response
2y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We value transparency and are committed to addressing employee concerns, including those related to the recent workforce changes. This decision was not made lightly and we are sorry your time here was shorter than expected. If you would like to share more about your experience, please feel free to reach out directly. We wish you the very best in your career.
Viewing 1 - 3 of 279 Reviews

Glassdoor has 338 Smith.ai reviews submitted anonymously by Smith.ai employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Smith.ai is right for you.