I was hired from outside the industry. Started selling cars in 1998 and worked my way up to being a general sales manager and then general manager in the retail automotive industry.
I was hired to be a sales manager in a Florida location that was horribly underperforming and hasn't since SCI purchased from another company.
I was eager to leave the retail auto industry after relocating to Florida and realizing that the car biz was extremely aggressive and the turn over was high based on how people were treated.
I accepted the position and was lied to about my onboarding process and was incorrectly compensated for over 6 weeks. Signed an agreement for a ramp up that eventually got paid but was on sales person's salary.
I was told I would receive training from a month and half to prepare me to take over the location. Two days before the end of the month and two weeks into training of which consisted of following around another sales manager and watching how he manipulated upper management by telling them what they wanted to hear but doing what he wanted.
I was then handed over to the general manager that was slightly insecure, control freak, that talked out of both sides of his mouth. The sales team was a combination of seven people that most were recently hired with no real training other than the online courses and on the job training. No leadership, no management just reactively doing their jobs.
After struggling for two and a half months to learn the jo
SCI sells what is called a lawn crypt. It is a pre installed concrete vault , with drainage. The sells team , leads the family to believe these lawn crypts will not hold water , and that any water that does get in will drain out the preinstalled drain system. By theory , this is true. But they dont bother to tell the purchasers that SCI installed an inferior drain system that does repeatedly fail. I personally expirienced the drain failure on 3 different occasions when I was employeed there. Two of the times I was able to fix the drains and get them draining again. The last time was after a 5 year drought in our area. When the drought finally ended , it rained for 2 weeks straight. Set record rain fall in wichita falls. The lawn crypts were flooded and We couldnt get them to drain like we had before. The GM at the time , instructed me to not report this to corporate. He said we dont need cprporate sending in engineers and corporate people snooping in our business. After months of dealing with totally flooded vaults in the Garden of Cross , I went to the GM one more time and told himwe had to report this and get it fixed. He told me to not call corporate until I was ready to lose my job. At this time I had been the superinitindent at this SCI location for 37 years. I could no longer sit by and see families being buried in these vaults , not to mention the hundreds that were already interred there , and completley under water. So I called someone I knew in human resources and
ConsThis
4.0
Human Resources Coordinator | Houston, TX | Oct 7, 2014
A great experience, and stepping stone in my career path
When I started I had no experience in HR, or as a Recruiting Coordinator. It meant so much to me that they looked past my experience and believed in my abilities to become a great employee. After being promoted from Appointment Setter to make 16 an hour at the corporate office I was beyond excited; It felt like I was finally getting what I deserved for the hard work I put in at my jobs.
Since I am a quick learner I picked up on things rather quickly, and after three weeks into my jobs the real test began. The first round of system testing was being conducted, and my trainer had to go down for testing. She just started doing the on-boarding/ background process for a company that we were acquiring. In one day I learned the systems to complete that process and was responsible to pick up her responsibilities, plus still complete my responsibilities. I managed to on-board 11 corporate new hires, and I was receiving 3-7 new hires a day to process for the other companies locations. I resolved any issues that transpired due to her not having access to her emails and phone, and I also supported 5 recruiters with their job postings requests. It was such an accomplishment to complete these tasks, and I proved myself to all my coworkers.
After, a few months into the job I received a 3 dollar, and 4% raise, because my manager and the director believed I deserved every dollar of it. That was an amazing day, because my hard work was appreciated and I was valued. Things just got bet
ProsGreat pay, work was always appreciated, opportunity to grow and excel with company
ConsThe expectations of HR was never discussed with me
SCI Direct otherwise known as Neptune Society, is a sister company of Service Corporation International. In December they will officially become SCI Direct. I worked in a small office upstairs the main office where people would come to pick up their families cremains, and meet to sign up for our services. When my grandmother passed it was an awful experience for our family, and I felt like this job was an opportunity for me stress the importance of pre-planning with others who thought it was important too. We would receive mailers, and email requests for more information in Volocify as warm leads. The leads would contain their name, address, city, state, and if they were a veteran. I made over a 100 calls daily to set appointments for 5 Independent Sales Reps. My goal was to set up 3 appointments for each of the ISR's.
The most appointments I booked in one day was 21. For each contract that was sold I received commission. I worked split shift with one girl for about 2 months, and then she quit. I still worked split shift, but I worked from home in the evenings. I was the only Appointment Setter for about 3 months, and then we brought in another employee. Prior to us bringing in this new employee I created an extensive training binder to go over the best ways to search through Volocify, what rebuddles to use while on the phone, among some other training points. My boss trained with the new employee(s) for two days, and then they sat and trained with me.
The hardest part of
My schedule was in the hands of other Funeral assistants. They would be the ones who would ask me, "Hey, can you work this coming Wednesday and Thursday?" What was up that garbage? My manager would tell me, "I am going to try to give you as many hours as possible." He did not involve himself when I would work or not work. The funeral assistant is a totally on call position. The jealously among co-workers was so apparent with that stench. My manager did me a favor one day, the co-workers who were other funeral assistants who were training me, found out and totally stopped calling and asking me to help on funerals. Then the co-workers lied to my manager who was out of town that week, that I had worked all the previous week. I did not work once that week and was never called to come to work. I addressed my manager about the lie and I am told, "Sorry, you feel like you were singled out and that you feel that way." feel that way? I only had 15 hours on my paycheck for a full 2 weeks. That is not a feeling of being singled out, that is a fact and my paycheck is the preponderance of the evidence. Then one of the other funeral homes that is managed under SCI called me in to do their "Spring Cleaning" basically I was their cinderfella to clean the parking lot, pick up trash that had blown in onto the landscaping, clean the refrigeration unit, haul old office supplies down to the basement and store them. Take paint, small paint brush and cover up water stains on the ceiling tiles th
ProsPutting in my 2 weeks.
ConsI ever applied there to work
1.0
Family Service Counselor | Phoenix, AZ | Mar 27, 2020
Not for the Faint of Heart
Unless you have a 4 to 6 month reserve in your bank account don't bother. And if you do, take your time to find a better career because you will burn through that nest egg before you start making any money. I have been with this company for quite some time. I personally have done very well for myself financially but most if not all that start here last just a few months. The culture is very cut throat and many of the veterans will find a way to run off new people to "keep the number of sales people low" it's an 100% commission job that you don't get paid if you don't sell or make quota. If you can make quota there are different bonuses that you can qualify for but you have to be extremely consistent with sales. The culture is who you know and not what you know. There is a ton of favoritism and if you aren't one of the click then don't plan on doing very well. You will go through several months of training on a hourly wage $10, before you can even start selling. And selling in a business with no experience you are certainly going to struggle. Management is for the most part not very helpful and the company just throws the next person up into the role. Just like they will hire anyone with a heartbeat. You have to have a life insurance license and real estate license (cemetery) in order to sell anything with this company and they hire most people without them to start. Between the company's ridiculous amount of training and getting those licenses most people leave in the first 3
1.0
Family Service Counselor | Tennessee | Oct 30, 2019
Run fast and run far away.
I have never been so dissatisfied with a job in my life.
For starters, I was lied to in my interview. The interviewer made it seem like this was going to be a decent-paying job. She claimed the "average" was $40-60k per year for a family service counselor. I'm not sure where that number came in, but I don't know many (if any) people making that. Most people are barely making above minimum wage.
The quotas are unreasonable. In a given month, 1-4 people per market (from what I've seen in my market) will hit the actual quota. These crooks find any way possible to cut your commission. For example, if you sell $10,000 in spaces, 20% of that immediately comes off of the top, meaning only $8000 of that would go towards quota.
You're expected to do a ton of free labor in the hopes that families will want to buy from you in the future. When meeting with families, you're expected to charge a fee if they didn't prepay to cover the grave opening. That amount is no less than $1200 and goes up depending on where your location is. When they pay when a death has occurred, you make NOTHING on that fee.
You'll get chained to the desk doing so much paperwork while being expected to push for sales, sales, sales.
Speaking of sales, this company expects us to be pushy and use all of the same sales tactics you'd use in any other sales job. It's no wonder sales are dropping rapidly - people are seeing through the charade and nobody trusts this company anymore. When sales goals are
The hours of the day could be long, past 10 to 12 hours or more to complete the work. Short lunch breaks usually. In my location no overtime allowed only comp time and was hard to make up. Co-workers were friendly, but mostly only did their own tasks. The Staff in most locations has been cut back to keep the "bottom line". So there was some "severe multi tasking" needed by the Director. This was becoming the norm from years gone by.
SCI process by growing is to acquire more companies and locations and in doing so eliminate some competition. But there is internal competition, within the company locally. There are many markets under the "Giant Umbrella" to strategize. Prices are raised across the board and in the Main Market, prices are so out of reach, without the company funeral benefit, even most employees couldn't afford to use their service.
The Company likes to play "games". They have lots of resources, for ex; so they will call the location to "mystery shop", it's scripted to make all locations answer Pricing Calls the same way basically. It looks like there was concern for the consumer, but it was to get more money in the door. This was done by their Communications department and you were critique by individuals with no actual experience in the Funeral Business, even commenting on how your voice sounded sincere or not.
There's Sr. management at the Corporate level, Middle management which oversees a certain Market area and Location management. So lot's of Boss
ProsMany locations across the State and Country, Major network in Big Cities
A typical work day with Service Corporation International(SCI) consist in lead calling, cold calling, scheduling appointments, presentations, emailing, and prospecting.
I was told many things when beginning this position. To begin: I would have 6 weeks of paid training, the team would have all supplies necessary to work and be successful, That our drive time would be compensated for prospecting, appointments and additional training sessions, and our cell phones would be reimbursement for the use.
So far I have found all of these items listed above to be false or misleading.
I did training for 2 weeks on what to say during presentation, after which I felt ill prepared. The team I am working with had no direction, management or instruction on expectation for approximately 6 weeks. Having no; computers, printers, price lists, phone compensation, ability to write contracts, or anything you would possibly need to complete your tasks was not given. I personally went out to buy; Ink, Stamps, Paper, Envelopes and any other supplies necessary to try and do my job.
We continuously asked for assistance from managers at other locations with little to no response after they stated"come to me if we need anything". I took it upon myself to figure out everything from pricing to the computer system and helped the others on the team be successful, without being successful myself.
So now 3 months later we have a manager, who was our trainer for the 2 weeks in the very beginning.
ProsFlexable hours
ConsEvery thing else, Commission only after 6 weeks.
Expected to work extra hours two days a week. Expected to run operations of office with the "benefit" of being exposed to families who could purchase. This is more of a sales job than counselor job. Mangers chosen to supervise are brow beaten by upper management. Those managers are difficult and usually micro-manage along with putting pressure on you about quota. You get vacation time, but when and if you take it you are reminded that you are not on quota. when you return you still have to make quota for the month. The pay is awful. Minimum wage if you don't make quota and after your health benefits are taken out you come home with checks under a couple of hundred dollars for two weeks. Then, if they pay you the minimum wage, as a draw they take it back when you do write contracts And speaking of contracts, if one cancels you pay for it. Not just for say 6 months...but forever. So if you return to the company and a contract you wrote 5 years ago cancels, you get the cancellation just like you never left the company. If you like standing in the elements, working on call for services, and up-selling families at the worse time of their lives...this job is for you. You will not be appreciated for the talent you bring to the company or any ideas you may have to improve your local operation. And be ready to memorize scripts. They continue to recycle has-been, wanna- be- salesmen between front line sales and front line managers. So if you enjoy being told that you can "get another j
ProsIf you like helping people with no expectation of reward this is a good position for you
ConsLow level local sales managers have no people skills, pay is absent, hours are long and uncompensated, the mission spoken does not match practice.
Questions And Answers about Service Corporation International
What is the work environment and culture like at Service Corporation International?
Asked Jul 2, 2016
The work environment is toxic. Little to no communication. No courtesy. A lot of bullying. Retaliation if you say anything. The best bet is to keep your mouth shut, sell, and do not make any friends. Management hates when you make friends.
Answered Oct 10, 2020
Absolutely everything revolves around sales. If your not in sales and making sales, you're not appreciated or compensated well at all
Answered Feb 14, 2020
How do you feel about going to work each day at Service Corporation International?
Asked Aug 4, 2017
You are there for the families. If this is your calling and this is not like work to you, You take the high road, maintain professional communication and behavior. It is an honor and a privilege to take care of families, during the very worst days of their lives.
Answered Sep 10, 2021
I hated it
Answered Dec 16, 2020
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Service Corporation International a better place to work?
Asked Mar 23, 2018
Increase pay
Answered Nov 22, 2020
Better training
Answered Oct 23, 2020
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at Service Corporation International? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Jun 16, 2016
it was about 3 weeks to start working at SCI
Answered Sep 22, 2020
The entire process took 2 weeks from interview to first day of work.
Answered Jul 19, 2019
How did you feel about telling people you worked at Service Corporation International?
