Crisp Video Group Reviews

I intentionally waited some time before writing this review. I wanted enough time to pass so I could reflect honestly instead of writing while emotions were still high. Looking back now, I can appreciate what this company taught me while also being honest about the environment I experienced. I worked here for nearly four years, and I don’t regret the skills I gained or the relationships I built. However, based on my experience, I cannot recommend this company in its current form. Before joining the company, I had years of experience in customer service and marketing, along with some management experience, but this was my first true corporate environment. If I’m being completely honest, after my first 30 days I wanted to leave. The pace, expectations, and culture were unlike anything I’d experienced before. The only reason I stayed was because of two exceptional leaders—my Director and my Team Lead. They believed in me before I fully believed in myself. They helped me settle into the role, develop professionally, and ultimately convinced me to stay. What was almost a one-month job became nearly four years because of them. My Director deserves particular recognition. They built our department almost from scratch and created what I can only describe as a culture within the culture. They genuinely cared about the people on the team, protected us whenever possible, accepted more pressure than they should have, and consistently advocated for us. They took pride in building strong people, not just strong metrics. Looking back, I realize they spent an incredible amount of their own energy shielding the team from decisions being made above them. Unfortunately, even exceptional middle management couldn’t overcome the larger organizational issues. The biggest challenge I experienced was the disconnect between executive leadership and the day-to-day realities of the work. The vision was ambitious, and I don’t question that the CEO and executive team wanted the company to succeed. There were intelligent ideas and ambitious goals. The challenge was execution. Priorities changed frequently, communication was inconsistent, and middle management was often left trying to interpret decisions, explain them to their teams, and somehow keep morale high while continuing to deliver results. Eventually, I moved into management myself, and my perspective changed. Much of my role became balancing what my team genuinely needed with what leadership expected. Instead of solving recurring issues, I often found myself asking my team to focus on their clients, keep pushing, and trust that things would improve. Over time, that became exhausting—not just for me, but for my team as well. For years, I chose to look past concerns because I wanted to be a team player, support my colleagues, and do what I believed was best for the business. In the process, I normalized chronic stress, anxiety, and burnout because I genuinely believed those were simply the costs of succeeding in a fast-growing company. Looking back, they weren’t. Throughout my time with the company, I consistently provided feedback whenever I had the opportunity. Before becoming a manager, one of the most common concerns raised by employees was compensation. After becoming a manager, I heard the exact same feedback from my own team. Better pay, better incentives, and more realistic expectations were recurring conversations. Unfortunately, meaningful change rarely followed. Compensation was one of the company’s weakest areas. We were often told compensation was competitive based on company research, but that never aligned with what many employees experienced or what similar roles paid elsewhere. The commission structure reflected that disconnect. While these numbers are rough estimates, selling an additional $20,000 service might result in approximately a $200 commission. Selling something worth more than $75,000 might earn around $700. Anyone in Customer Success knows those conversations are rarely easy. Clients questioned pricing, challenged value, and expected thoughtful consultation. We worked hard to build trust, defend the investment, and create successful outcomes, yet the financial reward rarely reflected the level of responsibility required. The workload became increasingly unsustainable. Customer portfolios continued growing while KPIs remained largely unchanged. Managing 25–30 clients was already demanding. Watching those books of business grow closer to 40 clients while maintaining every existing expectation wasn’t realistic. On top of client management came transitions, internal projects, reporting, meetings, cross-functional initiatives, and constant communication with supporting departments. Leadership frequently reminded us not to let clients feel the impact of staffing changes. That’s an admirable goal, but employees felt those changes every day. Turnover became increasingly difficult to ignore. Every company experiences turnover, but what concerned me was how frequently experienced, talented employees left with little acknowledgment. The explanation was often that someone “wasn’t a culture fit” or “wasn’t an A player.” After watching that pattern repeat over several years, it became difficult not to question whether the organization was looking inward as often as it was looking outward. Clients noticed as well. They aren’t blind. They recognize when familiar faces disappear and new people continually take over their accounts. Every transition requires rebuilding trust, learning client history, understanding personalities, and earning credibility all over again. Meanwhile, Customer Success Managers inherited larger books of business without meaningful adjustments to workload or expectations. Meetings became another challenge. When the company was much smaller, morning huddles and frequent meetings were valuable. As the company grew beyond 100 employees, many of those practices no longer scaled effectively. Morning huddles became something employees attended because they had to rather than because they provided value. Too many meetings lasted an hour or more when the outcome could have been accomplished through a brief Slack message or email. Those hours came directly out of serving clients, completing projects, or working toward the many KPIs employees were expected to achieve. Month-end was another constant source of pressure. Every month, Customer Success teams found themselves encouraging clients to invest in additional services before month-end deadlines. Revenue goals are understandable, but those conversations often felt driven more by internal targets than by what was best for the client relationship. Work-life balance was one of the company’s biggest shortcomings. Leaving at your scheduled time often felt discouraged. Arriving just a few minutes late attracted attention, while working after hours gradually became normalized. Responding while on PTO or remaining connected outside business hours increasingly felt like an expectation rather than an exception. The company’s written PTO policies only added to that frustration. Company holidays were limited, and much of the advertised PTO consisted of predetermined closures rather than flexible vacation time. Extended blackout periods significantly restricted when employees could take time off. Want to extend a holiday with your family? Catch an earlier flight for Thanksgiving or Christmas? Attend an important family event? Those requests were often difficult or impossible because of blackout periods. While those policies may have supported business needs, they frequently came at the expense of employee wellbeing. Training and development also struggled to keep pace with the company’s growth. Managers often inherited outdated onboarding materials and were expected to rebuild training while simultaneously managing teams and meeting aggressive goals. There simply wasn’t enough time or support to do all of those things well. Toward the end of my tenure, it became clear the company was looking for leaders with experience at significantly larger organizations. Rather than investing in developing existing leaders who had built client relationships, understood the product, and demonstrated years of loyalty, the company chose to bring in outside talent. No one ever directly told me I was being replaced. Instead, conversations were initiated through my Director asking whether I was happy in my role. Reading between the lines, it became clear I was no longer part of the company’s long-term plans. When I asked what I needed to improve or what development opportunities existed, there wasn’t much constructive feedback to offer. I wasn’t given a meaningful opportunity to continue growing or explore another role within the company before those decisions had effectively been made. That was one of the hardest parts to accept because I had spent years trying to be the kind of employee every company says it wants. I worked hard, accepted additional responsibility, moved into leadership, advocated for my team, gave honest feedback, and remained committed to the business. Looking back, I wish more effort had been made to develop and retain experienced leaders rather than replace them. Despite everything I’ve shared, I don’t regret working here. I learned discipline, leadership, client communication, organization, collaboration, resilience, and how to navigate a demanding business environment. Those lessons have benefited me long after leaving. What disappoints me is that I believe this company has enormous potential. There are talented people throughout the organization who genuinely care about their work, their clients, and one another. My criticism isn’t directed at them. It’s directed at an organization that, in my experience, often asked more of its people than it invested back into them. I waited a long time before writing this review because I wanted reflection—not frustration—to shape my perspective. Looking back now, I’m genuinely grateful for the people who invested in me and the skills I developed. At the same time, reflection has only strengthened my belief that, based on my experience, I cannot recommend this company in its current form