UniFirst reviews

If you're looking for a free workout (changing floor mats, hauling dirty laundry, and hustling all day long), this is a great job. I enjoyed working independently and being able to complete my route on my time/terms. I also enjoyed the customer interaction and level of control I was given over my accounts. The GM at the Cleveland location is FANTASTIC, but he can't fix the things he is unaware of or that are out of his control due to corporate restrictions.

UniFirst is a great place to start a sales career. Whether you are fresh out of college or looking to start a career in sales with no prior sales experience, they have a very in depth 13 week training that will help introduce you to the world of uniform and facility services sales. The managers will help show you techniques to selling and you will grow in skill level overtime as long as you are willing to try. That being said, they’ll know really quick if you’re going to have what it takes or not. So that can be problematic if you’re not putting up $$$ in a quick time to prove yourself. But if they like you, you’ll have a shot. Work/Life Balance – It is technically 8-5 M-F except most weeks you have a 7:00am meeting that if you have been there for more than a year is pointless because it’s just recapping all the stuff you’re told every day. There are three field days and two “office” days. The office days consist of call blocks from 8:00am-12:00pm with 10 minute breaks at the top of each hour for a bathroom break. Management believes use of that 10 minute break for anything other than the restroom is unacceptable and you’re doing yourself a “disservice”. But a four hour long call block is ridiculous. Side note – find out where your territory is ASAP before you start or you may have a territory an hour away from your house and Unifirst will only reimburse up to 260 miles per week. This is included into your “salary.” So DON’T FORGET TO TURN IN YOUR TIME AND MILEAGE SHEET. Pay – Although you are a sales rep your “salary” isn’t really a salary. You’re technically hourly and if you do not turn in your time sheet you will not be paid. And you don’t get paid on that extra hour for the morning meeting. You do have a designated territory that no other rep should be able to go in other than you so that’s great. The problem here with pay is that you have only so many large accounts in your territory and since you don’t get residuals (only a one time pay out on commission), every time you make a sale, your territory shrinks. So long term you will need to switch territories (and that’s hard to get approved). Micromanagement – It’s real. You have to BCC your managers on large account emails and have to do so many a week or you’re punished by having to come into the office on Fridays, which is typically a field day. You have so many different metrics to meet as for calls, meetings, and closes. From a corporate stand point its great their reps have a massive quantity of activities, but you as the sales rep lose the quality of taking the time to do your job and feel like you’ve done it right by the customer. Instead your told “make the sale and let service handle it” that’s not right. Also management doesn’t necessarily tell you to hide the fact your customer is signing a five-year contract…but they don’t tell you to broadcast it either. Kinda sketchy. Overall you’ll learn a lot that can help you get the experience to get the real sales job you want and deserve. Good luck!