For many years, we provided phone support and answered questions over the phone which many students stated was hard to find and valuable. We'd have students tell us that we were the only CE provider who answered the phone after calling over a dozen other providers. We were happy to provide this service; however, it was occasionally abused by students who for example, wanted us to break board policies to issue them CE credit while absent, and that's the reason why they wanted to speak to us by phone instead of documenting such an unethical request in an email. These calls usually lasted half an hour, or longer, and would end with an upset student not getting what they wanted which was a lose lose for all. It's like they would keep us on the phone for as long as possible thinking we would give-in to their request if they took up a lot of our time, and it started to feel manipulative and abusive when we were trying to be empathetic to their needs. Unfortunately over the years, this has occurred amongst dozens of individuals and has never been a one-time incident.
We also have had students call upset about their order or transaction, and it would be really hard to extract the info we needed over the phone to help correct an erroneous registration and other issues. We have regularly endured profanity, name calling, screaming and other atrocities which cannot be continued or tolerated. These are things that customers usually do not write in an email, so emailed communications have felt less abusive for our operations.
We operate a school that provides massively discounted training with a limited staff on razor thin budgets. This does not allow us to spend half an hour or more on the phone with a student who's asking/demanding we break board policies, or sustain verbal abuse from a customer who's upset, usually due to their own errors or attempts to break our school policies and other unethical situations. As such, terminating phone service has allowed us to increase the professionalism and reduce the strain on our business operations.
Email has also provided a consolidated place to keep all communications stream lined with less room for miscommunication. We usually respond to students email within 24-hours of receipt, and sometimes within minutes. We take great pride in offering the best customer service possible when a student emails us their inquiry.
If you need anything from our school at CE Institute LLC, please email us via the website contact form and we'll be happy to help. Please note that we do not call students, especially upon request, for the very reasons mentioned above. We do not want to have to increase our class prices to pay for extra staff to take and return phone calls all day, and we'd prefer to keep our communications professional, in writing and consolidated as well.
We hope to hear from you via email and serve your future educational needs at CE Institute LLC. Thank you!
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