We review course evaluations daily, and greatly appreciate the feedback given by our customers. This feedback enables us to improve our courses and services – which is invaluable to us. Today we received the following comment on a course evaluation:
I am greatly disappointed that PDR no longer includes books with the tests. So far the on-line classes are not as helpful to be translated to later uses with clients. Also it is frustrating to order a test, then have to order the book on Amazon. It is unfortuate that PDR has decided to operate in this manner as having the books and tests included has been a draw for me to order classes from PDR. Sincerely, RA Weaver, LISW-S
Since this is a sentiment others might share, we wanted to explain our reasoning behind the decision to outsource book inventory to Amazon.com. Here is the response from our CEO:
We thought about this for a long time before making the decision to outsource our book functions. I know there are a lot of our customers like you, who enjoyed the convenience of one-stop shopping for books and CE, and we certainly do not like to disappoint. However, we made our decision based on two factors: first, in this 2011 economy, it is no longer financially feasible for us to underwrite the costs of ordering, stocking, and shipping books. With increasing costs of the books themselves and shipping and handling, we were faced with choosing between increasing our prices – which we did not want to do – and outsourcing to Amazon. Second – our analysis indicated that by ordering the book from Amazon and the CE test from us, customers would achieve a savings of 25%, on the average, off what it would cost if we continued to supply both.
I sincerely hope we can continue to earn your business. It is our intention to continue to offer book-based courses as well as online courses. The 25% savings might compensate you for having to place two orders instead of one.
Thanks for your feedback and your business.
Regards,
Leo
Leo Christie, PhD
President
Professional Development Resources, Inc.