Caught between PADI and an Instructor

[Mako Mark]

It's pretty clear to me that PADI is behind the curve on IT and their back-office is chronically backlogged.


R..

Oh gimme a greak.......... Name another organization that

1 Has a full time Quality Management department
2 Has online diver Check
3 Has online Pro check.
4 Has a 72 hour guarantee on certification processing.
5 Sends evaluation questionares to more than 1 in 3 students.

I work very closely with the PADI QA department (more on a daily than weekly basis) and they do everything possible to contact members, including snail mail, fax, phone and email.

Members on the other hand fail to supply or update contact information on a regular basis, and this is where the communication falls down.

 

[tangfish]

Sends evaluation questionares to more than 1 in 3 students.

I've done 4 certifications now and I never received a questionnaire. Has anyone out there? I doubt that its more than 1 in 3 students. To your credit though, the correspondence with PADI was quite timely once it got going (three and a half weeks after I sent in my PIC).

 

[Diver0001]

<snip>

I work very closely with the PADI QA department (more on a daily than weekly basis) and they do everything possible to contact members, including snail mail, fax, phone and email.

Of course they do. I previously stated that if you contact them then you are helped promptly and responsively. My comment about being backlogged is based on my experience that there are long lags (at least there have been in my case) between doing things like renewing and seeing the renewal come through on the members site. Even if you do it all electronically. I drew the conclusoin that this happens because they're busy. Certification cards don't take 72 hours in Europe, they take 6 weeks or sometimes longer and if you've ever ordered a replacement card then you'll see the same thing. Maybe it's the wrong conclusion but then I'm at a loss to explain the delays. But ok. I don't want to have a hard head in it because I don't know for sure and I have noticed that if you take the initiative yourself that it's perfect.

Members on the other hand fail to supply or update contact information on a regular basis, and this is where the communication falls down.

I'm sure this is part of it. Drew nicely sketched how that happens but I wouldn't blame the members for everything either.

R..

 

[tangfish]

Also, I'm sure we can get our c-cards quicker if they hire more people and charge us more for PICs. I for one, don't mind waiting a bit at the current price.

 

[Diver0001]

I've done 4 certifications now and I never received a questionnaire. Has anyone out there? I doubt that its more than 1 in 3 students. To your credit though, the correspondence with PADI was quite timely once it got going (three and a half weeks after I sent in my PIC).

Neither have I or any of my friends or regular buddies that I'm aware of. Between us we must account for a huge statistical anomaly. I do believe Marc's stats though.

R..

 

[CuriousMe]

I have three certifications (three different instructors/shops and three different parts of the US or Caribbean) with PADI and I received questionnaire's twice.

Guess I'm the other part of your statistical anomaly.

Peace,
Cathie

 

[Windwalker]

Work load. This shouldn't be used as an excuse but I think it's probably the reason. Personally i think they should do both but the backoffice would need to employ people to write and respond those emails in a wide variety of different languages. Those people (some of them) are probably already there but (probably) already busy as hell as it is. The email technology isn't really the problem. It's the people you need and the costs of those people, the overhead it causes to have extra staff etc etc. We're probably only talking about another 30 people or so world wide but such a decision could add up to a couple of million in operational costs depending on where they're located and how it's organised.

R..

Nah.. I would have to disagree, I doubt their letters to people are all hand written and stuffed, its probably bulk printed off the computer, all it would do is take one developer a little time to couple their Mail program with an email program so that when an instructor is marked bad in their database an email is automagically sent off. The problem with PADI and many other Organizations is what they have works well for them, and they don't see a need to improve. So why spend the money on it.. I believe that PADI is a For Profit Organization.. soo anything they do like this would temporarily cut into their profit.

And the powers that be would not like that.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Any PADI Pro can check the status (Teaching, Non-teaching, Suspended, etc...) of any other member if you know their first name and PADI member number.

You can also bring up a list of your own Pro certifications, but not for someone else. You can review your contact details on file with PADI (email, fax, phone, & address)

Is there additional info PADI should try to make accessible on the Pro end of their website? I try to keep a list to bug the regional rep with whenever he comes around.

For right now, the single biggest addition I'd like to see show up on Pro Chek is the Home Office for the instructor and any Service Office arrangement already in force. I'd really like to see instructors be able to update their information online too.

 

[Windwalker]

Any PADI Pro can check the status (Teaching, Non-teaching, Suspended, etc...) of any other member if you know their first name and PADI member number.

<SNIPOLLA>

Yea!! Ask them if they can put an option in to send Instructor Email updates when their status changes!

 

[Diver0001]

<snip> soo anything they do like this would temporarily cut into their profit.

And the powers that be would not like that.

Point taken. I'll just add that the relevant thing they'll look at isn't really the investment but the "return on investment". Like any profit based organisation they want to grow and sometimes to grow they'll need to change. The powers that be don't really mind change (or investment) but it has to be meaningful. If the main problem is really (as Mark suggests) that instructors are dropping the ball, then I can't see PADI being too quick to invest in making it harder for instructors to drop the ball.....That would be spending money to solve the other guys' problem and organisations typically aren't quick to do that unless, as Lighting Fish suggests, there's a major liability gap that they need to plug.....

R..