Business ProfileforWorld Education Services

BBB files indicate that this business has a pattern of complaints alleging a failure of the business to process documents submitted to them in a timely manner. Additionally, consumers have consistently felt ignored by World Education Services when the business does not respond to their queries. On February 24 2020, BBB submitted a written request to the company encouraging them to address the pattern of complaints.

On October 7, 2020 BBB received the following response:

"We, the understated parties, having been notified of the pattern of customer complaints filed against World Education Services over the past 12 months, hereby agree to work toward eliminating the pattern of complaint through the procedures or steps outlined below.

We further agree to abide by the promised terms.

World Education Services (WES) understands that employers, higher education institutions, licensing bodies and governments all trust WES credential evaluation reports as a valid attestation of the quality of the credentials claimed by an applicant. The credibility of the reports we issue thus has a substantive impact on the employment, educational, and immigration outcomes of our applicants. We take our responsibility to our applicants seriously. To ensure they have the best possible outcomes, we uphold a policy-driven gold-standard review process that ensures consistent quality and timely review of reports against standardized, research-based protocols.
We also continually seek to improve customer experience. In the past several months, WES has made significant progress in implementing a range of improvements to improve our customers' experience while delivering the high-quality reports that enable them to achieve their goals. We have:
Implemented technology enhancements and process improvements, including:

-Applicant upload - Instead of mailing and faxing documents such as degree certificates and translations thereof, applicants can now upload these documents electronically. This saves them time and expense. Applicant upload was implemented in early May 2020 and has been widely adopted. (Note: We still require some types of academic documents be submitted by issuing institutions, to ensure their authenticity.)
-Digital transmission of documents from universities and other issuing authorities - Since March of 2020, WES has made great progress in establishing partnerships with overseas institutions and authorities to receive official academic documents digitally/electronically. We now receive documents from roughly 70 countries, and hundreds of institutions globally (up from roughly 25 countries in January of 2020.) Digital transmissions enable us to receive verified documents direct from the source on a timely basis. This creates substantial time savings for applicants seeking to meet deadlines imposed by other entities.
-Pilot-tested and adopted a range of internal processes to monitor completion rates and accelerate the completion of applicant files.

Increased the transparency of our communications, including:

-Updates to our Required Documents page, to provide more detailed and accurate online instructions about the documents WES requires to complete a credential evaluation report. These requirements are listed by country, institution and specific credentials.
-Greater transparency around processing timelines and other factors that may cause delays are now explained on a new "Important WES Notices" page
-A series of emails to applicants and institutions, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), licensing bodies and other designated evaluation report recipients to inform them of changes to our business operations related to COVID-19
-Audit and remediation of automated email responses to common queries to ensure greater accuracy and transparency

Made enhancements to our customer services, including:

-Implementation of a series of technical and process improvements in responding to customer complaints. These include improvements to our call center protocols, including more rigorous performance indicators (KPIs); and development of a more robust internal escalation process, including additional capacity to respond to customer emails with appropriate levels of detail and customization.

In the coming months and years, we will continue to invest in operational, technology, and communications improvements that support the best outcomes for our customers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Kamal
Director, Institutional Client Relations
World Education Services