Learner Log Book: Customer Care

The purpose of the Learner’s Log Book (LLB) is to document the achievements of the learner in a central repository that will be considered as evidence on the effectiveness of the learning process. It is a ‘monitoring tool’ that e-tutors use to report on individual learners’ progress and it is a way of ensuring that learners:

• Are engaged in their learning process.
• They are experimenting by doing the tasks subscribed to them by the e-tutor.
• Avoid plagiarism because learners have to be engaged on a continuous basis and the informal assessment can therefore be used to ensure consistency with the main formal assessment.
• Provide e-Tutors with the opportunity to get to know the learners evaluate them and mentor them properly.
• There are templates which will reflect whether learners read, whether they understand, whether they assimilate the knowledge, whether they develop enquiry ability, whether they have the potential to conduct critical thinking and whether they can reflect on the knowledge accumulated by relating to real situations.

The onus is mainly on learners to furnish the required information in the templates after each unit based on the Read and Analyze Activity. After filling the information in the template they need to e-mail it back to the e-Tutor.

e-Tutor will then comments on the work done and the involvement that takes place and give overall impressions on the learners at the end of the module.

Key Learning Points

Teamwork: Teamwork is very fundamental in effective service delivery within an organization. All the departments in a business premise must be enjoined together in a unity of purpose. The organization must commit to a common goal and work towards its achievement. Standard life long assurance company, for instance, embraced teamwork where everybody was assigned his role aimed at meeting the objectives of the organization. In customer relationship management, the focus of the organization is customer satisfaction.

Restructuring the Organizational Structure: the implementation of customer relationship management techniques and strategies in any organization require a change in the mode of operation of the company. In effecting changes geared towards meeting the customer needs, the organization must embark on an elaborate exercise of restructuring the manner in which the organization operates.

Consultancy: effective governance and strategic management encompasses the incorporation of ideas of other professionals. An organization that is embracing a new business strategy has to appreciate the role of other technocrats. External consultancy thus ensures that the organization borrows ideas and skills from other areas. In implementing a new customer management strategy, it is very important to let the external consultants work hand in hand with the managers of the organization to come up with practical recommendations that will enhance customer satisfaction. However, the experience at the Standard lifelong assurance company was that the consultants had a role of improving on the original plan of the organization; the consultants should contribute to the strategy plan generated by the management and not their own plan.

Commitment From the Top Management: the top managers of any business organization act as the primary medium through which the objectives of the organization are achieved. The managers have immense responsibility to influence the manner in which other employees undertake their duties; any change in corporate tactics thus should begin from the top management.

Drafting of a Vision: An organization with a vision and a mission best understands where they are, where they would want to be and how exactly they would want to reach their vision and mission. A vision inspires industry and direction in an organization. When the staff works with a clear, distinct mind of their destination, there exist very clear and well defined focal points of the organization.

Education: senior manager must be constantly exposed to new information through education. Customer needs are very dynamic implying that any strategy to satisfy the demands of the clients must be a well informed strategy and thoroughly researched, this therefore creates the need for educating the management on new customer satisfaction strategies

Staff Research: This infers to the process where members of the organization forward their suggestions and recommendations to the managers. When members of the staff are included in the research process, a feeling of owning the process is cultivated within the staff members and this boosts the spirit of the team.

Time Factor: In all the customer relationship strategies implemented by an organization, it is quite important to note that the effects of change brought forth by these strategies, come after a while. New customer relationship management strategies therefore would take significant time before the benefits begin trickling in. Strong commitment and patience is required from the staff during the implementation of new customer service strategies.