Driven by the value to impart and share knowledge, principles and various work-related skills and practices, the University of the Philippine Open University (UPOU) Faculty of Information and Communication Studies conducted its 3rd FICS MeetUPs on 8 October 2019 at the UPOU Oblation Hall, Los Baños, Laguna.
Tackling improving client service and writing a literature review, the 3rd MeetUps featured Ms. Gian Rose Cerdeña and Ms. Germaine Basan as its resource persons. Ms. Cerdeña kicked off with the topic titled “Quality Assurance: Customer Service, Why we try to do our best.” Using wit and quiet humour, she specified the seven drivers of disloyalty among clients which includes repeating information, robotic service, and hassle factors, among others. Interestingly, she contextualized the subject to FICS which deals with students as its clients, handling their queries and complaints. She expounded the role of listening, composure and provision of effortless experience as key for giving excellent client service. During the discussion, Ms. Emely M. Amoloza, University Extension Associate and FICS MeetUPs proponent, reminded everyone that effective communication and professionalism are two of the most essential things in customer service.
The next resource person, Ms. Basan, discussed “Relax Relax Lang: Some Tips on Writing Review of Related Literature (RRL).” She began the talk with a brief definition and purpose of RRL, which is to convince the readers of the importance of one’s topic. Afterwards, she detailed the steps for the writing process: knowing your topic, looking for relevant sources, extracting summaries, reordering, dividing the summary strips into body paragraphs, adding topic sentences and transitions, and finally writing the introduction and conclusion. Meanwhile, she also stressed the importance of skimming, scanning, organizing and critical analysis while doing the mentioned steps to produce a well-written RRL. Notably, Ms. Joyce Manalo, FICS Assistant Professor and Faculty Secretary, participated in the discussion. One helpful tip from her is to avoid having lengthy RRLs, especially for conference papers by narrowing it down to those solely related to the objectives.
Apparently, the consecutive success of the first and second FICS MeetUPs motivated the FICS staff to continue the initiative which serves as venue not only for learning experience but also for updating work progress, planning of future faculty endeavors, and staff empowerment.
Evidently, the 3rd MeetUPs topics are beneficial in enhancing the FICS’ research and public service undertakings. The staff, then, are looking forward to another fruitful get-together before the year ends. (ECruz)
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