Select a choice of four organizations’ websites that you are familiar with, contact these organizations with an enquiry or complaint following the response instructions on each of these website. Ideally, all organizations must belong to the same sector e.g. banking, air-travel etc. Remember to provide a means for these companies to reply to your enquiry (e.g. email or postal address, telephone number etc.). Evaluate:

1. The length of time it takes each organization to response;

2. The extent to which the response is customized to your enquiry;

3. If the response addresses your needs.

Discuss your findings with other learners in class.

How this helps you to learn
This activity provides the learners with an opportunity to interact/communicate directly with a choice of organizations that they are familiar with.  By acting as a customer, they get to experience ‘first hand’ how long it will take each organization to response to them, the extent to which the response is customized to their enquiry, and the quality of the response.

Learners could then discuss their findings with others in the class by asking them to evaluate the good as well as the bad practices in organization’s management of marketing communications with customers. Why do they think some organizations have got it right? Why some have got it so wrong?