Some Ways to Help You Improve Stakeholder Engagement in Your Business
When we think of stakeholder engagement, the first thing that comes to mind is more than likely something along the lines of big corporations and their social responsibility. It’s a nice thought and all, but for small businesses, how does this really impact our day-to-day operations?
Stakeholder engagement is about ensuring that there is a collaborative environment with all of your partners and stakeholders. Whether you work with vendors on a daily basis or have customers that are key to your business success, it’s important to establish trust, build relationships, and really listen to their needs so you can meet them.
Whether you work as an independent consultant or in a business, stakeholder engagement is vital in order for your business to thrive and grow.
Here are some great tips on how you can improve your stakeholder engagement in your business.
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Know who your stakeholders are and why they’re important
Before you can start engaging with your stakeholders, you need to know who they are and how they can benefit your business. When it comes to vendors, for example, you will have regular communication with them for your inventory needs and shipping and understand their importance to your success.
With your customers, on the other hand, you often have a much more direct relationship with them. Depending on the type of business you’re in, you may have both vendors and customers that are important to the way you operate. In many ways, vendors and suppliers are just as important as customers. After all, without them, you wouldn’t have what you need to fulfill orders and meet your customers’ needs.
Set expectations from the beginning
As soon as you onboard new partners and stakeholders, establish the expectations of how you will be working with them. Be sure to cover all the details, including how often you want to communicate with them, what type of information you need to receive from them, and how quickly you want them to reply to your requests. We often overlook this part of the relationship, but it’s crucial to building a sustainable partnership. If you have consistent and open communication with all your stakeholders, all parties will have a better understanding of what to expect from each other, which will go a good way in avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings.
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Host regularly scheduled meetings
When dealing with multiple vendors, consider hosting regular meetings. These can range from weekly to monthly and vary depending on the level of partnership you have with each type of stakeholder. They are an effective way to stay in touch and be transparent with your stakeholders and are an important part of the whole process.
Hosting regular meetings is also a great way to stay connected with your partners, understand how they do what they do and what challenges they are facing, and share your progress and strategies.
You can also use these meetings as an opportunity to solicit feedback from all parties and gain important insights that will help to improve your own business.
Ask for feedback — and actually listen to it
Asking for feedback on a consistent basis is another vital part of stakeholder engagement. One way to do this is to have a survey form, which you can send to your stakeholders, vendors and customers at set intervals. Of course, it’s important to really listen to what your stakeholders have to say. This means you have to take time to consider on their input and apply it to your business and the way you deal with your stakeholders, whether that requires making changes to your product or service, or correcting an internal process.
Establish a culture of transparency
As you’re really engaging with your stakeholders, you also want to ensure you’re creating a culture of transparency in your business. Transparency doesn’t just happen — it requires effort and work on your part. In order to build transparency in your business, you need to be honest and upfront with your customers and vendors at all times.
This doesn’t mean you have to share confidential information that could put your business at risk, but it does mean you should keep away from any type of deceit or manipulation. When you’re truthful in your business relationships, you build trust, and your partners will want to actively engage with you. They’ll feel comfortable bringing up issues and concerns and feel like you’ll listen to their feedback.
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Finishing up
Stakeholder engagement is about creating a collaborative environment with all of your partners and stakeholders. Whether you work with them on a daily basis or have customers that are key to your business success, it’s important to establish trust, build relationships, and actively listen to their needs so you can meet them.
Remember, whether you work as an independent consultant or in an organization, stakeholder engagement is essential if you want your business to thrive and grow.
To improve your stakeholder engagement, you have to know who your stakeholders are and why they’re important, set expectations from the beginning, host regularly scheduled meetings, ask for feedback and most importantly actually take it into account.
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