When we think of stakeholder engagement, the first thing that comes to mind is probably something along the lines of big corporations and their social responsibility. It’s a good thought and all, but for small businesses, how does this really impact our day-to-day operations?
Stakeholder engagement is about creating 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 essential in order for your business to thrive and grow.
Here are some effective 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 have to know who they are and how they can help your business. When it comes to vendors, for example, you will have regular communication with them for your inventory needs and shipping and know their importance to your success.
With your customers, on the other hand, you will 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 your operation. 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 take on 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 talk with them, what type of information you expect to receive from them, and how quickly you want them to respond 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 long way in avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings.
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Host regularly scheduled meetings
When managing multiple vendors, consider hosting regular meetings. These can vary from weekly to monthly and vary depending on the level of partnership you have with each type of stakeholder. They are a great 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 in tune with your partners, understand how they do what they do and what problems they are facing, and share your progress and strategies.
You can also use these meetings as a way 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 regular 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 regular intervals. Of course, it’s important to actually listen to what your stakeholders have to say. This means you have to take time to reflect on their input and apply it to your business and the way you deal with your stakeholders, whether that means making changes to your product or service, or correcting an internal systems.
Establish a culture of transparency
As you’re actively engaging with your stakeholders, you also want to make sure you’re creating a culture of transparency in your business. Transparency doesn’t just happen — it requires effort and intentionality 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 transparent 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 be receptive to their feedback.
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Wrapping up
Stakeholder engagement is about creating a collaborative environment with all of your partners and stakeholders. Whether you work with them on a regular 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 improve.
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 their thoughts and most importantly actually listen to it.
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