Positive stakeholder experiences can make a big difference in the success of your projects and your overall organization, but how can you improve the stakeholder experience?
Today, we’re sharing 4 tips you can use to improve your stakeholder’s experience with the help of Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software.
What is Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software? Check out the blog!
Tip #1: Communicate with your stakeholders early-on
Important note: You often won’t need to engage each stakeholder in the same ways. To learn who needs to be engaged the most, we recommend starting with a mapping exercise.
Want to learn how to do a stakeholder mapping exercise? Check out our blog!
Once you know who you’ll be engaging with and have planned your engagement strategy, start communicating with your stakeholders right away. This way, you can be confident that your stakeholders hear your key messages straight from your organization instead of through social media or news reports.
How does this improve a stakeholder’s experience with your organization?
First impressions are important because they can set the tone for how your stakeholders view you, your project and your organization. By taking the time to ensure that your organization is communicating directly with your stakeholders right from the start, you’ll help them to feel included and respected early in the relationship.
How does an SRM help?
Streamlined and organized information
With an SRM, you can track all your stakeholder engagements within the software. This keeps everything organized and streamlined, so you’re quickly updated and can track who’s being engaged, who’s been left out and which strategic steps should be taken next.
Tip #2: Use two-way communication
Stakeholder engagement is a collaborative process. The perspectives shared by your stakeholders can strengthen your project and your organization, so make sure they know how to contact you or your organization with any questions, comments or concerns.
While you might feel confident that your stakeholders will feel more included and respected just by you reaching out to them, make sure they know how to contact you as well because they’ll likely have feedback for you.
You can do this by utilizing two-way communication, which allows you to reach out to your stakeholders with a channel for them to respond to you, too.
How does this improve a stakeholder’s experience with your organization?
This shows your stakeholders that your organization isn’t just interested in pushing an agenda but is willing to working with them and wants to hear their perspectives. Not only will this build trust in your organization, but it helps your stakeholders to know that you’re interested in what they have to say and are willing to listen to their perspectives.
How does an SRM help?
Communication management
With an SRM, you can quickly create communication records for each interaction you’ve had with your stakeholders and log them as phone calls, emails, meetings etc., so you know exactly how you and your team have been engaging.
In some SRM options, like Jambo, you can add notes/comments to track any additional information you’d like to follow (like whether stakeholders have been given a specific email or number to use to contact your organization). This makes it easier to see how stakeholders are being engaged and whether they’ve been given the information they might need for a positive experience with your organization.
With Jambo, we also encourage our users to log their stakeholder's preferences in the dedicated notes/comments section (like how they'd like to be communicated with). As not everyone enjoys communicating the same way, having this information logged in your SRM will help ensure your organization engages in the best way possible while keeping everyone on the same page.
Tip #3: Take all issues and commitments seriously
As your project continues, you’ll likely encounter stakeholder issues and commitments. While these can easily fall to the side as other essential tasks and obligations arise, you must take every issue and commitment seriously (even those that can’t be completed for years). You and your team can easily browse a stakeholder’s profile to quickly identify any issues or commitments associated with a stakeholder. This stakeholder-centric approach makes it easy for your team to collaborate, whether they’re a seasoned professional or new to the team.
How does this improve a stakeholder’s experience with your organization?
Issues
When it comes to issues, stakeholders often raise these when they have concerns or questions about your project (e.g., where it’s operating, who it’s impacting, cost, environmental impact etc.).
While they can increase risks and complications, issues are also an opportunity for you to show your stakeholders that you’re listening to them, you take their perspectives seriously, and you’re willing to work with them.
By working to fulfill all your issues, your stakeholders will remember your organization’s willingness to engage with them transparently and respectfully, even if they don’t get the outcome they originally wanted. This can increase their trust in your organization and ensure they’ll come to you with any future concerns or questions (instead of taking to social media).
Commitments
In their basic form, commitments are promises made by your organization to a stakeholder to do something.
Like issues, your organization’s willingness to fulfill stakeholder’s commitments will make them feel acknowledged and respected, helping to strengthen the relationship and keep those communication channels open for future engagements and more positive outcomes.
How does an SRM help?
With an SRM, your issues and commitments are organized and easier to understand, so you never forget or miss any of them.
In Jambo, all your stakeholder information connects together (i.e., traceability), so you can quickly jump into a stakeholder profile before meeting with them to see any outstanding issues or commitments—This way, nothing is left unaddressed or ignored!
Want to learn about how SRM traceability helps your stakeholder engagement? Check out our blog!
Tip #4: Keep stakeholders updated continuously
When we get busy, it’s easy to forget to check in with our stakeholders regarding updates, but it’s a crucial part of building a positive stakeholder experience.
How does this improve a stakeholder’s experience with your organization?
When stakeholders are kept in the loop on your project, they understand they can count on you for transparency and consistent communication. This consistency is key for an excellent stakeholder experience because they know your organization will prioritize them, and they can rely on you for updates.
How does an SRM help?
In an SRM, you have your entire engagement history logged, so you can easily trace back to see what your stakeholders care about and when they were last engaged. This is particularly useful for teams with members joining or leaving mid-project, or sharing engagement responsibilities. Teams just navigate to a stakeholder’s profile and can easily see the history of engagement, and then determine the next steps.
In Jambo, you can search through individual profiles if you’re looking for updates on a specific stakeholder, or you can easily search keywords or run targeted reports to help you understand which stakeholder might need to be updated next.
Bonus Tip:
Updates coming from your organization
When stakeholders can’t count on an organization for updates, they’ll go elsewhere for their information. This leaves your organization open to risks because stakeholders might look for information from the rumor mill or from another organization competing with you, harming your reputation and spreading misinformation.
Instead, by choosing to offer consistent updates, you get to communicate your key messages in a relevant and effective way directly to your stakeholders.
No news can still be news
Don’t forget to let relevant stakeholders know when there aren’t any updates. For example, if you have a stakeholder who has been waiting and asking about a certain update in your project, but it hasn’t happened yet, it can be a positive experience for that stakeholder to hear from you anyway.
You can quickly let them know you haven’t forgotten about them but that there just hasn’t been any progress on that task just yet. While this isn't always necessary, use your best judgment. If there's a stakeholder who hasn't heard from your organization for a while, consider checking in.
Next Steps: Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software for a better experience
A quality SRM can help you improve the stakeholder’s experience with your organization by streamlining and organizing your stakeholder management process. This makes it easy for you and your team to understand how your organization is communicating and where there might be room for improvements.
Helping organizations improve their stakeholder relationships has been a key focus for the Jambo team since the start of our Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) journey—We designed our SRM, Jambo, to meet user’s stakeholder management and stakeholder relationship needs now and into the future.
Say Hello to Jambo!
To gain a quick overview of what Jambo can do for your organization, check out our 1-minute explainer video by clicking the image below!
If you have any questions about our SRM or want to talk about stakeholder engagement, book a 15-minute discovery call with a Jambo expert!
