How do you compare your relationship performance to industry best practices?

1 Define your relationship objectives

The first step to compare your relationship performance is to define your relationship objectives. These are the specific outcomes that you want to achieve with your stakeholders, such as increasing customer satisfaction, generating new revenue, or enhancing innovation. Your relationship objectives should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. They should also align with your business strategy and value proposition.

2 Choose your performance indicators

The next step is to choose your performance indicators. These are the metrics that you use to track and evaluate your relationship progress and results. You can use quantitative indicators, such as customer retention rate, net promoter score, or return on investment, or qualitative indicators, such as feedback, testimonials, or referrals. You should select indicators that are relevant, reliable, and consistent with your relationship objectives and stakeholder expectations.

3 Collect and analyze your data

The third step is to collect and analyze your data. You need to gather data from various sources, such as surveys, interviews, reports, or analytics tools, to measure your performance indicators. You should also use a standardized and transparent method to analyze your data, such as a scorecard, a dashboard, or a report. You should compare your data with your baseline, your targets, and your trends over time.

4 Benchmark against industry best practices

The fourth step is to benchmark against industry best practices. You need to find reliable and comparable data from other organizations or sectors that have similar relationship objectives and indicators as yours. You can use sources such as industry reports, benchmarks, or case studies to learn from their successes and challenges. You should compare your performance with their performance and identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement.

5 Implement and monitor your improvement actions

The final step is to implement and monitor your improvement actions. You need to prioritize and plan the actions that will help you close the gaps and leverage the opportunities that you identified in the previous step. You should also assign roles and responsibilities, allocate resources, and communicate your action plan to your stakeholders. You should monitor the impact of your actions on your performance indicators and adjust your plan as needed.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?