Closing Gaps in stakeholder relationships and managing expectations
Glyn Luckett CMRS
Director Advisory Services I Insights Professional | Expert in Customer+Employee Experience+B2B | Transforming Research Objectives into Actionable Insights I 20+ Ys Experience I Insight 250 Award I More in About section
Your business is not an island
Right from the start, you build positive relationships with other organisations and people to secure your business's future.
Stakeholders like suppliers, industry regulators, the public, prospects and customers and your people all have influence over your company performance and how it’s perceived.
Mapping and managing stakeholder relations can be complex and resource-intensive, especially when it comes to identifying and meeting individual and group requirements and expectations.??
Here we explore who your stakeholders are, and how stakeholder research can help develop and sustain a powerful, productive network for your business.
Who are your stakeholders?
Every organisation, from major utility suppliers to small social enterprises, has stakeholders.?
Stakeholders are companies, groups or individuals who can affect your success, or are affected by your company’s actions.?Stakeholders can be internal or external.
The matrix below, shares an example view of stakeholders, prioritised by business interest, and influence they can have on success. A mapping exercise of this type aids understanding of priorities for research, communication, or relationship management.
External stakeholders -?are not integral to the company but have an interest in its performance or actions. A housing developer, for example has several external stakeholders, including customers (potential homebuyers and occupants), government (Local Authority Planning and Building Control), suppliers (architects, builders, service installers), creditors (banks, shareholders, and investors) and community bodies (neighboring residents, community groups with interest in the development’s social and environmental impact).
Their interest in your business will vary and should always be understood to ensure relationships can be developed, managed appropriately and they can be communicated to.
Internal stakeholders?are integral to the company and include employees, managers, union representatives and board members. Some of these may also be company shareholders, owning a direct stake in the business.
Each stakeholder will have different priorities and concerns depending on their position and outlook, so you need to understand these factors. This is key for forging productive relationships and the best outcome for both individual projects and overarching business objectives.
What problems can stakeholder research solve?
Gaining support for a project -?Getting stakeholders involved early will help gain their support. Identify all key stakeholders, from the most powerful who need close consultation throughout - to those who require little input but still need communication and monitoring.
Better project planning and communication?- By anticipating your stakeholders' needs and concerns throughout the process, you can prepare for bumps in the road. An area our research methodology enables is understanding how communication can influence emotions and behaviour.
Smooth the waters on a difficult project?- If you're struggling with nay-sayers and your project is threatening to turn into a PR nightmare, it's not too late to engage difficult stakeholders. Listen to their concerns and let that guide you on what remedial actions you can take, helping smooth the project’s path and keep PR positive.???
Allocate resources effectively?- Establishing the level of engagement each stakeholder needs will keep your team’s efforts focused and lean. For example, a priority stakeholder might require close consultation, with joint campaigns and press activities, while a stakeholder low on the interest radar might need to just be kept informed of progress via newsletters or social media.?
Build lasting relationships that benefit everyone?- It makes sense that when a project goes well, everyone leaves happy and is keen to work together again. Stakeholder research is like a crystal ball for your upcoming project - you can spot the pitfalls that could sour your relationships, affect your profit, and damage your reputation. Avoid those, and you're well on the way to a successful project completion.
How can Maru help?
Maru provides research solutions that support digital qualitative and quantitative techniques. Over time business is changing, stakeholders are often time poor, there are greater demands and different business roles.
When developing our business and stakeholder research proposition we have embraced the need to accommodate business respondents in research that delivers significant value to our clients yet optimises some aspects which draw on time.
Our methods enable:
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To comprehensively understand what drives longevity in relationships, we need a holistic view of the ideal stakeholder experience and what their current experience is like. Maru business research provides great advantage over many traditional research techniques, using proven behavioural science-based methodology.
To improve stakeholder experiences, you must be able to diagnose the emotional relationship. To do this, you must discern how they Feel, Think, and Behave. This will allow you to holistically understand them, by revealing all aspects of their reaction and response to an experience. Adding the ‘Feel’ elements to what stakeholders say then ‘Think’ unlocks new insight on how to drive best-in-class experiences that influence future relationships and loyalty.
Our diagram below shares each component of Maru/ Feel, Behave, Think model
By exploring the three elements of decision making and by engaging Stakeholders the way they make decisions, we close the say/do gap.
Traditional research methodologies are often too focused on attitudes and behaviours; Our research has embraced this oversight and understands the importance that emotions play on our decision-making and the stakeholder journey.
It is critical that we capture feedback on both ends of the spectrum.
We create an emotional signature for your organisation, this considers your competitors and other stakeholders (for example in a joint venture).
Our emotional signature methodology enables an understanding of how stakeholders really feel about an experience, solution or interaction with your organisation and using our choice-based approach we identify the attributes of service, communication and relationship with the highest influence on loyalty and advocacy.
An example emotional signature:
In summary, our proposition addresses the issues impacting B2B research. Changes in business must be reflected in how Business research is communicated and undertaken.
Maru Business research programs are developed to capture the view of all your stakeholder experiences. Our proposition varies to accommodate the needs of our clients and include – continuous tracking programs through to small high value engagement research. Supported with over 20 years’ experience working with global organisations to drive better outcomes for clients through improved experiences and relationships.
Want to know more?
To see more about our behavioural science techniques and business research methodologies visit our website - https://www.marugroup.net/advisory/our-research-philosophy
We have over 20 years’ experience of helping UK and International organisations understand and strengthen their relationships with key stakeholders and opinion formers.
To find out more about Maru stakeholder research expertise, feel free to contact us: