How do you utilise your most loyal stakeholders?

To create engaged stakeholders you have to make them part of your brand story, so they feel aligned and involved with your mission. Cultivating these valuable relationships is important not just because retention will result in higher profits, but because of the high-quality marketing resource they represent.

The first step to this process is ensuring you retain the customers, employees, and suppliers that align with your company values. Naturally, the longer your relationships last the more loyalty will be present. To do this, you must understand what aspects of interacting with your business are most pleasing, so you can make these consistent.

Create an ideal customer journey that can be relied upon to gather the relevant information and gauge the popularity of each feature. This means having the right touchpoints (either automated or human) to ensure your stakeholders feel valued, heard (if they need to communicate), and have their problems solved or needs satisfied.

Next you need to have a system in place which allows you to rate your stakeholders in terms of engagement. Who is most enthusiastic? Who do you deal with irregularly? Who was previously unsatisfied by your service? Identify the most high-potential segment; they can become your ‘raving fans.’

Segmentation can be easily achieved using widely available tools such Net Promoter Score (NPS). Once you have clearly defined groups, you can then create more personalised messages and interactions appropriate to each. Supply your most loyal segments with an outlet/collateral that they can use to promote your organisation. Potential stakeholders will value their opinions above any marketing material you can produce yourself.

Finally, once you have identified the key segments, give your most ardent supporters a role in the future growth of your company. Some businesses will use their fans as part of their research and development, both in design and testing new offerings. This early feedback from the groups most aligned with your mission can be very informative and save time and money. This testing measures how new products/services are likely to resonate before you commit substantial investment into them.

The independent marketing resource that your ‘raving fans’ offer can be invaluable due the quality of leads it can generate. If they have positively referred others this means part of the on-boarding process has be done. It requires less effort from you to communicate the benefits of interacting with your organisation, and what your key values are. These new potential stakeholders are more likely to align with your overarching vision.

What do you have in place to retain your current, most valuable stakeholders? How could you divide your stakeholders to identify your most engaged groups? What could you do to make your brand enthusiasts feel involved in the workings of your business?