Stakeholder approval

Community organizations in particular depend on the consensus of stakeholders to define success. In this view, it's successful if everybody is happy. Later on we'll survey them. You will need to involve them all in your evaluation.

Different people will use different ways of giving feedback, so establish and use multiple feedback systems. They need to cover all your clients.

Focused, informal interviews is probably the best way to get feedback from most stakeholders. To make it work, you'll need interview enough people to get a range of opinion, identify a distinct pattern and confirm that the pattern represents what people generally think. Take contemporaneous notes; don't rely on memory.

You can use other ways as well, such as staff meeting discussions, board meetings, feedback forms from clients, client exit meeting notes, etc.

Questions

1. Who are your stakeholders? (Consider clients, staff, target groups.)
2. Do you already have a system for consulting them all? If so, how well does it work?
3. Have you recently made changes based on your consultation with them?
4. As an organization, how good are you a listening to them? And do they feel listened to?
5. What are the effects of services on all clients? (Confirm your findings with a different kind of process.)
6. How satisfied are your clients?
7. What do they think are the current issues and trends? (It's okay to pick the brain of those who are smarter than you.)
8. What do clients think are the barriers to client services?
9. How effective is your organization?
10. How relevant is your strategic business plan?

You should also evaluate your client services. While you may need to consider other factors (financial, structural, staffing, etc.) you also need to take a client-centred view of what your organization does.

1. Do your services and your systems for providing services match your client's requirements?
2. How do you monitor:
   1. client feedback?
   2. changes in circumstances/environment
   3. client needs?
   4. client rights.
3. What do you do to resolve client's concerns about service?
4. How do you deal with serious complaints? Does you organization have a procedure for doing so, and is it followed?
5. What changes do you recommend to client services?
6. How would you implement those improvements?
7. What technology and electronic commerce opportunities do you face? (You may ask for advice from specialists.)

You may also find it helpful to interview people with specialized knowledge, especially if you have a good network of contacts.

What to do with the results

Incorporate your answers into your review.