Engaging your community across channels and devices helps you lock into an ongoing
participation habit and drive better critical outcomes: greater trust, met or exceeded budgetary goals, reduced risk of public dissatisfaction and increased employee morale, to name a few.
Yet, the idea that 'more engagement equals more work' continues to plague the public sector. Without a high-level sponsor to help bridge department silos, it can sometimes feel like pushing water uphill.
Turn engagement from a box-ticking exercise into a core strategic pillar with these talking points and tactics.
Cultivate a community-centric culture
When a community member uses a service, participates in a consultation or simply interacts with your organisation, ask the question, "How did we do?" with an EngagementHQ poll or survey.
It's one step you can take towards developing an engagement ecosystem and provides a "pulse-check" that will help teams become deliberate in focusing finite resources. People are resistant to change for multiple reasons, but excess uncertainty and the perception of more work are two big ones.
The beauty of ongoing "pulse-check" engagement is that it enables greater insights (or 'knowns') which means less time and money spent in vain and more shared, measurable outcomes. See some "pulse-check" examples here.
Personalise follow-ups
If the community answers "How did we do?" and you find something lacking, ask for more
information. One of the many benefits of having a dedicated Engagement platform is that you can leverage our sentiment analysis tool, automated replies, participant tagging, and newsletters to segment and personalise responses.
A single negative experience has four to five times greater relative impact than a positive one, organisations should focus on reducing poor experiences, especially in those areas in which community members come into contact with the organisation most often.
Embed feedback into the community journey
The more "pulse-check" data becomes a part of the team lexicon, the clearer gaps in the
community journey become. Suddenly, it's easier to ask:
Did we use enough formats and channels to help participants feel informed?
Were there too many barriers to contribution?
Was our language accessible?
With three or more channels used to interact regularly, you'll begin to see touchpoints and tools as missed opportunities rather than another siloed tool in the toolkit. You can leverage our MessageMedia partnership,Project Finder or our brand new featureEngagement Embeds launching August 25th. See how here.
Provide consistent experiences
Helping community members understand what they can expect when interacting with you
means that reliability and simplicity become synonymous with your organisation.
Consistency is an important predictor of overall community experience and satisfaction, with 30% more likely to trust organisations that provided consistency.
By implementing engagement across touchpoints and departments, you lock into an ongoing and natural participation habit externally while building a framework internally to optimise and structure community interactions.
Benchmark recurring engagement
Once an ecosystem is established, recurring planning becomes straightforward. You now have the insights to benchmark community satisfaction and sentiment, identify gaps and make the most of opportunities. Couple this with site reviews and trends, and you have everything you need to plan for progress.
Featured Client Projects
Kapiti Coast District Council
The councils provide the community with a range of information to help them make an informed contribution to their 'Review of the Keeping of Animals, Bees, and Poultry Bylaw 2010' plan
Explore how Road Safety Commission, Western Australia used the Places tool and Survey tool to capture the community's experience with e-rideables to better regulate footpath use.
Bang the Table Australasian office is based in Carlton, Victoria, on the lands of the Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging across Australia.
Granicus and Bang the Table, Level 1, 96 Pelham Street, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia
