PLAN: Managing Stakeholder Inquiries
As operators increasingly engage with stakeholders, the engagement program should include a process to manage (and document) inquiries received and how responses will be handled.
Operators should, as part of this process, identify how inquiries are to be received. An operator may decide to receive inquiries through one or more channels. For example,
- A website
- Dedicated phone number
- Social media platforms
- Direct contact with an employee or contractor
Once the method is identified, the process should identify how inquiries will be managed or routed internally for consideration and resolution and stress the importance of responding in a timely manner.
Ideally, the same process will be used by all departments and teams so that any stakeholder’s record will include all communications and engagements. This will help track changing requests or interests over time and will also help promote transparency in stakeholder communications and engagement.
The process should be communicated (or made available) to stakeholders, including the preferred methods of receiving inquiries, how (at a high level) inquiries will be handled internally, and express that inquiries will be handled with a sense of urgency appropriate for the request. This communication may also include a reminder that the operator may be limited in the information they can share, depending on what has been requested. Figure 4, Pipeline Information Sharing Process, in RP 1185 illustrates a process to engage in conversation with a stakeholder to clearly understand their information request, determine what information can (or can’t) be shared, and respond to the stakeholder.