— Public Consultation

Stakeholder & local authority meetings

— We shape our cities; thereafter they shape us —

Stakeholder groups, with their diverse opinions and needs, are central to Urban Thinking’s philosophy: they hold the key to successful outcomes for a development project.

At every stage we represent our client’s interests by first engaging with stakeholders, hearing their opinions and understanding their needs. This generates a stream of insights that feed into our strategic recommendations and precisely-targeted actions.

Public consultation is just one major aspect of this process. Urban Thinking puts expertise and effort into ensuring that meetings run efficiently and productively: we coordinate and optimize communication with interest groups, members of the public and opinion-formers; we inform and interact with them while initiating and cultivating valuable relationships, always with a view to furthering our client’s cause.

To build and leverage support for our clients’ projects, Urban Thinking identifies trends and closely monitors the evolution of opinion, responding both sensitively and astutely. Informing all our actions is experience gained through handling stakeholder communications and public relations for some of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects.

Community Engagement

Communities, quite rightly, expect their concerns to be acknowledged and their opinions to be heard. Urban Thinking establishes the framework for constructive, well-informed dialogue between its clients and the people affected by an infrastructure or development project. While keeping the objectives of each stage of the project firmly in view, we ensure that stakeholders’ needs are registered and that public perception of our client remains positive.

Thorough research and scoping is of the essence. Having identified key influencers in the community and local authorities, Urban Thinking’s team makes a detailed survey of the environment. Follow-up can take the form of door-to-door stakeholder liaison, carried out by specially trained brand ambassadors who deliver information and gauge opinion through interaction and formal questionnaires.

Information Gathering

At every stage of a project Urban Thinking places a special emphasis on ‘taking the temperature’ of the local community, engaging with stakeholders, closely monitoring opinion and gathering data for analysis. The resulting insights become integral to our actions and recommendations, guiding targeted communication, the way key relationships are shaped and the route for our client’s project as it moves forward.

Surveys & questionnaires; Data and metrics

The analysis and interpretation of data – on the environment, on wider trends and on local opinion – is central to Urban Thinking’s approach, and to optimising our clients’ rationales and decision-making.

Not only do we process and collate data efficiently, always establishing meaningful metrics, we present the results coherently, highlighting stakeholders’ wishes and concerns and signposting valid, actionable conclusions.

Enquiries/Complaints management; Call centre services

Whatever the nature of a project, stakeholders have questions that need an answer and opinions that they want to voice. As our clients engage in public consultation and interact with the community, Urban Thinking’s call centres play a key role.

Acting as a helpline, answering enquiries and responding to complaints, our agents treat stakeholders as a priority. Well-trained, well-briefed and highly professional, they are sensitive to the dynamics of each conversation. Providing a framework for all their discussions are carefully formulated procedures and clear messaging, drawing on stakeholder insight.

As they handle queries and address concerns our agents remain respectful and considerate, but firm, treating each caller as an individual. Our clients can rest assured that Urban Thinking will apply as much care to interaction with stakeholders as they would themselves.

Urban Thinking’s call centres can also undertake outward-bound programmes, conducting telephone surveys of specified target groups and audiences at any stage of a project. We will then collate and analyse the insights and data to produce valuable management information for the project as it moves ahead.