How a CMAT Assessment is Carried Out

This starts with a half-day briefing session for the assessor from a senior team within the organization. During this session the attendees establish the current 'perceived' stage of development in CRM, key business issues at the time and any initiatives that are under way. They will also agree the list of individuals to be interviewed, the appropriate benchmarks, and identify the material to be covered in the review phase.

The assessor will review all of the background material provided. This typically includes marketing plans, research material, satisfaction surveys, literature, and Web sites.

A briefing pack is distributed to all the people within the organization who are to be interviewed. This will explain the objectives and approach for the assessment and what they need to bring to their interview session. The briefing pack is followed up with a phone call to book the interview.

The assessor prepares a detailed report based on the information and evidence collected in the interviews. The report will cover:

• An overall score against best practice and a management summary.

• Scores and a summary report against each element of the customer management model.

• Comparisons at a detailed sub-section level of company performance against a relevant benchmark.

• A quartile positioning for each area based on all the assessments on the CMAT database.

• Recommendations, ranging from tactical quick wins to highly strategic, identified by the assessor during the interviews.

This is a half-day feedback workshop with the management team to facilitate discussion of results and obtain outline 'buy-in' to the need for further action.

Recommendations are developed into a prioritized action plan agreed by all. This is achieved at a half-day workshop following individual input of key stakeholders. Prioritization is usually based on ROI opportunity from improvements, with consideration of how difficult it is to achieve each change or new capability. The prioritization module is a major input to the CM programme management governance system, the importance and structure of which is explained more fully later in this book.