Why the Scores Have Declined

Although we cannot infer that individual companies' scores are declining, as few companies have been assessed twice in three years, the overall fall in scores is worrying. Could it be because the companies assessed initially were those most interested in CRM, while those who were assessed later were actually later entrants into CRM? No, because many of the companies assessed later had been involved in CRM and similar approaches for 10 or more years; some were indeed household names for the quality of at least some of their CM activities. Table 2.1 illustrates the areas where customer management competence has increased and reduced. Because of the clear correlation between each area of the CMAT model with business performance ^[1], the table also shows where customer management value is being created and destroyed.