CMS for Agencies
The Communications Management standard (CMS) is the only accreditation developed by the PR and Communication sector agencies. It is a unique accreditation.
Developed by and for PRCA corporate members it is a sign to your clients and teams that you carry out the best ethical and effective practice.
For agencies the assessment covers nine areas
- Leadership and Communication
- Business Planning
- Business Improvement
- Financial Systems
- People Management
- Client Satisfaction
- Campaign Management
- Business Development
- Diversity
Within each area the process explores best practice and prompts agency leaders to review essential business and governance practice. For example, in business improvement we explore benchmarking and emphasis that agencies should, compare and contrast their success to others. In client management we look for a process which ensures clients are happy with their agency’s service, therefore creating an early warning system to identify client’s unhappiness early. Or, to identify and build new business areas. It is a thorough process, but completed with support, fully remote and online, with an assessment at the end lasting no more than 2.5 hours. Most established agencies can complete CMS within 8 weeks, new agencies can complete within a year.
About a third of CMS’s present agencies have been undergoing the CMS process for over 5 years, some for over 20 years, demonstrating their commitment to the self-improvement accredited process.
Key to CMS for agencies is that it demonstrates to the brands they work with that they have been independently assessed as excellent by the industry’s own membership body. CMS is also accepted as evidence of independent verification by tenders and in pitches.
Agencies who complete CMS receive marketing assets and a certificate of completion. CMS is an annual accreditation with costs based on fee income. CMS accredited agencies join the Match Maker service.
"The process (CMS) has been instrumental in shaping Analogy to live our core value of ‘excellence’ in everything we do and in laying a really solid foundation for growth. The (CMS Assessor) feedback is very helpful and we will use this in our business development.
Take the first step towards CMS
Book a free introduction with the CMS assessment service.