The CACIQ Framework · CACIQ v1.0
A score is only useful if you can see how it was built.
The CACIQ Framework was devised by Anthony Bushen-Garvie, a leading marketer within the financial services industry. It expresses the relationship conceptually as CAC = D(t) / α: digital demand over time divided by a firm's digital capability. CACIQ turns that concept into a measurable, auditable diagnostic.
Dimensions
Six dimensions, explicitly weighted.
CAC Efficiency
How efficiently the organisation converts acquisition investment into customers, and how visible those economics are.
Acquisition Strategy
How strategically and systematically acquisition is planned, attributed, tested and owned.
Digital Capability
The organisation's ability to deliver acquisition, onboarding and servicing journeys digitally.
Automation & Scalability
How effectively technology reduces manual dependency and lets acquisition and service volumes scale.
Customer Journey
The amount of friction inside acquisition, onboarding and servicing journeys.
Data, Attribution & Intelligence
How effectively data, analytics, attribution and AI support acquisition decisions.
Overall Score = Σ (Dimension Score × Dimension Weight). Weights are stored in configuration, modified by sector and renormalised: never hard-coded into the interface.
CAC Efficiency
Measured in six components.
CAC Visibility
20%Can the organisation actually measure customer acquisition cost?
CAC Calculation Quality
15%How complete and reliable is the underlying acquisition data?
Conversion Efficiency
20%How efficiently acquisition opportunities are converted.
Channel Efficiency
20%How well the organisation understands channel economics.
CAC Management
15%How frequently and strategically CAC is actively managed.
Customer Economics Context
10%Where information exists, customer value and retention economics provide context for CAC.
CAC is only calculated where the inputs exist. If customer lifetime value is unavailable, that component is excluded and its weight redistributed across the available components.
Digital Margin Exposure
A separate indicator, not a forecast.
CAC pressure
20%Weak CAC visibility, management and conversion efficiency.
Digital capability gap
20%Distance between current digital capability and digital-first expectations.
Manual dependency
15%Reliance on manual intervention across acquisition and servicing.
Customer journey friction
15%Friction inside acquisition, onboarding and servicing journeys.
Automation gap
10%Processes that could be automated but are not.
Cost-to-serve exposure
10%Servicing model dependency on human and physical channels.
Channel / platform dependency
5%Concentration of acquisition in a narrow set of channels or intermediaries.
Data & attribution weakness
5%Limited ability to attribute, analyse and act on acquisition data.
Digital Margin Exposure is an indicator of assessed exposure based on your responses. It is not a prediction of future margins.
Maturity scale
One consistent scale.
Nascent
Little or no formal capability.
Developing
Some capability exists but it is fragmented.
Established
Capability is operational but inconsistent.
Advanced
Capability is integrated and actively optimised.
Leading
Capability is highly integrated, scalable and strategically embedded.
Sector methodology
Context changes what a good answer looks like.
High human involvement is not automatically negative. In wealth management and complex or niche insurance, specialist human expertise remains strategically valuable, so CACIQ damps human-dependency penalties in those sectors rather than treating advice as friction.
Banking
Retail and commercial banks that take deposits, move money, lend and provide accounts to consumers and businesses.
Insurance
Insurers that underwrite risk and pay claims across life, health, property and casualty lines.
Insurance Brokerage
Brokers that arrange cover between clients and insurers and advise on placement and renewal.
Insurance Underwriting
Underwriters that price risk, set terms and manage portfolios of policies and claims.
Wealth Management
Firms that manage investments, pensions and financial planning for individuals and institutions.
Brokerage
Brokerage firms that execute trades and hold client assets across equities, funds and other securities.
Payments
Payment providers that move money between consumers, merchants and financial institutions.
Lending
Lenders that extend credit through consumer loans, mortgages, commercial finance and credit facilities.
Fintech
Technology-first firms that deliver banking, payments, lending or investing through software.
Other financial services
Regulated financial-services activity not covered by the sectors above.
Audit trail
Every score can be reconstructed.
The methodology version, the question set, the weights and the sector modifiers used are stored with each report. Reopen any dimension to see exactly which answers produced the number, and which questions were left unanswered.
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