The electron collection efficiency (CE) of the photomultiplier tube based on microchannel plates (MCP-PMT) is limited by the MCP open area fraction. Coating MCP with a high secondary yield material is supposed to be an effective approach to improve CE. Both typical and coated MCP-PMTs are developed. A relative measurement method is proposed to characterize the collection efficiency performance. Results show that the PMT based on the coated MCPs has a significant improvement on CE, a good gain uniformity and a high precise energy resolution.