Dive Brief:
- Cultural survey response biases prevent CX teams from easily comparing key CX performance indicators and can give brands the impression of inflated or deflated scores, according to an Ipsos study released Tuesday. Response bias can take the form of customers' tendency to consistently select a certain rating when presented with a survey, regardless of the question.
- The study, which examined Ipsos survey data from between 2020 and 2025, found significant discrepancies between countries. For instance, nearly 90% of consumers in Uruguay rate their satisfaction as a nine or 10 out of 10 in CX surveys, compared to about 50% of consumers in Belgium.
- “In a nutshell, cultural response bias makes it very difficult to gauge whether disparities are the result of true differences in the performance measured or simply in cultural response styles,” Fiona Moss, head of the CX Global Analytics Team at Ipsos, said in the report.
Dive Insight:
Companies can work to minimize the impact of cultural response biases at the point of data collection to properly interpret their findings later.
“Given that a straightforward comparison of scores across countries is not a reliable way to identify strong and weak performers, the question is how best to assess performance across countries,” Moss said.
The best practices for addressing cultural response bias differ based on whether a company has competitors in the region that it can use as a point of comparison.
Companies without competitors in the market can include a question in their surveys that rates the customer experience on whether it is better, in line with or worse than expectations, according to the report. Consumers’ responses to this question can be used to recalibrate the scale used for the study.
Businesses with competitors in the region can compare their key performance indicators with other relevant brands when possible. This lets leaders examine their performance compared to similar companies, which can be more accurate than trying to measure in absolute terms.
“This is because rank reflects the fact that nine out of 10 is only a good score when it is higher than your competitors,” Moss said. “If all your competitors are scoring 10 out of 10, then suddenly nine is a much less positive result.”
