Impact of Cultural Differences on Customer Surveys

Everyday, many times a day in fact, I'm reminded of the impact that cultural differences has on client experience.

For example, today as I was working on the design of a CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) Survey, and in my quest to utilize the "right" set of question and scale, I entered down a rabbit hole, as I often do. Is it better to use the words "highly satisfied" through to "highly dissatisfied?" Or perhaps "extremely satisfied" to "not satisfied at all?" Regardless of the adverb I select, the real issue was how to reduce bias when the word 'satisfaction' in itself, is subjective. It means different things to different people. Then, when you bring culture into it, national culture that is, According to a Psychological Science article, people from more individualistic countries (like the US) are likely to choose the more “extreme” sides (“Very Satisfied,” “Very Dissatisfied”) than people in collectivist countries (someone from Japan who’s more likely to offer a “Not Satisfied” or “Satisfied” rating. ( Retently ).?

If you look at it from a communication perspective, Indirect verses Direct cultures, you find, for example, that Direct?cultures, countries like Russia or Israel, are more forthright in how they provide negative feedback. They’re also known for using absolute descriptions, known as?upgraders, such as “totally” or “strongly” to emphasize their point.?For example, someone from one of these cultures might say “I?totally?disagree with you. Or "It is?absolutely?out of the question.”

Indirect?cultures, such as Japan and Indonesia, tend to provide feedback in a gentler, less direct manner, and utilize positive messages to cover the negative ones.?In contrast to Direct cultures, they apply the use of?downgraders when communicating to soften the effects, such as “kind of” or “maybe” to get their message across.?For example, " I was a bit disappointed in the outcome. Or, "Perhaps you should reconsider that idea.”

The U.S. lies directly in the middle of this scale. Americans are often stereotyped as direct by most of the world, yet when they give negative feedback they are less direct than many European cultures. On the flipside, when providing positive feedback, Americans are the world's cheerleaders.?Their use of exaggerators,?or love for them, for example, "amazing," and "excellent," could also lead to bias. And as the U.S. is the most diverse country in the world, a survey sent to a group of clients based even entirely in the U.S. could be rich in cultural bias.

That said, CSAT, like any other survey, will never perfectly represent an audience's sentiment. There a too many factors or variables to consider. And culture is just one to add to that list, but a consideration, nonetheless. I feel the point with any survey is to ascertain a general understanding of overall sentiment within a group or segment, and area or aspect of the business. Structured properly, root cause analysis will then help to unearth additional areas that might turn out to be more culturally linked.?

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