What is response bias in a call center?

If you want to understand the way consumers think and get accurate information from consumer surveys, you'll need to ask the right questions and overcome response bias. But what is response bias, and how much of an impact does it really have on the way people respond to contact center surveys?

What is response bias?

Response bias is the term used to refer to the things that influence people's survey responses. Sometimes, people give biased responses unconsciously. Sometimes, the feedback they give is skewed intentionally.

Response bias is a problem because inaccurate survey data is useless for contact center analytics. When survey response bias is allowed to corrupt data, it makes it hard for managers to make decisions.

Types of response bias

There are several types of response bias, which are broken down below.

Leading bias

Leading Bias may be created if a survey asks a question, such as "How likely would you be to buy this product again?" and then offers three options such as "Very Likely," "Likely" and "Unlikely." There are more positive responses than poor ones, so someone who would ordinarily select "Undecided" might pick "Likely" because they don't want to give a negative response. Give more options, or the same number on each part of the scale, to avoid this.

Demand characteristics

This term describes the way some people respond differently simply because they're a part of a study. In some cases, there's a selection bias here with only people who want to respond a specific way choosing to answer the survey. For example, in a self-reported diet study, they may over-report compliance and even falsify results because they don't want to "confess" to having not used the product as directed.

It's hard to avoid this kind of bias, but careful wording of questions and emphasizing the need for honest reporting may help.

Social desirability bias

Social desirability bias describes the natural tendency people have to give answers that they believe are "correct" even if they don't actually believe what they're saying.

Neutral responding

A respondent who is not interested in a survey may be tempted to just tick "Neutral" or "Undecided" for every question. This can be avoided by adding occasional questions that say "Please tick 'Disagree' in response to this question" to confirm the respondent is paying attention.

Acquiescence / Dissent bias

Acquiescence and Dissent Bias are two similar bias issues. In one, the respondent responds positively to everything; in the other, they respond negatively. Designing a survey to include contradictory statements can flag when this is happening, but take care to choose the questions carefully. Someone could give contradictory answers to personality-related questions because they feel differently in different situations, for example.

To learn more about customer surveys and how 8x8's CX analytics services can help you improve your contact center performance, contact us today.