Response Bias Checklist

What is Survey Response Bias?

Response bias is anything that causes survey respondents to give inaccurate results, skewing your data and denying you the opportunity to make meaningful analysis.

Respondents could answer questions inaccurately for a number of reasons; maybe they were confused about what the question was asking or wanted to portray themselves in a more flattering light through their answers. It also explains the biases incurred from respondants providing no responses or from respondants who are over-eager and voluntarily provide responses they believe you want to see.

How to Aviod Response Bias

If you don’t take the proper precautions in crafting your survey questions, you risk misunderstanding how your customers feel. The data will be inadequate and could lead to a wasted investment in initiatives that won’t address the real customer experience issues. Avoiding response bias needs to be actively pursued as leading questions or the priming of respondents are very easy to miss and may end up being a costly mistake down the road.