When your Net Promoter^® scores vary widely across countries, it’s natural to wonder if a cultural difference is to blame. Before you dismiss a discrepancy as beyond your control, it’s crucial to dig deeper and consider other factors. A user of the social network Quora sought guidance on a similar issue at her company. Here are my thoughts:

Q. Does the UK tend to score lower in consumer product Net Promoter scores? We tend to see much lower NPS^® for the same product in the UK versus Canada. Is this unusual?

A. We have not found consistently lower Net Promoter scores in the UK than in other English-speaking countries.

On the other hand, when we look at the Net Promoter scores of divisions in some multinationals, their Net Promoter scores vary from market-to-market—sometimes by a lot. Our analysis typically reveals three underlying issues, which vary from company to company and from business to business:

1. Differing competitive dynamics. For some businesses, the UK market (for example) is fiercely competitive, with many companies competing for customers’ business. In others, the UK might be an oligopoly. For example, the UK retail banking market is dominated by a small number of banks. The US, on the other hand, has a significantly larger number of competitors. Competitive dynamics can be an accident of history, a result of regulation or even a result of demographic or geographic differences.
2. Differing performance of the company. Perhaps the UK team is just not as capable as the team in Canada. Or maybe product and service needs are different for customers in that market. Either way, if your competitors meet customers’ needs better, then your company’s NPS might be lower.
3. Cultural differences in response to surveys. This is often cited as a primary reason, but our experience shows it is usually less important than people think. In fact, it’s almost always cited by executives in one company within a market more than by their competitors. Guess which company: the one with the lower scores. Japan is one of the few countries where this is absolutely a big issue. UK customers do not tend to exhibit significant differences in their use of response scales than do respondents from other English-speaking countries.

To determine where your UK business really stands, and to figure out whether its Net Promoter score is “good” or “bad,” you’ll want to use relative Net Promoter scores. You can learn more about those in this article.

I also described how to think about your company’s Net Promoter score in answer to this question on Quora: "Net Promoter Score: What is a good Net Promoter Score to have?"

Net Promoter^®, Net Promoter System^®, Net Promoter Score^® and NPS^® are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.