The playbook for managing CX across markets

What’s great service in Valencia is often confusing service in Singapore. Depending on where your customers are in the world, local norms, values and customs impact the way they experience your brand.

While local teams often have their own priorities, metrics and software that strengthens silos, it can also cause cross-regional misunderstandings and conflict, slowing down decision making.

This can make delivering a global customer experience challenging.

In this post, I’ll show you how you can build a strong global customer experience — balancing consistency with customer attunement to each region.

Why is a global customer experience (CX) just so hard to get right? Let’s get into the details. 

Consumer expectations vary widely across regions

One of the biggest challenges to delivering a strong global customer experience is the wide variety in cultural norms and values across regions. 

Researchers have uncovered nine core dimensions that measure and describe differences in national cultures. These dimensions can help us conceptualize customers’ experience of a brand and product across regions, highlighting why the same strategy or creative can resonate for people completely differently based on where they live. The nine dimensions include: 

1. Power distance: Power distance refers to the degree to which people respect and value unequal relationships. Power distance conceptualizes people’s relationship to status and power. In places like China and Malaysia, hierarchy and authority are highly respected, while places like Denmark and the U.K. look at these things more skeptically.

2. Uncertainty avoidance: This measures a society’s comfort with unpredictability, uncertainty and risk. High-avoidance cultures value structure, clear rules and predictability. Examples include Japan and France. In comparison, countries with low uncertainty avoidance are more comfortable with risk, innovation and ambiguity. Examples include America and India. 

3. Performance orientation: Performance orientation refers to the extent to which a culture values high standards and above-and-beyond performance. The correlation between materialism, status and competitiveness is high. Canada and Singapore are two examples of countries with high performance orientation. Russia and Greece are low. 

4. Assertiveness: Assertive cultures value confrontation, confidence and aggression (the latter not always being negative, it can be seen as a way to own your wants and goals and go after them). Germany and the United States are two examples of cultures who value assertiveness. In comparison, cultures with low assertiveness prioritize cooperation and compassion above assertiveness — these include New Zealand and Switzerland.

5. Future orientation: Cultures with high future orientation value long-term goals over short-term gain and gratification. Canada and Malaysia have high future orientation, while Poland and Argentina have low future orientation.

6. Humane orientation: This measure refers to the degree to which fairness, generosity and kindness are valued and promoted between citizens. In nations with high humane orientation, individuals are responsible for supporting the well-being of others rather than the state. Ireland and Egypt have high humane orientation. France and Singapore have low humane orientation.

7. Institutional collectivism: This refers to the degree to which organizational and societal institutions motivate people to integrate into groups and organizations. Group action, collective action and the pooling and sharing of resources are prioritized. Japan and Singapore have high institutional collectivism. While Germany and Argentina have low institutional collectivism. 

8. In-group collectivism: In-group collectivism measures the extent to which people feel a sense of pride or loyalty at being part of their organizations or families. They show a strong sense of duty to their social groups. India and China have high institutional collectivism; Sweden and Finland have low institutional collectivism.

9. Gender egalitarianism: Gender egalitarianism refers to the degree of equality between genders. Countries with high gender egalitarianism provide more opportunities for women for instance. They also have more women in positions of power. Sweden and Poland have high gender egalitarianism. Japan and Italy have low gender egalitarianism.

These dimensions can help companies conceptualize why what may feel premium in one market may feel intrusive or overwhelming in another. In the case of power distance, showing a high level of deference and respect to customers in Japan feels natural and unexpected — while the same level of service may feel uncomfortable to someone living in the UK. 

Fragmented tools and inconsistent measurement

The average global enterprise uses over 200 different tech tools. This points to another of the biggest issues that prevent brands from delivering a successful global CX strategy — lack of cohesion and consistency across tools and measurement approaches. 

Regions often have their own strategies, methodologies and software. This makes it difficult to share data, talk in a shared language and easily define, measure and compare success and failure. When international teams are siloed, it’s difficult to identify global trends and shape a strong consistent CX strategy that successfully reflects your brand standards and identity. 

Let’s take a look at how you can build a strong global CX strategy despite these limitations. 

A unifying global brand standard

While your delivery across regions can and should differ, your brand standards shouldn’t. As KPMG reports, total experience has become the new standard. Successful organizations unify customer, employee, partner and ecosystem interactions into a single adaptive model of engagement. 

Making sure your local teams deliver consistency in brand identity, values and approaches, but tailor each to the local market, is how you retain brand standards and deliver a consistent, high-quality customer experience that’s attuned to customers in each region. 

A unified global brand standard provides teams with a shared vision and shared language that they can use to guide strategy, metric setting and assessment of global performance. 

Local flexibility to adapt to cultural nuance

While cohesion in strategy and a shared vision should be at the center of your global CX strategy, local flexibility allows teams to tailor their delivery for local audiences. Local flexibility allows for attunement without undermining the brand experience. Companies need to adapt to culture norms and values across channels to make sure the brand experience feels resonant and respectful. 

Let’s compare two cultures: Japan and Germany. 

In Japan, the concept of Omotenashi is defined as wholehearted hospitality. Every action is done with the greatest care and attention — coming from a genuine desire to deliver the best experience for the customer. Thanks to the concept of Omotenashi, the Japanese always look to deliver expectational service, with retail employees often bowing and escorting customers out of stores. 

“Omotenashi, rooted in the Japanese culture of hospitality, extends beyond mere service to embody a profound philosophy. The term first originated in the Heian period (794-1185). It translates to a fusion of omote, referring to one's public face or the image presented to outsiders, and nashi, signifying nothing. Omotenashi means a sincere and transparent form of hospitality, where every gesture is wholeheartedly offered without pretense or hidden agendas. 

Deeply ingrained in Japanese traditions, particularly influenced by the tea ceremony, omotenashi no kokoro ("omotenashi from the heart") encapsulates the nation's mindset of caring for guests with genuine warmth, emphasizing the essence of hospitality over expectation. Deeply grounded in selflessness and mutual respect, omotenashi transcends mere politeness, symbolizing the profound Japanese dedication to delivering exceptional service and care to their guests.” - Toki

In comparison, German culture is skeptical of hierarchy, values directness (often to the point of bluntness in the eyes of some cultures) and doesn't give customers special privileges. Nic Houghton of 40% German shares: 

“German supermarket staff, like most service industry employees here, really don’t care about whatever privileges a customer imagines they have. The service industry employee is the great societal equaliser; you might be a king or a pauper, but they have no responsibility to be nice to you."

While this is just one example, it helps illustrate the nuances between certain regions and how approaches may need to differ.  

Centralized frameworks that keep experiences aligned

You can help overcome the limitations of delivering a strong global CX strategy by putting into place centralized frameworks. Centralized frameworks are the foundation of a strong, unified customer experience. To get started follow these steps: 

1. Audit current processes 

Get clarity on how different regional teams define and measure success by auditing their current processes, metrics and strategies. Once you clearly define each region's approach, you can get insights into where there is alignment and contradiction between each local team. 

2. Consolidate metrics 

Only 15% of CX leaders say they're satisfied with how their company measures CX — highlighting a lack of cohesion and frustrations with metric setting. To strengthen your CX measurement framework, pick definitions that accurately reflect the global customer experience and make them the standard across locations. Standardize key metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) — making sure local teams define and measure the customer experience in the same way and use the same metrics to assess and track performance. 

3. Centralize dashboards 

Centralized dashboards are one of the most important tools in helping your global teams deliver a unified brand standard. Shared dashboards encourage teams to share data, co-define success, take shared responsibility for using data to drive decision making and measure performance together. 

4. Unify brand storytelling 

Your brand story provides clarity and direction for your global team. Your brand narrative gives purpose to internal teams, giving meaning to the customer experience they’re trying to create. 

On the customer side, consistency is essential. Unifying your brand storytelling helps deliver a consistent brand experience. Tone and voice, values, visual identity and messaging should remain cohesive across global channels. 

5. Create playbooks 

Playbooks consolidate strategy and provide local teams with the guidance they need to deliver a high-level customer experience in their location. Create regional playbooks that walk local teams how to retain brand standards, tailor the customer experience to their specific location, and show them how they can measure performance. 

How do consumer insights help support the global customer experience? From cross-market research that determines universal needs from local needs to feedback loops that embed consumer research into every stage of creative, campaign and strategy development, here’s how consumer insights can support a strong CX global strategy.  

Cross-market research to identify universal vs local needs

Consumer research across regions will help you uncover which expectations are global and which are culturally driven. Speak directly to consumers across markets to get clarity on what their expectations are and whether these expectations share a consistent thread with other markets or can be explained by local values and customs. 

It’s important to build segmentation models that can be used by and adapted to each region. Segments that are transferable across regions are the foundation of a targeted, cohesive and scalable CX strategy. Behavioral and psychographic data should be the foundation. Often behaviors, attitudes, needs and psychological characteristics will define and differentiate your customers from one another more than if they share the same city or continent. Think: digital natives, VIP customers, consumers with a preference for self-service. 

Bain & Company reports that brands that use cross-regional segments are 50% more likely to grow their revenue compared to competitors. Cross-regional segmentation models support brands in allocating their budgets more strategically, allowing them to invest marketing, sales support and product development in the segments with the potential to deliver the highest global ROI. 

Continuous listening and feedback loops

It’s important to keep your consumer data fresh and relevant with consumer sentiment constantly shifting. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index and the OECD Consumer Confidence Index report that sentiment typically changes by 5% to 8% month-over-month. And in an unstable and unpredictable global economic and political climate, consumer sentiment is even more reactive. 

In late 2025, consumer expectations jumped by 7.8% in a single month following a news report on a spike in inflation. While in France, experts previously tracked consumer optimism falling by 21% to 16% in just 90 days. These shifts highlight the importance of undertaking consumer research and updating your data regularly — ideally every quarter. 

Use consumer insights platforms that support continuous listening to help you detect regional friction points early. Mix your methods to triangulate your data and verify your findings. Social listening tools, surveys, and interviews can also provide a rich mix of qualitative and quantitative consumer data. 

Continuous consumer feedback loops break through the limitations of traditional local and international customer research which is often rigid, time consuming and expensive. Continuous feedback loops turn consumer research into an agile, iterative process — delivering insights early and often. With continuous feedback loops, you can bring consumer insights into every stage of product, campaign and ad development, from ideation to late-stage execution — supporting faster, data-backed decision making across regions. 

Benchmarking global performance

Your top-performing regions can help you shape your future CX strategy, allowing you to uncover best-in-class regions and replicate successful approaches across location, with consumer insights giving you in-depth insights into why some regions are outperforming others. Measure and compare multi-regional standardized metrics and practices against best-in-class standards. 

Let’s take a look at how Zappi helps teams build a scalable global CX system. 

Unified testing framework across markets

Shared definitions of success, standardized testing frameworks and centralized data move brands towards cohesion and allow them to deliver to the same high standards across regions. 

Zappi supports standardized metrics, using a consistent research methodology across markets. This gives you a single source of data, allowing you to easily track and benchmark performance across locations. 

Zappi's global dashboards help overcome the complexities of convoluted tech stacks and regional data silos that undermine CX, giving your global team access to a centralized dashboard and full visibility into data from across your markets — making it easy to spot patterns, strengths and gaps and compare and benchmark performance.  

Rapid testing that supports both global and local innovation

Our user-friendly platform makes it easy for local teams to test ideas and gather insights quickly. Our AI-based platform delivers rapid testing, often delivering insights in as little as 12 hours — giving local teams full flexibility to test localized creative. 

Zappi provides real-time analysis, automatically populating charts as soon as new data comes in. Your local teams can easily track and analyze consumer responses with Zappi’s smart autocoding that provides an instant view of specific themes, allowing local teams to explore consumer sentiment and opinions more deeply with theme verbatims. 

You can also make sure every idea ladders up to global brand standards with Zappi's standardized global metrics that helps make benchmarking easy. From brand fit score to core message recall — make sure each local ad, idea and campaign maintains your brand standard while delivering cultural relevance. 

Insights that bring global and regional teams together

With easy benchmarking, a single centralized platform that houses your global consumer data and a shared dashboard that breaks down regional silos and provides full visibility on the customer experience to local teams — Zappi provides a single source of truth. When data guides, stakeholders quickly align on the ideal experience. Less friction supports faster decision making, allowing teams to act on consumer data quickly and effectively.

Data silos, conflicting definitions of success and lack of standardized metrics get in the way of delivering a unified global customer experience. By unifying your brand story, consolidating your metrics, centralizing your dashboards, supporting teams to engage with consistent consumer research — you can bring greater consistency and purpose to your cross-regional teams. 

Built to centralize cross-market insights, deliver deeper AI-supported analysis and standardize metrics to support global benchmarking, Zappi helps deliver agility, data-backed speed and cohesion to your CX strategy.