What is an open-ended question?
Definition: an open-ended question is a question without predefined answer choices, where the respondent can express themselves freely in their own words.
Purpose: to understand the “why” behind a score and gather qualitative feedback.
Example: “What did you like or dislike about our service?”
Open-ended questions allow respondents to express themselves freely, without predefined answer choices. Unlike closed-ended questions that measure sentiment, they reveal the “why” behind each score.
Their 5 main benefits: more relevant feedback, increased respondent engagement, better customer understanding, detection of unreliable responses, and enhanced analysis through AI.
Why settle for knowing that a customer is “dissatisfied” when you could discover exactly what the problem is?
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| Criterion | Open-ended questions | Closed-ended questions |
|---|---|---|
| Type of data | Qualitative (verbatim responses, detailed opinions) | Quantitative (statistics, scores) |
| Information richness | High (nuances and context) | Limited (predefined responses) |
| Ease of analysis | Complex without AI, simplified with AI tools | Simple and quick |
| Response rate | Lower (writing effort required) | Higher (quick click) |
| Respondent engagement | High (thoughtful reflection) | Moderate (automatic responses possible) |
| Insight discovery | Can reveal unanticipated issues | Limited to pre-established hypotheses |
| Recommended use | Understanding the “why”, exploration | Measuring, comparing, benchmarking |
1. Feedback Provided Is More Insightful
If you only have a range of answers the respondents can give in feedback, then you’ll never know the true feelings of the audience. For instance, you might find that customers didn’t like the packaging on a product. That identifies the need for a change on the packaging, but what do you change? Without further information, you could get the change wrong and this could lengthen the process of change to make your product more appealing to audiences.
Open-ended questions allow audiences to be specific when they are giving a response. For instance, they might not like the packaging because some felt it was too big for the product or the colour was wrong for the contents. You can even ask what the audience would change, to see if there is a consensus on perceptions of what you’re getting feedback on.
2. There Is More Engagement With The Audience
A simple list response set of questions offers very little engagement with your audience. They can simply run through the feedback form and tick one set of responses without giving much thought to the answers they’re giving. This type of feedback is less valuable to you as a business as it doesn’t really give an honest appreciation of your business’ product/service.
When using open-ended formats, you can actually engage the audience more fully. It compels them to think more carefully about what they’re saying. It also improves customer return rates as it acts as a reminder to your brand and helps them to come back to you.
3. They Offer You A Further Insight Into Your Respondent’s Demographics
When you’re asking respondents to write out their answers, the language and spelling they use can tell you a lot about the characteristics of the respondents. This might give your insight into who is using your products and services and help you formulate better marketing to better target the core set of users of your product/service.
An example of this is when people use local terms for your products. For instance, in the north of the USA, if you want a carbonated sweetened beverage you ask for pop. If you’re in the south, you should ask for a soda. While these are slight differences, it does tell you where your current marketing strategy is working.
4. You Can Separate Genuine Respondent’s From Bad Respondent’s
Sometimes when you send out questionnaires, you can get people who respond without knowing the product/service or are just responding to cause trouble. It doesn’t happen very often, but it can do. These people need to removed as they can skew results and set you on a path that is wrong for your company.
Those that are generally not really responding to your feedback request often give the same answer to every question. But that isn’t always the case. Another way to tell is by including open-ended questions. Those that don’t really want to respond, will put very little, if anything at all. These are the people that should be removed from your feedback.
5. It Is More Fun For Staff To Read Responses
While collection of feedback forms is an important role, it can also be very mundane, and this is when large mistakes can be made. Even computerized, staff can skip important information if they’re only looking at statistics on a screen.
However, open-ended questions offer your staff a way to really engage with the audience with their responses. They can smile at some of the positive feedback and learn from the negative responses. Therefore, your staff are learning more from the feedback than they would with closed questions.
When and how to use open-ended questions: recommendations by situation
Open-ended questions are a powerful tool for enriching your satisfaction surveys, provided they are used strategically according to your context.
For a post-purchase survey, use a single open-ended question after your NPS or CSAT score by asking “What mainly explains your rating?”. This approach provides qualitative context without overloading the survey. For an exploratory study on a new product or service, increase the number of open-ended questions to 3 or 4 to uncover insights you hadn’t anticipated. For an annual satisfaction survey, combine 2 targeted open-ended questions with your usual quantitative indicators to identify emerging trends.
The ideal combination for an effective satisfaction survey is based on a ratio of approximately 70% closed-ended questions for measuring and comparing, and 30% open-ended questions for understanding and delving deeper. This balance ensures an optimal response rate while capturing the richness of customer feedback.
FAQ on open-ended questions
How many open-ended questions should be included in a satisfaction survey?
It is recommended to include between 2 and 3 open-ended questions maximum in a satisfaction survey containing 8 to 12 questions in total. Ideally, place an open-ended question after a rating scale question to allow the respondent to explain their score, and a final free-form question to gather unanticipated comments. Beyond 3 open-ended questions, the drop-off rate increases significantly as respondents must put in greater writing effort.
How to effectively analyse responses to open-ended questions?
Responses to open-ended questions can be analysed in three ways. Manual analysis is suitable for fewer than 50 responses: read each verbatim response and categorise them by theme. For larger volumes, artificial intelligence tools can automatically process thousands of comments by identifying recurring themes, sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) and dominant keywords. Modern survey software now includes AI modules that generate word clouds and classify verbatim responses without human intervention.
What is the difference between an open-ended question and a closed-ended question?
A closed-ended question offers predefined answer choices from which the respondent must select (scale of 1 to 10, yes/no, multiple choice). It generates quantitative data that is easy to analyse statistically. An open-ended question provides a free field where the respondent expresses themselves in their own words. It generates richer, more nuanced qualitative data but is more complex to process. The two formats are complementary: closed-ended questions measure the “what” and the “how much”, while open-ended questions reveal the “why”.
When in the survey should an open-ended question be placed?
The optimal placement depends on the objective. After a rating question (NPS, CSAT), place an open-ended question asking “Why did you give this rating?” to contextualise the score. At the end of the survey, offer a free-form question such as “Do you have any other comments to share with us?” to capture feedback not covered elsewhere. Avoid placing open-ended questions at the beginning of a survey as they can discourage respondents before they have even started. Optional open-ended questions generally yield higher quality responses than mandatory ones.
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Read the article:
Polish – zalety pytań otwartych, click here
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French – l’intérêt des questions ouvertes pour obtenir des feedback, click here