A key part of creating excellent online surveys involves using open-ended and

closed-ended questions effectively.

Before we move forward in discussing how to use them, let’s define each:

A closed-ended question is made up of pre-populated answer choices for the

respondent to choose from; while an open-ended question asks the respondent to
provide feedback in their own words.

Let’s take a deeper look at both question types, review their strengths and
weaknesses, and clarify when to use each of them. Ready? Let’s jump right in!

Closed-ended questions
Closed-ended questions come in a multitude of forms, including: multiple
choice, drop down, checkboxes, and ranking questions. Each question type doesn’t
allow the respondent to provide unique or unanticipated answers, but rather,
choose from a list of pre-selected options. It’s like being offered spaghetti or
hamburgers for dinner, instead of being asked “What would you like for dinner?”

Questions that are closed-ended are conclusive in nature as they are designed to
create data that is easily quantifiable. The fact that questions of this type are easy
to code makes them particularly useful when trying to prove the statistical
significance of a survey’s results. Furthermore, the information gained by closed-
ended questions allows researchers to categorize respondents into groups based on
the options they have selected.

Demographic studies can illustrate a good use for closed-ended questions. Imagine
that the manager of a designer clothing store believes that certain types of people
are more likely to visit their store and purchase their clothing than others. To
decipher which segment groups are most likely to be their customers, the manager
could design a survey for anyone who has been a visitor. This survey could include
closed-ended questions on gender, age, employment status, and any other
demographic information they’d like to know. Then, it would be followed by
questions on how often they visit the store and the amount of money they spend
annually. Since all the questions are closed-ended, the store manager could easily
quantify the responses and determine the profile of their typical customer. In this
case, the manager may learn that her most frequent customers are female students,
ages 18-25. This knowledge would allow her to move forward with an action plan
on how to cater to this niche better or break into other target demographics.
The major drawback to closed-ended questions is that a researcher must already
have a clear understanding of the topic of his/her questions and how they tie into
the overall research problem before they are created. Without this, closed-ended
questions will lead to insufficient options for respondents to select from, questions
that do not properly reflect the research’s purpose, and limited or erroneous
information.

For example, if I asked the question, “do you get to work by driving, busing, or
walking?” I would have accidentally omitted carpooling, biking, cartwheeling or
any other form of transportation I am unaware of. Instead, it would have been
better for me to ask the open-ended question of “how do you get to work?” to learn
all the different types of answer before forcing the selection based on a list of
several options.

Open-ended questions
Open-ended questions are exploratory in nature, and offer the researchers rich,
qualitative data. In essence, they provide the researcher with an opportunity to gain
insight on all the opinions on a topic they are not familiar with. However, being
qualitative in nature makes these types of questions lack the statistical significance
needed for conclusive research. Nevertheless, open-ended questions are incredibly
useful in several different ways:

1) Expert interviews

Since questions that are open-ended ask for the critical thinking and uncut opinion
of the respondent, they are perfect for gaining information from specialists in a
field that the researcher is less qualified in. Example: If I wanted to learn the
history of Ancient China (something I know very little about), I could create my
survey for a selected group of historians whose focus is Ancient China. My survey
would then be filled with broad open-ended questions that are designed to receive
large amounts of content and provide the freedom for the expert to demonstrate
their knowledge.

2) Small population studies

Open-ended questions can be useful for surveys that are targeting a small group of
people because there is no need for complex statistical analysis and the qualitative
nature of the questions will give you more valuable input from each respondent.
The rule here is the group must be small enough for the surveyor to be able to read
each unique response and reflect on the information provided. Example: A
supervisor who is looking for performance feedback from his/her team of six
employees. The supervisor would benefit more from questions that allow the
respondents to freely answer rather than forcing them into closed-ended questions
that will limit their responses.

3) Preliminary research

As stated in the closed-ended questions section, conclusive research usually

requires preliminary research to be conducted in order to design the appropriate
research objects, survey structure and questions. Open-ended questions can reveal
to the surveyor a variety of opinions and behaviours among the population that
they never realized. It is therefore, incredibly useful to use open-ended questions to
gain information for further quantitative research.

4) A respondent outlet

It is usually a good idea in any survey, no matter how large, to leave an open-
ended comments question at the end. This is especially in the case of a survey
asking closed-ended questions on attitudes, opinions, or behaviours. Forcing
respondents to answer closed-ended questions asks them to fit in your box of
options and can leave them with extra information or concerns that they want to
share with you. Providing respondents with the outlet of a comment box is
showing them the respect they deserve for taking the time to fill out your survey.

There are a few drawbacks to open-ended questions as well. Though respondent

answers are almost always richer in quality, the amount of effort it takes to digest
the information provided can sometimes be overwhelming. That is why open-
ended questions work best in studies with smaller populations. Furthermore, if
your survey sample is a fraction of the population you are studying, you will be
looking to find data which can be inferred on the overall population as statistically
significant. Unfortunately, open-ended questions cannot be used in this manner, as
each response should be seen as a unique opinion.

Interested in seeing how open-ended and closed-ended questions end up being

used in surveys? Check out the questionnaire templates from our survey
methodologists. The templates cover everything from customer feedback to testing
your brand messaging.