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Questionnaire Design | Methods, Question Types & Examples

Published on July 15, 2021 by Pritha Bhandari . Revised on June 22, 2023.

A questionnaire is a list of questions or items used to gather data from respondents about their attitudes, experiences, or opinions. Questionnaires can be used to collect quantitative and/or qualitative information.

Questionnaires are commonly used in market research as well as in the social and health sciences. For example, a company may ask for feedback about a recent customer service experience, or psychology researchers may investigate health risk perceptions using questionnaires.

Table of contents

Questionnaires vs. surveys, questionnaire methods, open-ended vs. closed-ended questions, question wording, question order, step-by-step guide to design, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about questionnaire design.

A survey is a research method where you collect and analyze data from a group of people. A questionnaire is a specific tool or instrument for collecting the data.

Designing a questionnaire means creating valid and reliable questions that address your research objectives , placing them in a useful order, and selecting an appropriate method for administration.

But designing a questionnaire is only one component of survey research. Survey research also involves defining the population you’re interested in, choosing an appropriate sampling method , administering questionnaires, data cleansing and analysis, and interpretation.

Sampling is important in survey research because you’ll often aim to generalize your results to the population. Gather data from a sample that represents the range of views in the population for externally valid results. There will always be some differences between the population and the sample, but minimizing these will help you avoid several types of research bias , including sampling bias , ascertainment bias , and undercoverage bias .

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Questionnaires can be self-administered or researcher-administered . Self-administered questionnaires are more common because they are easy to implement and inexpensive, but researcher-administered questionnaires allow deeper insights.

Self-administered questionnaires

Self-administered questionnaires can be delivered online or in paper-and-pen formats, in person or through mail. All questions are standardized so that all respondents receive the same questions with identical wording.

Self-administered questionnaires can be:

• cost-effective
• easy to administer for small and large groups
• anonymous and suitable for sensitive topics

But they may also be:

• unsuitable for people with limited literacy or verbal skills
• susceptible to a nonresponse bias (most people invited may not complete the questionnaire)
• biased towards people who volunteer because impersonal survey requests often go ignored.

Researcher-administered questionnaires

Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in-person, or online between researchers and respondents.

Researcher-administered questionnaires can:

• help you ensure the respondents are representative of your target audience
• allow clarifications of ambiguous or unclear questions and answers
• have high response rates because it’s harder to refuse an interview when personal attention is given to respondents

But researcher-administered questionnaires can be limiting in terms of resources. They are:

• costly and time-consuming to perform
• more difficult to analyze if you have qualitative responses
• likely to contain experimenter bias or demand characteristics
• likely to encourage social desirability bias in responses because of a lack of anonymity

Your questionnaire can include open-ended or closed-ended questions or a combination of both.

Using closed-ended questions limits your responses, while open-ended questions enable a broad range of answers. You’ll need to balance these considerations with your available time and resources.

Closed-ended questions

Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to select from. Closed-ended questions are best for collecting data on categorical or quantitative variables.

Categorical variables can be nominal or ordinal. Quantitative variables can be interval or ratio. Understanding the type of variable and level of measurement means you can perform appropriate statistical analyses for generalizable results.

Examples of closed-ended questions for different variables

Nominal variables include categories that can’t be ranked, such as race or ethnicity. This includes binary or dichotomous categories.

It’s best to include categories that cover all possible answers and are mutually exclusive. There should be no overlap between response items.

In binary or dichotomous questions, you’ll give respondents only two options to choose from.

White Black or African American American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

Ordinal variables include categories that can be ranked. Consider how wide or narrow a range you’ll include in your response items, and their relevance to your respondents.

Likert scale questions collect ordinal data using rating scales with 5 or 7 points.

When you have four or more Likert-type questions, you can treat the composite data as quantitative data on an interval scale . Intelligence tests, psychological scales, and personality inventories use multiple Likert-type questions to collect interval data.

With interval or ratio scales , you can apply strong statistical hypothesis tests to address your research aims.

Pros and cons of closed-ended questions

Well-designed closed-ended questions are easy to understand and can be answered quickly. However, you might still miss important answers that are relevant to respondents. An incomplete set of response items may force some respondents to pick the closest alternative to their true answer. These types of questions may also miss out on valuable detail.

To solve these problems, you can make questions partially closed-ended, and include an open-ended option where respondents can fill in their own answer.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended, or long-form, questions allow respondents to give answers in their own words. Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that researchers may not have otherwise considered. For example, respondents may want to answer “multiracial” for the question on race rather than selecting from a restricted list.

• How do you feel about open science?
• How would you describe your personality?
• In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle for productivity in remote work?

Open-ended questions have a few downsides.

They require more time and effort from respondents, which may deter them from completing the questionnaire.

For researchers, understanding and summarizing responses to these questions can take a lot of time and resources. You’ll need to develop a systematic coding scheme to categorize answers, and you may also need to involve other researchers in data analysis for high reliability .

Question wording can influence your respondents’ answers, especially if the language is unclear, ambiguous, or biased. Good questions need to be understood by all respondents in the same way ( reliable ) and measure exactly what you’re interested in ( valid ).

Use clear language

You should design questions with your target audience in mind. Consider their familiarity with your questionnaire topics and language and tailor your questions to them.

For readability and clarity, avoid jargon or overly complex language. Don’t use double negatives because they can be harder to understand.

Use balanced framing

Respondents often answer in different ways depending on the question framing. Positive frames are interpreted as more neutral than negative frames and may encourage more socially desirable answers.

Use a mix of both positive and negative frames to avoid research bias , and ensure that your question wording is balanced wherever possible.

Unbalanced questions focus on only one side of an argument. Respondents may be less likely to oppose the question if it is framed in a particular direction. It’s best practice to provide a counter argument within the question as well.

Avoid leading questions

Leading questions guide respondents towards answering in specific ways, even if that’s not how they truly feel, by explicitly or implicitly providing them with extra information.

It’s best to keep your questions short and specific to your topic of interest.

• The average daily work commute in the US takes 54.2 minutes and costs $29 per day. Since 2020, working from home has saved many employees time and money. Do you favor flexible work-from-home policies even after it’s safe to return to offices?
• Experts agree that a well-balanced diet provides sufficient vitamins and minerals, and multivitamins and supplements are not necessary or effective. Do you agree or disagree that multivitamins are helpful for balanced nutrition?

Keep your questions focused

Ask about only one idea at a time and avoid double-barreled questions. Double-barreled questions ask about more than one item at a time, which can confuse respondents.

This question could be difficult to answer for respondents who feel strongly about the right to clean drinking water but not high-speed internet. They might only answer about the topic they feel passionate about or provide a neutral answer instead – but neither of these options capture their true answers.

Instead, you should ask two separate questions to gauge respondents’ opinions.

Strongly Agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree

Do you agree or disagree that the government should be responsible for providing high-speed internet to everyone?

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You can organize the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex. Alternatively, you can randomize the question order between respondents.

Logical flow

Using a logical flow to your question order means starting with simple questions, such as behavioral or opinion questions, and ending with more complex, sensitive, or controversial questions.

The question order that you use can significantly affect the responses by priming them in specific directions. Question order effects, or context effects, occur when earlier questions influence the responses to later questions, reducing the validity of your questionnaire.

While demographic questions are usually unaffected by order effects, questions about opinions and attitudes are more susceptible to them.

• How knowledgeable are you about Joe Biden’s executive orders in his first 100 days?
• Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Joe Biden is managing the economy?
• Do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president?

It’s important to minimize order effects because they can be a source of systematic error or bias in your study.

Randomization

Randomization involves presenting individual respondents with the same questionnaire but with different question orders.

When you use randomization, order effects will be minimized in your dataset. But a randomized order may also make it harder for respondents to process your questionnaire. Some questions may need more cognitive effort, while others are easier to answer, so a random order could require more time or mental capacity for respondents to switch between questions.

Step 1: Define your goals and objectives

The first step of designing a questionnaire is determining your aims.

• What topics or experiences are you studying?
• What specifically do you want to find out?
• Is a self-report questionnaire an appropriate tool for investigating this topic?

Once you’ve specified your research aims, you can operationalize your variables of interest into questionnaire items. Operationalizing concepts means turning them from abstract ideas into concrete measurements. Every question needs to address a defined need and have a clear purpose.

Step 2: Use questions that are suitable for your sample

Create appropriate questions by taking the perspective of your respondents. Consider their language proficiency and available time and energy when designing your questionnaire.

• Are the respondents familiar with the language and terms used in your questions?
• Would any of the questions insult, confuse, or embarrass them?
• Do the response items for any closed-ended questions capture all possible answers?
• Are the response items mutually exclusive?
• Do the respondents have time to respond to open-ended questions?

Consider all possible options for responses to closed-ended questions. From a respondent’s perspective, a lack of response options reflecting their point of view or true answer may make them feel alienated or excluded. In turn, they’ll become disengaged or inattentive to the rest of the questionnaire.

Step 3: Decide on your questionnaire length and question order

Once you have your questions, make sure that the length and order of your questions are appropriate for your sample.

If respondents are not being incentivized or compensated, keep your questionnaire short and easy to answer. Otherwise, your sample may be biased with only highly motivated respondents completing the questionnaire.

Decide on your question order based on your aims and resources. Use a logical flow if your respondents have limited time or if you cannot randomize questions. Randomizing questions helps you avoid bias, but it can take more complex statistical analysis to interpret your data.

Step 4: Pretest your questionnaire

When you have a complete list of questions, you’ll need to pretest it to make sure what you’re asking is always clear and unambiguous. Pretesting helps you catch any errors or points of confusion before performing your study.

Ask friends, classmates, or members of your target audience to complete your questionnaire using the same method you’ll use for your research. Find out if any questions were particularly difficult to answer or if the directions were unclear or inconsistent, and make changes as necessary.

If you have the resources, running a pilot study will help you test the validity and reliability of your questionnaire. A pilot study is a practice run of the full study, and it includes sampling, data collection , and analysis. You can find out whether your procedures are unfeasible or susceptible to bias and make changes in time, but you can’t test a hypothesis with this type of study because it’s usually statistically underpowered .

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Student’s  t -distribution
• Normal distribution
• Null and Alternative Hypotheses
• Chi square tests
• Confidence interval
• Quartiles & Quantiles
• Cluster sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Data cleansing
• Reproducibility vs Replicability
• Peer review
• Prospective cohort study

Research bias

• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Placebo effect
• Hawthorne effect
• Hindsight bias
• Affect heuristic
• Social desirability bias

A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analyzing data from people using questionnaires.

Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to select from. These questions are easier to answer quickly.

Open-ended or long-form questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that researchers may not have otherwise considered.

A Likert scale is a rating scale that quantitatively assesses opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. It is made up of 4 or more questions that measure a single attitude or trait when response scores are combined.

To use a Likert scale in a survey , you present participants with Likert-type questions or statements, and a continuum of items, usually with 5 or 7 possible responses, to capture their degree of agreement.

You can organize the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex, or randomly between respondents. A logical flow helps respondents process the questionnaire easier and quicker, but it may lead to bias. Randomization can minimize the bias from order effects.

Questionnaires can be self-administered or researcher-administered.

Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in-person, or online between researchers and respondents. You can gain deeper insights by clarifying questions for respondents or asking follow-up questions.

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Your ultimate guide to questionnaires and how to design a good one

The written questionnaire is the heart and soul of any survey research project. Whether you conduct your survey using an online questionnaire, in person, by email or over the phone, the way you design your questionnaire plays a critical role in shaping the quality of the data and insights that you’ll get from your target audience. Keep reading to get actionable tips.

What is a questionnaire?

A questionnaire is a research tool consisting of a set of questions or other ‘prompts’ to collect data from a set of respondents.

When used in most research, a questionnaire will consist of a number of types of questions (primarily open-ended and closed) in order to gain both quantitative data that can be analyzed to draw conclusions, and qualitative data to provide longer, more specific explanations.

A research questionnaire is often mistaken for a survey - and many people use the term questionnaire and survey, interchangeably.

But that’s incorrect.

Which is what we talk about next.

Get started with our free survey maker with 50+ templates

Survey vs. questionnaire – what’s the difference?

Before we go too much further, let’s consider the differences between surveys and questionnaires.

These two terms are often used interchangeably, but there is an important difference between them.

Survey definition

A survey is the process of collecting data from a set of respondents and using it to gather insights.

Survey research can be conducted using a questionnaire, but won’t always involve one.

Questionnaire definition

A questionnaire is the list of questions you circulate to your target audience.

In other words, the survey is the task you’re carrying out, and the questionnaire is the instrument you’re using to do it.

By itself, a questionnaire doesn’t achieve much.

It’s when you put it into action as part of a survey that you start to get results.

Advantages vs disadvantages of using a questionnaire

While a questionnaire is a popular method to gather data for market research or other studies, there are a few disadvantages to using this method (although there are plenty of advantages to using a questionnaire too).

Let’s have a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of using a questionnaire for collecting data.

Advantages of using a questionnaire

1. questionnaires are relatively cheap.

Depending on the complexity of your study, using a questionnaire can be cost effective compared to other methods.

You simply need to write your survey questionnaire, and send it out and then process the responses.

You can set up an online questionnaire relatively easily, or simply carry out market research on the street if that’s the best method.

2. You can get and analyze results quickly

Again depending on the size of your survey you can get results back from a questionnaire quickly, often within 24 hours of putting the questionnaire live.

It also means you can start to analyze responses quickly too.

3. They’re easily scalable

You can easily send an online questionnaire to anyone in the world and with the right software you can quickly identify your target audience and your questionnaire to them.

4. Questionnaires are easy to analyze

If your questionnaire design has been done properly, it’s quick and easy to analyze results from questionnaires once responses start to come back.

This is particularly useful with large scale market research projects.

Because all respondents are answering the same questions, it’s simple to identify trends.

5. You can use the results to make accurate decisions

As a research instrument, a questionnaire is ideal for commercial research because the data you get back is from your target audience (or ideal customers) and the information you get back on their thoughts, preferences or behaviors allows you to make business decisions.

6. A questionnaire can cover any topic

One of the biggest advantages of using questionnaires when conducting research is (because you can adapt them using different types and styles of open ended questions and closed ended questions) they can be used to gather data on almost any topic.

There are many types of questionnaires you can design to gather both quantitative data and qualitative data - so they’re a useful tool for all kinds of data analysis.

Disadvantages of using a questionnaire

1. respondents could lie.

This is by far the biggest risk with a questionnaire, especially when dealing with sensitive topics.

Rather than give their actual opinion, a respondent might feel pressured to give the answer they deem more socially acceptable, which doesn’t give you accurate results.

2. Respondents might not answer every question

There are all kinds of reasons respondents might not answer every question, from questionnaire length, they might not understand what’s being asked, or they simply might not want to answer it.

If you get questionnaires back without complete responses it could negatively affect your research data and provide an inaccurate picture.

3. They might interpret what’s being asked incorrectly

This is a particular problem when running a survey across geographical boundaries and often comes down to the design of the survey questionnaire.

If your questions aren’t written in a very clear way, the respondent might misunderstand what’s being asked and provide an answer that doesn’t reflect what they actually think.

Again this can negatively affect your research data.

4. You could introduce bias

The whole point of producing a questionnaire is to gather accurate data from which decisions can be made or conclusions drawn.

But the data collected can be heavily impacted if the researchers accidentally introduce bias into the questions.

This can be easily done if the researcher is trying to prove a certain hypothesis with their questionnaire, and unwittingly write questions that push people towards giving a certain answer.

In these cases respondents’ answers won’t accurately reflect what is really happening and stop you gathering more accurate data.

5. Respondents could get survey fatigue

One issue you can run into when sending out a questionnaire, particularly if you send them out regularly to the same survey sample, is that your respondents could start to suffer from survey fatigue.

In these circumstances, rather than thinking about the response options in the questionnaire and providing accurate answers, respondents could start to just tick boxes to get through the questionnaire quickly.

Again, this won’t give you an accurate data set.

Questionnaire design: How to do it

It’s essential to carefully craft a questionnaire to reduce survey error and optimize your data . The best way to think about the questionnaire is with the end result in mind.

How do you do that?

Start with questions, like:

• What is my research purpose ?
• What data do I need?
• How am I going to analyze that data?
• What questions are needed to best suit these variables?

Once you have a clear idea of the purpose of your survey, you’ll be in a better position to create an effective questionnaire.

Here are a few steps to help you get into the right mindset.

1. Keep the respondent front and center

A survey is the process of collecting information from people, so it needs to be designed around human beings first and foremost.

In his post about survey design theory, David Vannette, PhD, from the Qualtrics Methodology Lab explains the correlation between the way a survey is designed and the quality of data that is extracted.

“To begin designing an effective survey, take a step back and try to understand what goes on in your respondents’ heads when they are taking your survey.

This step is critical to making sure that your questionnaire makes it as likely as possible that the response process follows that expected path.”

From writing the questions to designing the survey flow, the respondent’s point of view should always be front and center in your mind during a questionnaire design.

2. How to write survey questions

Your questionnaire should only be as long as it needs to be, and every question needs to deliver value.

That means your questions must each have an individual purpose and produce the best possible data for that purpose, all while supporting the overall goal of the survey.

A question must also must be phrased in a way that is easy for all your respondents to understand, and does not produce false results.

To do this, remember the following principles:

Get into the respondent's head

The process for a respondent answering a survey question looks like this:

• The respondent reads the question and determines what information they need to answer it.
• They search their memory for that information.
• They make judgments about that information.
• They translate that judgment into one of the answer options you’ve provided. This is the process of taking the data they have and matching that information with the question that’s asked.

When wording questions, make sure the question means the same thing to all respondents. Words should have one meaning, few syllables, and the sentences should have few words.

Only use the words needed to ask your question and not a word more .

Note that it’s important that the respondent understands the intent behind your question.

If they don’t, they may answer a different question and the data can be skewed.

Some contextual help text, either in the introduction to the questionnaire or before the question itself, can help make sure the respondent understands your goals and the scope of your research.

Use mutually exclusive responses

Be sure to make your response categories mutually exclusive.

Consider the question:

What is your age?

Respondents that are 31 years old have two options, as do respondents that are 40 and 55. As a result, it is impossible to predict which category they will choose.

This can distort results and frustrate respondents. It can be easily avoided by making responses mutually exclusive.

The following question is much better:

This question is clear and will give us better results.

Ask specific questions

Nonspecific questions can confuse respondents and influence results.

Do you like orange juice?

• Like very much
• Neither like nor dislike
• Dislike very much

This question is very unclear. Is it asking about taste, texture, price, or the nutritional content? Different respondents will read this question differently.

A specific question will get more specific answers that are actionable.

How much do you like the current price of orange juice?

This question is more specific and will get better results.

If you need to collect responses about more than one aspect of a subject, you can include multiple questions on it. (Do you like the taste of orange juice? Do you like the nutritional content of orange juice? etc.)

Use a variety of question types

If all of your questionnaire, survey or poll questions are structured the same way (e.g. yes/no or multiple choice) the respondents are likely to become bored and tune out. That could mean they pay less attention to how they’re answering or even give up altogether.

Instead, mix up the question types to keep the experience interesting and varied. It’s a good idea to include questions that yield both qualitative and quantitative data.

For example, an open-ended questionnaire item such as “describe your attitude to life” will provide qualitative data – a form of information that’s rich, unstructured and unpredictable. The respondent will tell you in their own words what they think and feel.

A quantitative / close-ended questionnaire item, such as “Which word describes your attitude to life? a) practical b) philosophical” gives you a much more structured answer, but the answers will be less rich and detailed.

Open-ended questions take more thought and effort to answer, so use them sparingly. They also require a different kind of treatment once your survey is in the analysis stage.

3. Pre-test your questionnaire

Always pre-test a questionnaire before sending it out to respondents. This will help catch any errors you might have missed. You could ask a colleague, friend, or an expert to take the survey and give feedback. If possible, ask a few cognitive questions like, “how did you get to that response?” and “what were you thinking about when you answered that question?” Figure out what was easy for the responder and where there is potential for confusion. You can then re-word where necessary to make the experience as frictionless as possible.

If your resources allow, you could also consider using a focus group to test out your survey. Having multiple respondents road-test the questionnaire will give you a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. Match the focus group to your target respondents as closely as possible, for example in terms of age, background, gender, and level of education.

Note: Don't forget to make your survey as accessible as possible for increased response rates.

Questionnaire examples and templates

There are free questionnaire templates and example questions available for all kinds of surveys and market research, many of them online. But they’re not all created equal and you should use critical judgement when selecting one. After all, the questionnaire examples may be free but the time and energy you’ll spend carrying out a survey are not.

If you’re using online questionnaire templates as the basis for your own, make sure it has been developed by professionals and is specific to the type of research you’re doing to ensure higher completion rates. As we’ve explored here, using the wrong kinds of questions can result in skewed or messy data, and could even prompt respondents to abandon the questionnaire without finishing or give thoughtless answers.

You’ll find a full library of downloadable survey templates in the Qualtrics Marketplace , covering many different types of research from employee engagement to post-event feedback . All are fully customizable and have been developed by Qualtrics experts.

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Survey questions can be divided into two broad types: structured and unstructured . From an instrument design point of view, the structured questions pose the greater difficulties (see Decisions About the Response Format ). From a content perspective, it may actually be more difficult to write good unstructured questions. Here, I’ll discuss the variety of structured questions you can consider for your survey (we’ll discuss unstructured questioning more under Interviews ).

Dichotomous Questions

When a question has two possible responses, we consider it dichotomous . Surveys often use dichotomous questions that ask for a Yes/No, True/False or Agree/Disagree response. There are a variety of ways to lay these questions out on a questionnaire:

Questions Based on Level Of Measurement

We can also classify questions in terms of their level of measurement . For instance, we might measure occupation using a nominal question. Here, the number next to each response has no meaning except as a placeholder for that response. The choice of a “2” for a lawyer and a “1” for a truck driver is arbitrary – from the numbering system used we can’t infer that a lawyer is “twice” something that a truck driver is.

We might ask respondents to rank order their preferences for presidential candidates using an ordinal question:

We want the respondent to put a 1, 2, 3 or 4 next to the candidate, where 1 is the respondent’s first choice. Note that this could get confusing. We might want to state the prompt more explicitly so the respondent knows we want a number from one to 4 (the respondent might check their favorite candidate, or assign higher numbers to candidates they prefer more instead of understanding that we want rank ordering).

We can also construct survey questions that attempt to measure on an interval level. One of the most common of these types is the traditional 1-to-5 rating (or 1-to-7, or 1-to-9, etc.). This is sometimes referred to as a Likert response scale (see Likert Scaling) . Here, we see how we might ask an opinion question on a 1-to-5 bipolar scale (it’s called bipolar because there is a neutral point and the two ends of the scale are at opposite positions of the opinion):

Another interval question uses an approach called the semantic differential . Here, an object is assessed by the respondent on a set of bipolar adjective pairs (using 5-point rating scale):

Finally, we can also get at interval measures by using what is called a cumulative or Guttman scale (see Guttman Scaling ). Here, the respondent checks each item with which they agree. The items themselves are constructed so that they are cumulative – if you agree to one, you probably agree to all of the ones above it in the list:

Filter or Contingency Questions

Sometimes you have to ask the respondent one question in order to determine if they are qualified or experienced enough to answer a subsequent one. This requires using a filter or contingency question . For instance, you may want to ask one question if the respondent has ever smoked marijuana and a different question if they have not. in this case, you would have to construct a filter question to determine whether they’ve ever smoked marijuana:

Filter questions can get very complex. Sometimes, you have to have multiple filter questions in order to direct your respondents to the correct subsequent questions. There are a few conventions you should keep in mind when using filters:

• Try to avoid having more than three levels (two jumps) for any question. Too many jumps will confuse the respondent and may discourage them from continuing with the survey.
• If only two levels, use graphic to jump (e.g. arrow and box). The example above shows how you can make effective use of an arrow and box to help direct the respondent to the correct subsequent question.
• If possible, jump to a new page. If you can’t fit the response to a filter on a single page, it’s probably best to be able to say something like “If YES, please turn to page 4” rather that “If YES, please go to Question 38” because the respondent will generally have an easier time finding a page than a specific question.

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Opinion Stage » survey » Survey Questions

16 Types of Survey Questions, with 100 Examples

Good survey questions will help your business acquire the right information to drive growth. Surveys can be made up of different types of questions. Each type has a unique approach to gathering data. The questions you choose and the way you use them in your survey will affect its results.

These are the types of survey questions we will cover:

• Open-Ended Questions
• Closed-Ended Questions
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Dichotomous Questions
• Rating Scale Questions
• Likert Scale Questions
• Nominal Questions
• Demographic Questions
• Matrix Table Questions
• Side-by-Side Matrix Questions
• Data Reference Questions
• Choice Model Questions
• Net Promoter Score Questions
• Picture Choice Questions
• Image Rating Questions
• Visual Analog Scale Questions

But before we go into the actual question types, let’s talk a little about how you should use them.

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How to Use Survey Questions in Market Research

First, you need to make sure it’s a survey you’re after. In some cases, you may find that it’s actually a questionnaire that you need (read more here to learn the difference:  Survey Vs. Questionnaire ), or a research quiz. In any case, though, you will need to use the right type of questions.

To determine the right type of questions for your survey, consider these factors:

• The kind of data you want to gather
• The depth of the information you require
• How long it takes to answer the survey

Regardless of the size of your business, you can use surveys to learn about potential customers, research your product market fit, collect customer feedback or employee feedback, get new registrations, and improve retention.

Surveys can help you gather valuable insights into critical aspects of your business. From brand awareness to customer satisfaction, effective surveys give you the data you need to stay ahead of the competition.

So, how should you use surveys for your market research?

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Identify Customer Needs and Expectations

Perhaps the idea of using customer surveys in this advanced era of data analytics seems quaint. But one of the best ways to find out what consumers need and expect is to go directly to the source and ask. That’s why surveys still matter. All companies and online businesses can benefit from using market research surveys to determine the needs of their clients.

Determine Brand Attributes

A market research survey can also help your company identify the attributes that consumers associate with your brand. These could be tangible or intangible features that they think of when they see your brand. By determining your brand attributes, you can identify other brands in the same niche. Additionally, you can gain a clear understanding of what your audience values.

Understand Your Market’s Supply and Demand Chain

Surveying existing and potential customers enables you to understand the language of supply and demand. You can understand the measure of customer satisfaction and identify opportunities for the market to absorb new products. At the same time, you can use the data you collect to build customer-centric products or services. By understanding your target market, you can minimize the risks involved in important business ventures and develop an amazing customer experience.

Acquire Customer Demographic Information

Before any campaign or product launch, every company needs to determine its key demographic. Online surveys make it so much easier for marketers to get to know their audience and build effective user personas. With a market research survey, you can ask demographic survey questions to collect details such as family income, education, professional background, and ethnicity. It’s important to be careful and considerate in this area since questions that seem matter-of-fact to you may be experienced as loaded questions or sensitive questions by your audience.

Strategize for New Product Launches

Businesses of all sizes can use customer surveys to fine-tune products and improve services. Let’s say there’s a product you want to launch. But you’re hesitant to do so without ensuring that it will be well-received by your target audience. Why not send out a survey? With the data you gather from the survey responses, you can identify issues that may have been overlooked in the development process and make the necessary changes to improve your product’s success.

Develop a Strategic Marketing Plan

Surveys can be used in the initial phases of a campaign to help shape your marketing plan. Thanks to in-depth analytics, a quick and easy survey that respondents can finish within minutes can give you a clear idea of what potential consumers need and expect.

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Types of Survey Questions

No matter the purpose of your survey, the questions you ask will be crucial to its success. For this reason, it’s best to set the goal of your survey and define the information you want to gather before writing the questions.

Ask yourself: What do I want to know? Why do I want to know this? Can direct questions help me get the information I need? How am I going to use the data I gather?

Once you have a clear goal in mind, you can choose the best questions to elicit the right kind of information. We’ve made a list of the most common types of survey questions to help you get started.

1. Open-Ended Questions

If you prefer to gather qualitative insights from your respondents, the best way to do so is through an open-ended question. That’s because this survey question type gives respondents more opportunity to say what’s on their minds. After all, an open question doesn’t come with pre-set answer choices that respondents can select. Instead, it uses a text box where respondents can leave more detailed responses.

Ideally, you should ask such questions when you’re doing expert interviews or preliminary research. You may also opt to end surveys with this type of question. This is to give respondents a chance to share additional concerns with you. By letting respondents give answers in their own words, even to a single question, you can identify opportunities you might have overlooked. At the same time, it shows that you appreciate their effort to answer all your questions.

Since quantifying written answers isn’t easy to do, opt to use these questions sparingly, especially if you’re dealing with a large population.

Examples of open-ended questions:

• What can you tell us about yourself? (Your age, gender, hobbies, interests, and anything else you’re willing to share)
• How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with our service?
• What has kept you from signing up for our newsletter?

2. Closed-Ended Questions

Consumers want surveys they can answer in a jiffy. Closed-ended questions are ideal for market research for that reason. They come with a limited number of options, often one-word responses such as yes or no, multiple-choice, or a rating scale. Compared to open-ended questions, these drive limited insights because respondents only have to choose from pre-selected choices.

Ask closed-ended questions if you need to gather quantifiable data or to categorize your respondents. Furthermore, you can use such questions to drive higher response rates. Let’s say your audience isn’t particularly interested in the topic you intend to ask them about. You can use closed-ended questions to make it easier for them to complete the survey in minutes.

Close-ended question examples:

• Which of the following are you most likely to read? (a) a series of blog posts (b) a novel (c) the daily news (d) I don’t read on a regular basis
• How would you rate our service on a 5-point scale, with 1 representing bad service, and 5 representing great service?
• How likely are you to recommend us on a scale of 0 to 10?

3. Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions are a basic type of closed-ended survey question that give respondents multiple answers to choose from. These questions can be broken down into two main categories:

• Single-answer questions – respondents are directed to choose one, and only one answer from a list of answer options.
• Multiple answer questions – where respondents can select a number of answers in a single question.

When designed correctly they can be very effective survey questions since they’re relatively simple questions to answer, and the data is easy to analyze.

Multiple-choice sample questions:

• It’s exceptional
• Could be better
• It’s terrible
• Whole-grain rice
• Gluten-free noodles
• Suger-free soft drinks
• Lactose-free ice cream

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4. Dichotomous Questions

Dichotomous questions are a type of close-ended questions with only two answer options that represent the opposite of each other. In other words, yes/no questions, or true/false questions. They’re often used as screening questions to identify potential customers since they’re so quick and easy to answer and require no extra effort.

They’re also good for splitting your audience into two groups, enabling you to direct each group to a different series of questions. This can be done quite easily using skip logic which sends people on different survey paths based on their answers to previous questions.

Examples of questions:

Do you have experience working with Google Analytics? Yes/no Google Analytics is used for tracking user behavior. True/false Google Analytics has a steep learning curve for the average user. Agree/disagree

5. Rating Scale Questions

Also called ordinal questions, these questions help researchers measure customer sentiment in a quantitative way. This type of question comes with a range of response options. It could be from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10.

In a survey, a respondent selects the number that accurately represents their response. Of course, you have to establish the value of the numbers on your scale for it to be effective.

Rating scales can be very effective survey questions, however, the lack of proper survey scaling could lead to bad survey questions that respondents Don’t know how to answer. And even if they think you do, the results won’t be reliable because every respondent could interpret the scale differently. So, it’s important to be clear.

If you want to know how respondents experienced your customer service, you can establish a scale from 1 to 10 to measure customer sentiment. Then, assign the value of 1 and 10. The lowest number on the scale could, for instance, mean “very disappointed” while the highest value could represent “very satisfied”.

Examples of rating scale questions:

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your last customer support interaction with us? (0=terrible, 10=amazing)
• How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague on a scale of 1 to 5? 1=very unlikely, 5=very likely
• How would you rate your shopping experience at our online business on a scale of 1 to 7? 1=bad, 4=ok, 7=amazing

6. Likert Scale Questions

These questions can either be unipolar or bipolar. Unipolar scales center on the presence or absence of quality. Moreover, they don’t have a natural midpoint. For example, a unipolar satisfaction scale may have the following options: extremely satisfied, very satisfied, moderately satisfied, slightly satisfied, and not satisfied.

Bipolar scales, on the other hand, are based on either side of neutrality. That means they have a midpoint. A common bipolar scale, for instance, may have the following options: extremely unsatisfied, very unsatisfied, somewhat unsatisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, somewhat satisfied, very satisfied, or extremely satisfied.

Likert scale questions can be used for a wide variety of objectives. They are great for collecting initial feedback. They can also help you gauge customer sentiment, among other things.

Likert scale sample questions:

• How important is it that you can access customer support 24/7? (Choices: Very Important, Important, Neutral, Low Importance, and Not Important At All)
• How satisfied are you after using our products? (Choices: Very Satisfied, Moderately Satisfied, Neutral, Slightly Unsatisfied, and Very Unsatisfied)
• How would you rate our customer care representative’s knowledge of our products? (Choices: Not at All Satisfactory, Low Satisfactory, Somewhat Satisfactory, Satisfactory, and Very Satisfactory)

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7. Nominal Questions

Also a type of measurement scale, nominal questions come with tags or labels for identifying or classifying items. For these questions, you can use non-numeric variables. You can also assign numbers to each response option, but they won’t actually have value.

On a nominal scale, you assign each number to a unique label. Especially if the goal is identification, you have to stick to a one-to-one correlation between the numeric value and the label. Much like cars on a race track, numbers are assigned to identify the driver associated with the car. It doesn’t represent the characteristics of the vehicle.

However, when a nominal scale is used for classification, the numerical values assigned to each descriptor serve as a tag. This is for categorizing or arranging the objects in a class. For example, you want to know your respondents’ gender. You can assign the letter M for males and F for females in the survey question.

Examples of nominal questions:

• What is your hair color? (Choices: 1 – Black, 2 – Blonde, 3 – Brown, 4 – Red, 5 – Other)
• How old are you? (Choices: 1 – Under 25, 2 – 25-35, 3 – Over 35)
• How do you commute to work? (Choices: 1- Car, 2 – Bus, 3 – Train, 4 – Walk, 5 – Other)

8. Demographic Questions

As its name suggests, this question type is used for gathering information about a consumer. From their background to income level, these simple questions can provide you with deeper insights into your target market. They’re also used as screening questions since they can help you to identify the population segments you’re targeting.

Demographic questions  help you understand your target market. By collecting customer data, you can identify similarities and differences between different demographics. Then, you can make buyer personas and classify them based on who they are or what they do.

Some demographic topics can lead to quite loaded survey questions. When writing your demographic survey, try to identify the loaded questions and ask yourself if someone could find the question, the answer choices, or the lack of a certain answer choice offensive. Do your best to phrase them sensitively and respectfully, and if you can’t consider leaving them out.

With every single question that you write, it’s important to place yourself in the shoes of your respondents. If you want to ask students about their income, your response options should range below $20,000 per year, because most of them are probably not making more than that. But if your respondents are affluent, your choices should have a range higher than $100,000.

Examples of demographic questions:

• How old are you?
• What is your level of education?
• What is your marital status?
• What’s your current employment status?

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9. Matrix Table Questions

If you need to ask a series of questions that require the same response options, you can group them together in a matrix table instead of breaking them into separate questions.

While these bundled questions are convenient, you have to use them carefully. Visually, large matrix tables can seem overwhelming. In addition, online survey questions of this sort aren’t always mobile-friendly. Having too many questions or choices may even trigger undesirable survey-taking behavior such as straight-lining. This is when respondents select the same options without carefully considering each one. Sometimes, they do that because the actual experience feels like a complicated matrix and they just want to finish it.

Example of a matrix table:

How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the following?

Interaction with sales staff

Product selection

Marketing messages

Pricing structure

Then, you can make a brief list of response options. There should be no more than five options.

10. Side-by-Side Matrix Questions

A side-by-side matrix is similar to your regular matrix table in that it allows you to group together questions that require simple response options. However, a matrix table only lets you collect data from a single variable. A side-by-side matrix, on the other hand, enables you to gather data on two or more dimensions.

For example, let’s say you want to ask respondents about the importance of different services and their satisfaction with each. You can group them together in a side-by-side matrix. By organizing questions in tables, your respondents can easily fill out the survey in minutes.

Much like a regular matrix table, you shouldn’t overwhelm consumers. Avoid adding too many variables to your table. Moreover, you should keep the response options short.

Examples of side-by-side matrix questions:

Example of side-by-side matrix:

How would you rate our shopping services?

Identify the variables. They can be customer support, packaging, and punctuality. Next, you should add different dimensions such as importance and satisfaction level. On each table, you should add a similar scale. You can start with 1, which could mean Not Important and Not Satisfied.

11. Data Reference Questions

Use data reference questions to gather validated data against standardized databases. For example, direct respondents to enter their postal code or zip code in a small text box. The value entered will then be cross-referenced with the database. If it is correct, their city or state will be displayed, and they can proceed with the survey. And if it is incorrect, they’ll be asked to enter a valid postal code or zip code.

Examples of data reference questions:

• What is your five-digit zip code?
• What is your postal code?

12. Choice Model Questions

Choice model questions enable you to understand the essential aspects of consumers’ decision-making process. This involves a quantitative method called Conjoint Analysis. It helps you grasp your users’ preferences, the features they like, and the right price range your target market can afford. More importantly, it enables you to understand if your new products will be accepted by your target market.

These questions also involve Maximum Difference Scaling, a method that allows the ranking of up to 30 elements. This can include product features, benefits, opportunities for potential investment, and possible marketing messages for an upcoming product.

Example of a choice model question:

• If you were to buy a sandwich, which ingredient combination would you choose?

Let’s say you want to know about consumers’ bread, filling, and sauce preferences. In your survey, you can give them three sandwich options. You can, for instance, offer three kinds of bread: grain wheat, parmesan oregano, and Italian. As for the sauces, you can make them choose between ranch, blue cheese, and mustard. Finally, you need to suggest three types of filling, for example, chicken, veggies, and meatballs.

Respondents will see unique combinations of these ingredients in your survey. Then, they will have to choose the one that they like best.

13. Net Promoter Score Questions

A net promoter score (NPS) survey question measures brand shareability, as well as customer satisfaction levels. It helps you get reliable customer insights and gauge the likelihood of respondents recommending your company to friends or colleagues (i.e. prospective customers). The scoring model involves a scale of 0 to 10, which is divided into three sections. Respondents who give a 9 to 10 score are considered Promoters. Passives give a 7 to 8 score, while the rest are considered Detractors.

Once you’ve gathered all the data, the responses per section are calculated. Then, the net value of promoters is shown. This type of survey question offers a useful form of initial feedback. It helps you understand why promoters are leaving high ratings so you can work on enhancing those strengths. At the same time, it enables you to determine weaknesses. It illustrates why detractors are leaving such low ratings.

Examples of net promoter score questions:

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend or colleague? (0 = Not at all Likely and 10 = Very Likely)
• Would you encourage friends to work at our company?
• How likely are you to recommend (specific name of the product) to friends?

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14. Picture Choice Questions

It’s no secret that people respond to visual content more than plain text. This applies to surveys as well – visual content can boost user experience.

Think of these as alternate questions to multiple-choice questions. Users can pick one or many from a visual list of options. You can use picture choice questions to make your survey more engaging.

Keep in mind, that it’s very easy to unintentionally create a leading question by using images that get a specific reaction from people. For example, if you’re asking about food preferences and one of the images is more attractive than others, people may see it as the perfect answer even if it doesn’t represent their favorite dish because it looks most attractive. So when you’re illustrating a variety of answers with images make sure their quality and attractiveness is similar.

Picture choice examples:

• What is your favorite pizza topping?
• Which color should we choose for our logo?
• What other products would you like to see in our online store?

Opinion Stage has an online  survey maker  tool that can help you design image-based survey questions in minutes. Choose from hundreds of professionally-designed templates, and tailor them to fit your needs, or design them from scratch.

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15. Image Rating Questions

Another way to incorporate images in questions is through image ratings. Let’s say you want to know how satisfied consumers are with your products. You can display all of the items you want respondents to rate. Under each item, provide a shortlist of options (e.g. very unsatisfied, unsatisfied, neutral, satisfied, very unsatisfied).

You could also use a rank order question to let your respondents rank their favorite products. Simply give them multiple options, and then, ask them for their top three or five favorites. Or you could ask them to organize a series of answers by ranking.

For example, if it’s an employee engagement survey question you could ask your employees to rank a series of office activities from their least favorite to their most favorite. There are many ways to do this visually. Some tools use dropdown menus, and others let you move the answer options around, but the simplest way is to use numbers like in the example below.

Rank order questions should work well on mobile devices. After all, respondents only have to tap on their favorite items to participate.

Example of image rating questions:

• What are your 5 favorite desserts?

16. Visual Analog Scale Questions

Another type of scale you can use in a survey is the visual analog scale, which displays your questions in a more engaging manner. For instance, you can use text sliders or numeric sliders to ask respondents to rate the service they’ve received from your company and let them select an image line that best illustrates their answer.

You can also use pictures to depict each option. Smiley ratings are commonly used in surveys nowadays because they’re simple questions, easy on the eyes, and quite fun. Star ratings are also effective survey questions that require no extra effort.

Examples of visual analog scale questions:

• How would you rate the overall quality of our customer service?
• What do you think of our website’s interface?
• How satisfied are you with the way our service works in offline mode?

Create engaging image-based surveys in minutes

The Fundamentals of Good Survey Questions

There is an art to writing effective questions for your survey. Regardless of the kind of survey you plan to deploy, there are a few practices that you should adhere to.

Use Clear and Simple Language

Always choose clear and simple words when writing your online survey questions. In doing so, you can keep the questions short yet specific.

Complex phrasing, too many words, acronyms, and specialized jargon require extra effort and could cause confusion. Make it easy for your respondents to help you. Keep it simple.

Moreover, avoid  double-barreled questions , they will frustrate your respondents and skew your customer insights.  Here’s an example of a double-barreled question: “Did you find our new search feature helpful and easy to use? yes/no” Such a question might be simple to understand, but it isn’t easy to answer because it covers two issues. How could someone respond if they found the search feature helpful but difficult to understand? It would make more sense to separate it into two questions, i.e. did you find the new search feature helpful? Was the new search feature easy for you to use?

Focus on the Consumer

Make the survey engaging. Use the second-person (i.e., ‘you’ format) to address your respondents directly, and use the first-person (i.e., ‘we’ format) to refer to your company. This makes the survey more personal and helps respondents recall prior experiences with your company. In turn, it leads to quicker and more accurate answers.

Ask for Feedback

Get initial feedback from external people that fit the profile of your average user before sending your survey out. It’s like a user testing tool, you need someone who isn’t you to take a look and tell you if your survey is clear and friendly.

Require Minimal Effort to Answer

There’s no reason to ask people questions that aren’t essential to you. Ask people questions that really matter to you, and try to keep it down to the minimum number, so as not to waste their time. The more succinct a survey is, the more likely a respondent is to complete it. So, let them know that you value their time by designing a survey they can finish within minutes.

Stay Free From Bias

Survey question mistake #1 is to ask leading or biased questions. Don’t plant opinions in your respondents’ heads before they can formulate their own. Don’t ask people questions like “How good was your in-store experience today?” Phrase it in a neutral way like “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your in-store experience?”

Keep the Purpose of the Survey Vague

Sometimes, respondents have a tendency to give you the answers you want to hear. One of the simplest ways to prevent that is by keeping the purpose of your survey vague. Instead, you should give a general description of your survey.

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Sample Survey Questions

Below are sample questions for different market research needs. You can use many of them as close-ended questions as well as open questions, depending on your need and preference.

Brand Awareness Questions

• When was the last time you used (a type of product)?
• What brands come to mind as your top choice when you think of buying this product type?
• What factors do you consider when selecting a vendor? (rank by importance)
• Which of the following brands have you heard of? (please select all that apply)
• Where have you seen or heard of our brand in the last three months? (please select all that apply)
• How often have you heard people talking about our brand in the past three months?
• How familiar are you with our company?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend?

Customer Demographic Questions

• What gender do you identify as?
• Where were you born?
• Are you married?
• What is your annual household income?
• Do you support children under the age of 18?
• How many children under the age of 18 reside in your household?
• What category best describes your employment status?
• Which general geographic area of the state do you reside in?
• What is your current employment status?
• Which of the following languages can you speak fluently?

Brand & Marketing Feedback Questions

• Have you purchased from our company before?
• How long have you been a customer?
• Which best describes your latest experience with our brand? (please select all that apply)
• Which of the following attributes do you associate with our brand? (please select all that apply)
• What kind of feelings do you associate with our brand?
• Which of these marketing messages represents us best in your opinion?
• How would you rate your level of emotional attachment to our brand?
• What five words would you use to describe our brand to a friend or colleague?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend or colleague? (1 being Not at All Likely at 10 being Extremely Likely)

Product & Package Testing Questions

• What is your first impression of the product?
• How important are the following features to you?
• How would you rate the product’s quality?
• If the product was already available, how likely are you to purchase it?
• How likely are you to replace an old product with this one?
• How likely would you recommend this product to a friend or colleague?
• What did you like best about this product?
• What are the features that you want to see improved?
• Based on the value for money, how would you rate this product compared to the competition?
• What is your first impression of the product packaging?
• How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the following features? (Visual appeal, Quality, and Price)
• How similar or different is the packaging from the competition?
• Does the packaging have too little or too much information?
• How likely are you to purchase the product based on its packaging?
• What did you like best about the packaging?
• What did you dislike about the packaging?
• How would you like the packaging to be improved?

Pricing Strategy Testing Questions

• How often do you purchase this type of product?
• What brands do you usually purchase? (Please select all that apply).
• On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with the pricing of this type of product? (1 being Not at All Satisfied at 5 being Extremely Satisfied)
• What is the ideal price for this type of product?
• What price range would make you consider that the product is too expensive?
• At what price is the product too cheap that its quality is questionable?
• How much does the price for our product compare to other products on the market?
• If the product was available, how likely would you be to purchase it?

Customer Satisfaction Questions

• How would you rate the following products/services at (name of company)?
• Which of the following attributes would you use to describe our product/service? Please select all that apply.
• Would you recommend our company to a friend or colleague? (1 being Very Unlikely and 10 being Very Likely)
• How responsive has our support team been to your questions and concerns?
• How likely are you to purchase from our company again?
• What other comments, concerns, or questions do you have for us?

Brand Performance Questions

• When was the last time you used this type of product?
• When you think of our brand, what words come to mind?
• Which of the following are important to your decision-making process?
• How well do our products perform based on the following categories? (Price, Quality, Design, etc.)
• How well does our product meet your needs?
• What was missing or disappointing about your experience with our brand?
• What did you like most about your experience with our brand?
• How can we improve your experience?

Customer Behavior Questions

• In the household, are you the primary decision maker when it comes to purchasing this type of product?
• When was the last time you purchased this product type?
• How do you find out about brands offering this product type? Please select all that apply.
• When you think of this product type, which of the following are the top three brands that come to mind?
• How much of your purchasing decisions are influenced by social media?

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How to Improve Survey Response Rates

Every market research survey needs to be designed carefully in order to drive higher response rates. As a result, you can acquire the right data to inform the decision-making process.

Here are a few survey ideas to boost response rates:

Make It Personal

Write a survey as if it’s a conversation between you and your respondents. For example, use first-person pronouns to make your surveys feel more personal and customer-centric. In addition, stick with simple and specific language to better connect with respondents. Simply put, write your questions as you’d use them in a conversation with consumers.

Make It Engaging

Gathering data from consumers is essential to any business, but market research surveys don’t have to be dull. You can engage and connect with respondents on a human level through an interactive survey. As a result, you can obtain thorough responses and maximize the number of respondents that complete the entire survey.

Don’t Waste Their Time

No one wants to answer a survey with 50 questions because it takes too long to complete. Hence, you should narrow down your list to the most important ones. Only ask questions that will lead to actionable insights. As for the rest, you can get rid of them.

Offer Incentives

There are two types of incentives you can offer: monetary or non-monetary. Either way, you need to make sure that the incentive provides value to your target audience. In addition, you must choose between promised or prepaid incentives. In other words, you have to decide if you want to offer everyone or a small group of people some incentives.

Providing respondents with incentives to finish the survey can increase response rates—but not always. Customer satisfaction surveys, for example, won’t always need incentives because it might affect the quality of the results.

Make It Responsive

Perhaps the easiest way to gain respondents is to make your surveys responsive and mobile-optimized. In doing so, it will perform well and look amazing on all devices. It should also enable you to reach consumers during their daily commute or lunch break. Thus, make sure your survey is optimized for different kinds of devices, especially for mobile.

Offer Surveys in Multiple Channels

If a survey is optimized for all device types, it should be easily accessed on social media. So, take advantage of your platforms and share your survey on different social media channels to increase participation rates.

Designing surveys doesn’t have to be challenging. On the contrary, you can easily create interactive surveys with Opinion Stage. Create a survey from scratch, or choose one of our many professionally-made templates to complete it within minutes. Through Opinion Stage, you can drive higher response rates and evaluate results from a powerful analytics dashboard.

It’s important to be familiar with the different types of survey questions and when to use them. Getting to know each survey question type will help you improve your research. Not to mention, you can gain high-quality data when you design a survey with the right types of questions .

In addition, you should leverage the right tool to create engaging surveys in minutes. With an online survey maker like Opinion Stage, you can customize your surveys to fit your brand image. Or, you can choose from professionally-made templates. Either way, it can help boost response rates.

Last but not least, check your survey design before deploying it. Make sure to see what your survey will look like to your respondents. See opportunities for improvement, then apply the necessary changes.

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• → Types of questions: Survey question t...

Types of questions: Survey question types, examples, and tips

Learn about different types of questions to improve your survey completion. Get started today and craft better survey questions designed to keep people engaged.

Latest posts on Tips

Typeform    |    08.2024

Typeform    |    07.2024

Need some help writing survey questions ? We've got you. Dive into our types of question examples and write kick-ass survey questions.

Types of survey questions

This is what you came for—the good stuff.

Here are the types of survey questions you should be using to get more survey responses:

Open-ended questions

Closed-ended questions, rating questions, likert scale questions, multiple-choice questions, picture choice questions, demographic questions.

Open up a conversation with this question type. These are good types of questions to get more meaningful answers from, as people have the opportunity to give you more feedback through a text box. If you’re looking for a yes/no answer—you’ll need to use a closed-end question.

Open-ended question examples:

What are you wearing today?

How did you meet your best friend?

What is it like to live in Barcelona?

Some questions just need a one-word answer. Like yes. Or no. You can use them to get some quick ‌bits of information, then go on to segment your survey accordingly.

Closed-ended questions examples:

Did you order the chicken?

Do you like learning German?

Are you living in Australia?

Reach for the stars. Or the hearts. Or smiles. Send a rating question and find out how your survey-takers would rate something. It’s a super useful question to ask, as you can gauge peoples’ opinions across the board.

Rating questions examples:

How would you rate our service out of 5?

How many stars would you give our film?

Please rate how valuable our training was today.

Likert scale questions are good survey questions for finding out what people think about certain things. Generally, they come in 5-, 7-, or 9-point scales, and you’ve probably filled one out before.

Likert scale questions examples:

Do you agree that Channel 5 offers more comedy than Channel 6?

How satisfied are you today with our customer service?

Do you feel affected by the recent changes in the office?

Sending out a test or quiz ? Multiple-choice questions are your friend. You can give a few answers and hide the real answer. Also, if you want to find out time periods or dates for an event, multiple-choice questions are the one. Plus, you can bundle them up nicely and neatly in a dropdown menu.

Multiple choice questions examples:

Facebook was launched in… 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006

How many of our restaurants have you visited? 1 | 2 | 3 | 4+

What is the capital of Scotland? Perth | Glasgow | Aberdeen | Edinburgh

A picture paints a thousand words. But in a survey? It does so much more. Ask a picture choice question and make your survey even more interactive. Tell a story, and show rather than tell.

Picture choice questions example:

Demographic survey questions are a mix of different forms of questions. It’s up to you whether you want to use a dropdown here or an open-ended question with them.

Demographic question examples:

How old are you?

What’s your gender?

Which industry do you work in?

Ask the right survey questions to get better results

We live in the information age, a time when data is a source of capital. Surveys have become one of the time-tested ways of gathering data. But even with 200+ years of published research and experience, people still fail to obtain helpful information from their surveys. Lucky for you, it doesn’t take much time to learn how to carry out a successful survey.

If you're still stuck wondering what type of data you should be looking to collect, take a look at our guide to qualitative vs. quantitative research methods.

Best practices for different question types

Your objective is to get as many responses as you can so you can make the best decisions. But to do this, you need to follow a few basic “rules.” 

Here’s an overview of the best practices for writing survey questions:

Keep your language simple and specific: Unless you’re asking Ph.D. students about their opinions on string theory, there’s no need to include scientific or confusing language. Type like you’d talk.

Avoid leading questions: “How was our amazing customer service team today?” Emm, not actually that great… Don’t plant opinions in peoples’ heads before they answer.

Ask one question at a time: Avoid putting two questions into one—“How was the food and ambiance?” Separate questions to get better answers.

Don’t make the survey excessively long: If your survey is over 20 questions long, pause to think. Some surveys are just, well, long. But if you can condense it, your audience will thank you.

Show how much longer there is: That said, if it’s long, let people know how long. Tell people when they’re halfway through your survey.

Make your surveys mobile-friendly: We’re always on the move. So make sure your survey can be completed from the subway as well as from the office.

For big ideas, split them into multiple questions: If you’re asking for lots of opinions on one subject, try to split a huge question into several different questions, each covering a different angle. And consider using rating scale questions to see how people feel about different ideas.

Use open-ended questions sparingly: An open-ended survey question is a brilliant response option for getting honest and actionable feedback. But people get bored of typing in long answers, so vary your answer options and don’t stuff in too many open-ended questions.

How to write great survey questions

Regardless of whether you’re creating a survey or a questionnaire , there is an art to designing effective types of questions. There are also several principles of survey design that'll help you get the information you need from your customers.

Define the objective

Remember that the aim of conducting a survey isn’t just to get answers. We're interested in what the answers will tell us about something else, which is why it’s crucial to define a clear purpose for every question you ask in a survey.

Before you start writing survey questions, create a list of objectives that outline the kind of information you’re trying to glean with each question. A plan for how you'll use the data gathered from each response will help you ensure that the questions are targeted, relevant, and purposeful.

Example objective: Assess employee attitudes toward standing desks

Possible questions:

In the past 12 months, have you used a standing desk?

 If yes: The standing desk improved my overall productivity (Agree—Neutral—Disagree) 

If no: I like the idea of testing a standing desk at work (Agree—Neutral—Disagree) 

Research has shown that standing desks result in fewer sick days and more productivity in the workplace. I believe the company should invest in standing desks for employees (Agree—Neutral—Disagree)

Understand that there are only two types of questions

While several articles expound various types of surveys, such as multiple-choice, Likert scales, open-ended, and so on, these  actually refer to the types of responses. On the other hand, there are two survey question types: factual or objective questions and attitude or subjective questions.

Factual questions are aimed at gathering data to categorize and quantify people or events. Hypothetically, people’s responses to factual survey questions can be independently verified and have right and wrong answers. Examples of what objective survey questions cover are things like how often someone exercises, where they were born, and what their purchase habits are.

Attitude questions, on the other hand, measure perceptions, feelings, and judgments. These are things that can't be observed or objectively assessed because they are based on what individuals think or experience. 

Some examples of what subjective survey questions might cover include favorite brands, overall experience at a restaurant, or reasons for not voting for a certain candidate. With subjective survey questions, standardization is critical to ensure that people are interpreting and understanding the questions in the same way.

The objective of your overall survey will influence the type of questions you choose for your survey. The question type also has an impact on the response format (e.g., agree—disagree versus single-answer multiple-choice).

These two types of survey questions produce different kinds of data. Understanding the differences and how to treat each one will ensure you are producing meaningful information.

Ask questions people can answer

This seems obvious, yet there are surveys filled with questions that participants are unequipped to respond to. 

There are three difficulties people have when answering survey questions:

They don’t have the information. Most people can't answer with any accuracy how many times they get up from their desk in a day, but they can give a vague indication (rarely, sometimes, often, never).

They had the information but forgot it. Some people might know their exact income from two years ago, but most won’t. Avoid asking questions that rely on long-term memory or calculations.

They have difficulty placing events in time. Participants may remember the last time they went to the movie theater, but they won’t remember whether it was six months ago or eight. If you must include questions that rely on long-term memory, use memory aids and association—for example, have them play out a scenario in their minds.

Imagine your objective is to learn whether water conservation warnings were effective.

Poor survey question: How much water did you use in your home last month?

Better question: In the last 30 days, how much water would you say your household used? (More than usual, less than usual, about the same as usual)

Reduce the possibility people will try to serve their own interests

Even in online surveys, people exhibit what social scientists call social desirability bias. This is the tendency for people to answer questions in socially acceptable ways. In some cases, it means overreporting good behaviors (“I get up from my desk every hour”) or underreporting perceived negative behaviors (“I drink alcohol once per week”).

Being aware of sensitive and taboo topics in the population you’re studying can help you anticipate these areas. To generate accurate responses, incorporate these strategies into the survey:

Include an introductory statement: By explaining why you’re asking, you set up the question and help them understand the motivation behind it.

Emphasize the anonymity of the survey: People who are confident their responses won’t be identified are more likely to respond honestly.

Put sensitive and demographic questions at the end: Starting a survey with types of questions like age and income can put people off. Your first survey question should be interesting, light, and easy to answer. Once they’ve started, they’re more likely to finish—and answer more sensitive questions.

Stress the importance of accuracy: Discourage dishonest answers by outlining the end goal of the survey. People who believe their answers will help are more likely to be truthful.

Survey questions should be unambiguous

Failing to write clear and specific questions can hinder your respondents’ ability to answer. The standard is that people should have a consistent understanding of what is being asked of them. If someone could interpret a question differently than you intended, the question could be improved. Avoid ambiguities. Don’t take for granted that people know what you mean in a survey question.

Poor survey question: In the past month, how many times have you visited a doctor?

There are two ambiguities in this question. First is the time frame: Does “in the past month” refer to the last 30 days or the most recent calendar month? The second is “doctor.” There's a lot of room for interpretation—do nutritionists, spiritual healers, or psychologists count as doctors?

Better survey question: We'd like to understand how often you have visited a licensed medical professional, including dentists, psychologists, chiropractors, and nutritionists. In the past 30 days, how many times have you visited a medical professional?

If you need to define a term, be sure to put it first. Most people stop paying attention after the question has been asked.

Vague survey question: How would you rate your health?

The understanding of “health” isn’t consistent. Some people consider good health the absence of health conditions. Other people may be thinking about the extent to which they lead a healthy lifestyle.

Better survey question: Do you think you eat enough vegetables? (I eat plenty, I eat just enough, I could eat more, I don’t eat vegetables at all)

This question gets people to respond more directly to your interpretation of “health”: a healthy lifestyle. It may require asking more questions, but it'll give you better data to work with.

Types of questions to avoid

Here are a few question types that should be avoided for the best survey data:

Loaded questions

Do you think there are more postgraduates (Master’s, Ph.D., MBA) because of the country’s weak economy?

The question also includes a false premise: The participant is required to agree that the economy is weak to answer. The question also imposes a causal relationship between the economy and postgraduate study that a person may not see. Loaded questions are inherently biased and push respondents into confirming a particular argument they may not agree with.

Double-barreled questions

Would you like to be rich and famous?

Double-barreled questions are difficult for people to answer. A person might like to be rich but not famous and would thus have trouble responding to this question. Additionally, you don’t know whether they are responding to both parts of the question or just one.

Biased questions

Do you agree that the president is doing a wonderful job on foreign policy?

Biased language that either triggers emotional responses or imposes your opinion can influence the results of your survey. Survey questions should be neutral, simple, and void of emotion.

Assumptive questions

Do you have extra money after paying bills that you invest?

This question assumes that the participant has extra money after paying bills. When a person reads a question they feel is irrelevant to them, it can lead to attrition from the survey. This is why Logic is useful—surveys should adapt to respondents’ answers so they can skip questions that don’t apply to them.

This question would be better asked in two parts: Do you have extra money after paying bills? (If yes: Do you invest the extra money you have after paying bills?)

Second-hand knowledge question

Does your community have a problem with crime?

Not only are “crime” and “problem” vague, it’s challenging for a layperson to report on something related to the community at large. The responses to the question wouldn’t be reliable. Stick to asking questions that cover people’s firsthand knowledge.

If you are trying to understand the prevalence of criminal acts, it would be better to ask: In the past 12 months, have you been the victim of a crime?

Hypothetical questions

If you received a $10,000 bonus at work, would you invest it?

People are terrible at predicting future behavior, particularly in situations they’ve never encountered. Behavior is deeply situational, so what a person might do upon receiving a bonus could depend on whether they had credit card debt, whether they needed to make an immediate purchase, the time of year, and so on.

Ask the right types of questions with Typeform

Understanding the different question types is crucial when it comes to surveys and customer feedback . 

“The goal of writing a survey question is for every potential respondent to interpret it in the same way, be able to respond accurately, and be willing to answer,” explains Tammy Duggan-Herd, PhD, a psychology researcher-turned-marketer.

Focus on creating great survey questions, and you’ll get the answers and insights you need to achieve your goals. 

Ready to conduct effective market research ? Build beautifully designed surveys with the help of Typeform. With customizable survey templates , you can reach your audience faster and more effectively. Start asking the right types of questions today.

About the author

We're Typeform - a team on a mission to transform data collection by bringing you refreshingly different forms.

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What Are Quantitative Survey Questions? Types and Examples

Learn all about quantitative research surveys, including types of quantitative survey questions, question formats, and quantitative question examples.

quantilope is the Consumer Intelligence Platform for all end-to-end research needs

Table of contents: 

• Types of quantitative survey questions - with examples 
• Quantitative question formats
• How to write quantitative survey questions 
• Examples of quantitative survey questions 

Leveraging quantilope for your quantitative survey 

In a quantitative research study brands will gather numeric data for most of their questions through formats like numerical scale questions or ranking questions. However, brands can also include some non-quantitative questions throughout their quantitative study - like open-ended questions, where respondents will type in their own feedback to a question prompt. Even so, open-ended answers can be numerically coded to sift through feedback easily (e.g. anyone who writes in 'Pepsi' in a soda study would be assigned the number '1', to look at Pepsi feedback as a whole).  One of the biggest benefits of using a quantitative research approach is that insights around a research topic can undergo statistical analysis; the same can’t be said for qualitative data like focus group feedback or interviews. Another major difference between quantitative and qualitative research methods is that quantitative surveys require respondents to choose from a limited number of choices in a close-ended question - generating clear, actionable takeaways. However, these distinct quantitative takeaways often pair well with freeform qualitative responses - making quant and qual a great team to use together.  The rest of this article focuses on quantitative research, taking a closer look at quantitative survey question types and question formats/layouts. 

Back to table of contents 

Types of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139745">quantitative survey questions - with examples 

Quantitative questions come in many forms, each with different benefits depending on dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139784">your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139740">market research objectives. Below we’ll explore some of these dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139745">quantitative dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139785">survey question dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_281139785" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139785"> types, which are commonly used together in a single survey to keep things interesting for dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents . The style of questioning used during dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139739">quantitative dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139750">data dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_281139750" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139750"> collection is important, as a good mix of the right types of questions will deliver rich data, limit dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondent fatigue, and optimize the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139757">response rate . dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139742">Questionnaires should be enjoyable - and varying the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139755">types of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_281139755" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139755">quantitative research dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139755"> questions used throughout your survey will help achieve that. 

Descriptive survey questions

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139763">Descriptive research questions (also known as usage and attitude, or, U&A questions) seek a general indication or prediction about how a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139773">group of people behaves or will behave, how that group is characterized, or how a group thinks.

For example, a business might want to know what portion of adult men shave, and how often they do so. To find this out, they will survey men (the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139743">target audience ) and ask descriptive questions about their frequency of shaving (e.g. daily, a few times a week, once per week, and so on.) Each of these frequencies get assigned a numerical ‘code’ so that it’s simple to chart and analyze the data later on; daily might be assigned ‘5’, a few times a week might be assigned ‘4’, and so on. That way, brands can create charts using the ‘top two’ and ‘bottom two’ values in a descriptive question to view these metrics side by side.

Another business might want to know how important local transit issues are to residents, so dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139745">quantitative survey questions will allow dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents to indicate the degrees of opinion attached to various transit issues. Perhaps the transit business running this survey would use a sliding numeric scale to see how important a particular issue is.

Comparative survey questions

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139782">Comparative research questions are concerned with comparing individuals or groups of people based on one or more variables. These questions might be posed when a business wants to find out which segment of its dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139743">target audience might be more profitable, or which types of products might appeal to different sets of consumers.

For example, a business might want to know how the popularity of its chocolate bars is spread out across its entire customer base (i.e. do women prefer a certain flavor? Are children drawn to candy bars by certain packaging attributes? etc.). Questions in this case will be designed to profile and ‘compare’ segments of the market.

Other businesses might be looking to compare coffee consumption among older and younger consumers (i.e. dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139741">demographic segments), the difference in smartphone usage between younger men and women, or how women from different regions differ in their approach to skincare.

Relationship-based survey questions

As the name suggests, relationship-based survey questions are concerned with the relationship between two or more variables within one or more dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139741">demographic groups. This might be a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139759">causal link between one thing and the other - for example, the consumption of caffeine and dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents ’ reported energy levels throughout the day. In this case, a coffee or energy drink brand might be interested in how energy levels differ between those who drink their caffeinated line of beverages and those who drink decaf/non-caffeinated beverages.

Alternatively, it might be a case of two or more factors co-existing, without there necessarily being a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139759">causal link - for example, a particular type of air freshener being more popular amongst a certain dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139741">demographic (maybe one that is controlled wirelessly via Bluetooth is more popular among younger homeowners than one that’s plugged into the wall with no controls). Knowing that millennials favor air fresheners which have options for swapping out scents and setting up schedules would be valuable information for new product development.

Advanced method survey questions

Aside from descriptive, comparative, and relationship-based survey questions, brands can opt to include advanced methodologies in their quantitative dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139742">questionnaire for richer depth. Though advanced methods are more complex in terms of the insights output, quantilope’s Consumer Intelligence Platform automates the setup and analysis of these methods so that researchers of any background or skillset can leverage them with ease.

With quantilope’s pre-programmed suite of 12 advanced methodologies , including MaxDiff , TURF , Implicit , and more, users can drag and drop any of these into a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139742">questionnaire and customize for their own dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139740">market research objectives.

For example, consider a beverage company that’s looking to expand its flavor profiles. This brand would benefit from a MaxDiff which forces dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents to make tradeoff decisions between a set of flavors. A dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondent might say that coconut is their most-preferred flavor, and lime their least (when in a consideration set with strawberry), yet later on in the MaxDiff that same dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondent may say Strawberry is their most-preferred flavor (over black cherry and kiwi). While this is just one example of an advanced method, instantly you can see how much richer and more actionable these quantitative metrics become compared to a standard usage and attitude question .

Advanced methods can be used alongside descriptive, comparison, or relationship questions to add a new layer of context wherever a business sees fit. Back to table of contents 

Quantitative question formats  

So we’ve covered the kinds of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139736">quantitative research questions you might want to answer using dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139740">market research , but how do these translate into the actual format of questions that you might include on your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139742">questionnaire ?

Thinking ahead to your reporting process during your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139742">questionnaire setup is actually quite important, as the available chart types differ among the types of questions asked; some question data is compatible with bar chart displays, others pie charts, others in trended line graphs, etc. Also consider how well the questions you’re asking will translate onto different devices that your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents might be using to complete the survey (mobile, PC, or tablet).

Single Select questions

Single select questions are the simplest form of quantitative questioning, as dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents are asked to choose just one answer from a list of items, which tend to be ‘either/or’, ‘yes/no’, or ‘true/false’ questions. These questions are useful when you need to get a clear answer without any qualifying nuances.

Multi-select questions

Multi-select questions (aka, dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139767">multiple choice ) offer more flexibility for responses, allowing for a number of responses on a single question. dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">Respondents can be asked to ‘check all that apply’ or a cap can be applied (e.g. ‘select up to 3 choices’).

For example:

Aside from asking text-based questions like the above examples, a brand could also use a single or multi-select question to ask respondents to select the image they prefer more (like different iterations of a logo design, packaging options, branding colors, etc.). 

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139749">Likert dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139766">scale dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_281139766" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139766"> questions

A dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139749">Likert scale   is widely used as a convenient and easy-to-interpret rating method. dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">Respondents find it easy to indicate their degree of feelings by selecting the response they most identify with.

Slider scales

Slider scales are another good interactive way of formatting questions. They allow dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents to customize their level of feeling about a question, with a bit more variance and nuance allowed than a numeric scale:

One particularly common use of a slider scale in a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139740">market dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139770">research dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_281139770" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139770"> study is known as a NPS (Net Promoter Score) - a way to measure dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139775">customer experience and loyalty . A 0-10 scale is used to ask customers how likely they are to recommend a brand’s product or services to others. The NPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of ‘detractors’ (those who respond with a 0-6) from the percentage of promoters (those who respond with a 9-10). dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">Respondents who select 7-8 are known as ‘passives’.

For example: 

Drag and drop questions

Drag-and-drop question formats are a more ‘gamified’ approach to survey capture as they ask dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents to do more than simply check boxes or slide a scale. Drag-and-drop question formats are great for ranking exercises - asking dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents to place answer options in a certain order by dragging with their mouse. For example, you could ask survey takers to put pizza toppings in order of preference by dragging options from a list of possible answers to a box displaying their personal preferences:

Matrix questions

Matrix   questions are a great way to consolidate a number of questions that ask for the same type of response (e.g. single select yes/no, true/false, or multi-select lists). They are mutually beneficial - making a survey look less daunting for the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondent , and easier for a brand to set up than asking multiple separate questions.

Items in a matrix question are presented one by one, as respondents cycle through the pages selecting one answer for each coffee flavor shown. 

While the above example shows a single-matrix question - meaning a respondent can only select one answer per element (in this case, coffee flavors), a matrix setup can also be used for multiple-choice questions - allowing respondents to choose multiple answers per element shown, or for rating questions - allowing respondents to assign a rating (e.g. 1-5) for a list of elements at once.  Back to table of contents 

How to write dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139745">quantitative survey questions  

We’ve reviewed the types of questions you might ask in a quantitative survey, and how you might format those questions, but now for the actual crafting of the content.

When considering which questions to include in your survey, you’ll first want to establish what your research goals are and how these relate to your business goals. For example, thinking about the three types of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139745">quantitative survey questions explained above - descriptive, comparative, and relationship-based - which type (or which combination) will best meet your research needs? The questions you ask dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents may be phrased in similar ways no matter what kind of layout you leverage, but you should have a good idea of how you’ll want to analyze the results as that will make it much easier to correctly set up your survey.

Quantitative questions tend to start with words like ‘how much,’ ‘how often,’ ‘to what degree,’ ‘what do you think of,’ ‘which of the following’ - anything that establishes what consumers do or think and that can be assigned a numerical code or value. Be sure to also include ‘other’ or ‘none of the above’ options in your quant questions, accommodating those who don’t feel the pre-set answers reflect their true opinion. As mentioned earlier, you can always include a small number of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139748">open-ended questions in your quant survey to account for any ideas or expanded feedback that the pre-coded questions don’t (or can’t) cover. Back to table of contents 

Examples of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139745">quantitative survey questions  

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139745">Quantitative survey questions impose limits on the answers that dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents can choose from, and this is a good thing when it comes to measuring consumer opinions on a large scale and comparing across dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents . A large volume of freeform, open-ended answers is interesting when looking for themes from qualitative studies, but impractical to wade through when dealing with a large dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139756">sample size , and impossible to subject to dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139774">statistical analysis .

For example, a quantitative survey might aim to establish consumers' smartphone habits. This could include their frequency of buying a new smartphone, the considerations that drive purchase, which features they use their phone for, and how much they like their smartphone.

Some examples of quantitative survey questions relating to these habits would be:

Q. How often do you buy a new smartphone?

[single select question]

More than once per year

Every 1-2 years

Every 3-5 years

Every 6+ years

Q. Thinking about when you buy a smartphone, please rank the following factors in order of importance:

[drag and drop ranking question]

screen size

storage capacity

Q. How often do you use the following features on your smartphone?

[matrix question]

Q. How do you feel about your current smartphone?

[sliding scale]

I love it <-------> I hate it

Answers from these above questions, and others within the survey, would be analyzed to paint a picture of smartphone usage and attitude trends across a population and its sub-groups. dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139738">Qualitative research might then be carried out to explore those findings further - for example, people’s detailed attitudes towards their smartphones, how they feel about the amount of time they spend on it, and how features could be improved. Back to table of contents 

quantilope’s Consumer Intelligence Platform specializes in automated, advanced survey insights so that researchers of any skill level can benefit from quick, high-quality consumer insights. With 12 advanced methods to choose from and a wide variety of quantitative question formats, quantilope is your one-stop-shop for all things dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139740">market research (including its dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139776">in-depth dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139738">qualitative research solution - inColor ).

When it comes to building your survey, you decide how you want to go about it. You can start with a blank slate and drop questions into your survey from a pre-programmed list, or you can get a head start with a survey dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139765">template for a particular business use case (like concept testing ) and customize from there. Once your survey is ready to launch, simply specify your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139743">target audience , connect any panel (quantilope is panel agnostic), and watch as dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139737">respondents dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139783">answer questions in your survey in real-time by monitoring the fieldwork section of your project. AI-driven dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139764">data analysis takes the raw data and converts it into actionable findings so you never have to worry about manual calculations or statistical testing.

Whether you want to run your quantitative study entirely on your own or with the help of a classically trained research team member, the choice is yours on quantilope’s platform. For more information on how quantilope can help with your next dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139736">quantitative dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139768">research dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_281139768" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="281139768"> project , get in touch below!

Get in touch to learn more about quantitative research with quantilope!

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• 4 Types of Questionnaire + Free Question Examples

For many years, questionnaires have been a popular data collection tool during research. Questionnaires are very diverse and easily adaptable—this is why they are one of the most common and important tools for data collection in everyday life. 

Although questionnaires are a common tool for research, a lot of people still don’t know what kind of questions should be included in their questionnaires. In this article, we will look at different types of questionnaires and show you how to create an online questionnaire with Formplus. 

What is a Questionnaire? 

A questionnaire is a research tool that contains a list of questions requiring responses from a predefined group of people. It is used to collect relevant information that can help you arrive at definite results during research. 

Questionnaires are used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from respondents. It combines different question types like close-ended and open-ended questions that allow you to extract large volumes of data from respondents, even when the researcher isn’t available to coordinate data collection firsthand. 

The purpose of a questionnaire is to build up your research dataset by asking standardized questions to help you get the right answers. While questionnaires are closely related to surveys, they do not mean the same thing. 

4 Types of Questionnaires

1. online questionnaire.

An online questionnaire is a set of standardized questions that are put together and distributed via online channels. It gathers data from respondents through a set of questions that are administered via online data-collection platforms like Formplus. 

Formplus is an easy-to-use tool that supports seamless online and offline data collection . It has a form builder that allows you to create different types of questionnaires for research. You can also find a variety of questionnaire templates that can be edited for unique research needs. 

There are more than 30 form fields on Formplus that you can add to your questionnaire for data collection including text fields, numerical fields, and rating fields. Respondents can easily provide answers to questions created in the form of simple checkboxes or dropdown menus. 

Formplus has multiple form-sharing options including email sharing, form embed, and direct social media sharing buttons. This means that respondents can receive online questionnaires via various mediums such as email, on your website, and on social media platforms. 

Advantages of Online Questionnaires  

• An online questionnaire helps you to save time during data collection.
• It is also a cost-effective method of data collection. You do not have to spend money on printing questionnaires or sharing the questionnaire with respondents physically.
• It allows respondents to complete the questionnaire when they want. This improves the questionnaire response rates.
• Since the questionnaire is created and administered online, it makes it easy for you to gather responses from a large pool of respondents.

Disadvantages of Online Questionnaires

• The choice of your questionnaire distribution channel can affect questionnaire response rates.
• The questionnaire sample size is limited to populations that have access to the internet. This can affect the variation of the data gathered.

Online Questionnaire Example

2. Telephone Questionnaire

This is a method of collecting data from respondents via a telephone conversation. Here, the researcher places a direct call to different members of the survey sample and asks a set of predefined questions that are relevant to the research context. 

This questionnaire method is best used when you have a small set of questions that can be responded to quickly. It also works for research contexts that require data from a small sample size or when members of the sample cannot complete a written or online questionnaire. 

Read: The 4,5, and 7 Point Likert Scale + [Questionnaire Examples]

Advantages of Telephone Questionnaires  

• It allows you to gather research data quickly.
• Telephone questionnaires tend to record higher response rates than other types of questionnaires.

Disadvantages of Telephone Questionnaires  

• It is an expensive method of collecting data in research.
• Telephone questionnaires are time-consuming.
• Due to its direct conversation approach, respondents may refuse to give out as much information as they should for the research.

3, Paper Questionnaire  

Paper questionnaires are the oldest and most common method of data collection in research. It is a sheet of paper with a set of predetermined questions that the members of the sample population respond to using a pencil or a pen. 

Over time, the use of paper questionnaires has reduced significantly due to its multiple shortcomings. Apart from a steady decline in response rates , paper questionnaires are expensive to create and they also have a high risk of data loss and damage. 

The best way to use a paper questionnaire is to pair it with online distribution channels that allow you to share your survey on paper. There are paper questionnaire creators that can be used to print your questionnaire or export it in Word and PDF formats . 

Advantages of Paper Questionnaire  

• It can be used to collect research data from members of your research population who do not have access to other questionnaire types.
• It is an effective method of data collection in market research.

Disadvantages of Paper Questionnaire  

• Paper questionnaires have a huge financial cost implication.
• It can only be used when you have a small sample size that has physical proximity. If your research requires large data sets from a large audience, paper questionnaires may not be suitable for use.

Face-to-Face Interview

You can also administer a questionnaire through a face-to-face interview with members of the research population. It allows the researcher to communicate directly with the respondent and ask the questions already listed in the questionnaire. Through this method, you can obtain qualitative and quantitative information from respondents. 

When you have a face-to-face interview with respondents, you gain better insight into the context of their answers to your question. A face-to-face interview is an opportunity to observe non-verbal responses and other nuances, that help you interpret the resulting data from the conversation. 

Advantages of a Face-to-Face Interview  

• It helps you to capture verbal and non-verbal cues creates better insight into the research data.
• Face-to-face interviews allow you to collect more accurate data.

Disadvantages of a Face-to-Face Interview  

• The quality of data from a face-to-face largely depends on the skills of the interviewer.
• It is an expensive method of data collection. For instance, you will need to hire personnel to assist with logistics and other levels of preparation.

Read Also: 7 Data Collection Methods & Tools For Research

Characteristics of a Questionnaire  

While the overall structure and presentation of your questionnaire depend on the type of research plus the information you want to get from respondents, there are common characteristics you can find in every questionnaire. 

• A questionnaire follows a well-defined question sequence

The questions listed in a questionnaire are structured to increase the response rate. Typically, the questionnaire begins with screening questions and then progresses to warm-up questions, transition questions, skip questions, challenging questions, before ending up with classification questions.

• A questionnaire can collect both qualitative and quantitative data

Depending on your research needs, you can include different types of questions that help you gather quantitative and qualitative responses from the members of your research sample.

In the Formplus builder, you will find different form fields that allow you to add multiple question formats to your questionnaire. You can use text fields for open-ended questions and multi-choice fields, rating fields, and checkboxes for close-ended questions. 

• A questionnaire has a uniform design that supports standardized data collection. This means that all members of the sample population see and respond to the same set of questions; although the question sequence and order may vary.
• A questionnaire also includes clear instructions that guide respondents as they complete the survey.

Types of Questions for Any Questionnaire  

Open-ended questions.

An open-ended question is a type of research question that does not restrict respondents to a set of predetermined answers. Rather, respondents are allowed to fully articulate their thoughts, opinions, and experiences as long-form and short-form answers including paragraphs, essays, or just a few sentences. 

They are also known as free-form survey questions because they do not restrict the respondents to a small pool of possible answer-options. Open-ended questions encourage the research participants to freely communicate what they know and how they feel about the subject matter. 

Use open-ended questions in your questionnaire when you want to collect qualitative responses for your research. They also provide better context for the research data by helping you to see things from a respondent’s point of view. 

Advantages of Open-Ended Questions

• It helps you to gather detailed information from respondents.
• Open-ended questions have an infinite possibility of responses which supports variation in your research data.

Disadvantages of Open-ended Questions

• Responding to open-ended questions is time-consuming and respondents can easily abandon the questionnaire along the way.
• It is very difficult to statistically interpret the data collected via open-ended questions. This makes open-ended questions highly unsuitable for quantitative data collection.

Open-ended Question Samples

• What is the most important lesson you’ve learned so far?
• What do you think about our new logo?
• How does our product help you to meet your goals?

2. Close Ended Questions

A close-ended question is one that limits possible responses to options like Yes/No, True/False, and the likes. It comes with pre-selected answer options and requires the respondent to choose one of the options that closely resonates with her thoughts, opinion, or knowledge. 

Close-ended questions are best used in quantitative research because they allow you to collect statistical information from respondents. If you want to gather a large amount of data that can be analyzed quickly, then asking close-ended questions is your best bet. 

Advantages of Close-ended Questions

• Close-ended questions are easy and quick to answer.
• It is cheaper to collate and analyze the responses to close-ended questions.

Disadvantages of Close-ended Questions

• It limits the amount of information that respondents can provide in your questionnaire.
• It can result in survey response bias as respondents can be influenced by the options listed in the questionnaire.

Close-ended Question Samples

1. How do you start your day?

• With coffee
• With exercises
• With meditation

2. What is your favorite genre of music?

3. Dichotomous Questions

A dichotomous question is a type of close-ended question that has only 2 opposite answer-options. It requires the research participants to choose one of the 2 available options as a response to the question. The most common type of dichotomous question is the yes/no question. 

A dichotomous question allows respondents to provide short, concise, and direct answers in the research questionnaire. Dichotomous questions are used to collect quantitative information from respondents, and to also eliminate unnecessary complexities in data collection. Other common formats of dichotomous questions are true/false questions and agree/disagree questions. 

Advantages of Dichotomous Questions

• Dichotomous questions are easy to understand and respond to.
• It helps you to gather fast and straightforward responses from the research participants.

Disadvantages of Dichotomous Questions

• It restricts respondents to a limited set of answer-options. This prevents respondents from exploring other possible answers or from providing a better context for interpreting their choices.
• Dichotomous questions are not suitable for qualitative data collection.

Dichotomous Question Samples

1. Would you like to have something to drink?

2. Did you enjoy this training? 

4. Likert Scale Question

This is a type of psychometric question that measures the respondent’s perception or opinion on a topic or subject matter. It uses points to rank different opinions, thoughts, and experiences in line with the topic at hand and the overall research context. 

A Likert scale question is popular as a 4-point scale, 5-point scale, or 7-point scale . Likert scale questions are important for research because they can be used to measure someone’s attitude and determine the extent to which they agree or disagree with a particular question or statement.

Advantages of Likert Scale Questions

• It is easy to organize and interpret responses from Likert scale questions.
• They provide more contexts to responses by allowing the researcher to quantify the intensity of individual responses.

Disadvantages of Likert Scale Questions

• It can be difficult to classify neutral responses like ‘neither agree nor disagree’.
• The intervals between points on the scale do not present equal changes in attitude for all individuals.

Likert Scale Question Examples

5. Multi-Choice Questions  

As the name suggests, a multi-choice question is one that gives respondents more than 2 answer-options to choose from. It is sometimes referred to as an objective response question and it requires the respondent to choose the most relevant option from the available choices. 

Typically, a multi-choice question has 3 parts—the stem, the answer, and the distractors. The stem is the actual question being asked; the answer is the right response to the question and the distractors are the other available choice options.

Advantages of Multi-choice Questions   

• It is easy to organize and process data collected through multi-choice questions.

Disadvantages of Multi-choice Questions

• Creating multi-choice questions can be time-consuming.
• Muti choice questions do not produce any qualitative data.

Multi-choice Question Examples

1. What is your favorite drink?

2. What is your favorite smartphone brand?

Questionnaire vs Survey

A questionnaire is a list of quantitative and qualitative questions used to gather information from a target audience while a survey is a research tool for data collection, analysis, and forecasting. In other words, a questionnaire is a set of questions used for data collection while a survey is a method of measuring and analyzing relevant opinions to arrive at relevant research results. 

Questionnaires and surveys are closely related and they are both used for data collection in research. Every survey includes one or more questionnaires that help you to gather data from respondents. On the other hand, a questionnaire may or may not be administered as part of a survey.  

If you’re looking to collect and interpret data to help you understand trends and behaviors, then a survey is a valid option for you. On the other hand, if you want a flexible instrument to collect responses from a target audience, go for a questionnaire. You can create both surveys and questionnaires on Formplus. 

Advantages of a Questionnaire

• A questionnaire is a cost-effective tool for data collection in research. You can easily create and administer them using online tools like Formplus.
• It makes it easy for you to collect large volumes of data from a vast target audience.
• A questionnaire can be used to collect qualitative and quantitative data from respondents. You can list close-ended and open-ended questions that help you gather different types of responses from the audience.
• It is a good way to collect anonymous responses from the target audience.
• Using a questionnaire is one of the best ways to collect repetitive information from respondents at defined intervals.
• It puts less pressure on the respondents for immediate response. Many questionnaires allow respondents to respond when they want. Formplus also has a ‘save and resume’ feature that allows respondents to complete your questionnaire at their own pace.

Conclusion  

The goal of a questionnaire is to collect relevant data from your target audience; this data can be used for multiple research purposes. To get the most out of your questionnaire, it is important to list different question types and adopt the most effective distribution channels. 

As we’ve discussed in this article, there are different types of questionnaires you can choose from including telephone questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. You can also create an online questionnaire with our form builder that supports seamless data collection. Sign up for a Formplus account here. 

Connect to Formplus, Get Started Now - It's Free!

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12 Types of Survey Questions, Examples, Free Template & Tips

Last Updated:  

29 July 2024

Table Of Contents

• Top 12 Types of Survey Questions
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Opinion Scale Questions
• Likert Scale Questions
• Rank Order Questions
• Dichotomous Questions
• Rating Questions
• Slider Questions
• Demographic and Firmographic Questions
• 123 Open-ended Questions
• Dropdown Questions
• Matrix Questions
• Picture Choice Questions

Looking to learn the different types of survey questions ?

Which type of survey question will help you get the desired information? A multiple-choice question, a rating question, or an open-ended question? How you ask your respondents for certain information plays a huge role in the success of your survey.

It gets a lot easier to pick a certain survey question type if you’re clear about your survey’s goal. Hence, conducting a successful survey is all about having clear goals and objectives.

What are you trying to accomplish with your survey? What are the things you’re looking to learn from your respondents? Once you’ve defined your survey’s goal , you will be able to pick the right type of survey question.

In this article, we’ll dig deeper into all types of survey questions and some good survey question examples you can use to get the right kind of information from your target audience.

12 Types of Survey Questions

• Open-ended Questions

But here’s a little heads-up before we get right into the questions to ask for in the surveys.

With S urveySparrow ,  a conversational online survey tool, you can ask any question you’ve got, and guess what? It’s totally free. Plus, you get access to a bunch of super handy premade survey templates that can be shared quickly enough to get 40% more responses!

Check 1000+ Survey Templates for Free now. You can create a free account by signing up with your email and then start accessing free templates now.

Please enter a valid Email ID.

14-Day Free Trial • No Credit Card Required • No Strings Attached

Pretty cool, right?

But there’s more. I understand that creating questions can sometimes be difficult, especially if you are tired and if there’s no creative fluid flowing out. Here’s the catch. Whatever question type you have, you can easily create it using the AI survey feature from SurveySparrow.

Now, Jumping straight into the types of survey questions!

1. Multiple Choice Questions

This is the most popular type of survey question to ask your audience. You provide respondents with a list of answer options, and they will get to choose one or more options from this list.

Typically, you’d want your respondents to pick only one option. This kind of multiple-choice question is called a single-answer multiple-choice question .

However, in some cases, you might want them to give you multiple answers. This kind of question is called a multi-answer multiple choice question .

Since you already provide them with all the options, this type of survey question is easier to answer. Also, the data you collect with this kind of question is easier to analyze.

There might be cases when all your predefined answers might not apply to your respondents. In that case, you can add an “other” answer option at the end of your list to be on the safer side.

This “other” option, when clicked, opens up a text field that the respondent can use to give you an answer in their own words.

2. Opinion Scale Questions

An opinion scale survey question provides respondents with a scale of numbers as answer options. These options range from 1 to 10, 0 to 100, 1 to 5, etc.

Example of a survey question of an opinion scale question is an NPS question. NPS is an essential survey question that lets you check your customers’ pulse and sentiments about your products/services. An NPS question helps you measure your customers’ willingness to recommend your product or service to their friends or colleagues.

You simply ask: “How likely are you to recommend us to your friends or colleagues?” and provide them with a numerical rating scale that ranges from 0 to 10. Here’s an NPS survey question example.

Want to roll out NPS surveys with ease? SurveySparrow ‘s NPS survey software is designed to help you decode customer sentiments with ease. Moreover, you can compare your score with our NPS benchmarking tool to get a sense of where you stand. Create you account below to try SurveySparrow for free.

One thing to keep in mind is that it ain’t enough to just display a set of numbers. You also need to explain the value of the numbers that you ask them to choose.

For instance, if you ask them, “How much do you like noodles?” and you use a numerical scale of 1 to 10, you need to explain to them, preferably with short labels, that 10 means they absolutely love them while 1 means they absolutely hate them.

Here’s a questionnaire for surveys. Go ahead and check it out for free.

Customer Feedback Survey Template for Free

3. Likert Scale Questions

It’s likely you’ve seen a Likert scale question before. Remember those “do you agree or disagree” questions you answered the last time you took a survey?

You probably “strongly agreed/disagreed” or “neither agreed nor disagreed” with a survey question. That’s a Likert scale survey question!

This kind of question is a reliable survey question to ask your respondents to measure their attitudes, perceptions, and opinions about a certain topic. Here’s a Likert scale survey question example:

4. Rank Order Questions

A rank-order question provides your respondents with a list of answer options. This survey question type allows them to compare the options and rank them in order of priority, importance, or value.

This survey question type is quite different from a rating question;  it asks you to rank one option against another option. With this question, you’ll be able to understand the relative importance of each option.

Only, use this survey question sparingly, as they take more time to answer.

5. Dichotomous Questions (Yes/No Questions)

A dichotomous question (or a yes or no question) requires only two possible answers from your survey respondents: yes/no, agree/disagree, or true/false.

This survey question type is typically used to easily filter out (or screen out) the respondents who don’t fit the research criteria. Also, you can use these questions to segment your respondents into different groups.

While you could use a simple multiple-choice survey question to get a yes or no from your audience, a dichotomous question provides answer options that come with appropriate icons, these icons serve as a visual cue and help your respondents quickly provide accurate answers. Here’s a Yes/No survey question example with icons.

6. Rating Questions

Rating scale survey questions allow your survey respondents to quickly rate something on a scale of 1 to 5. This is often used as a quick survey question to ask your respondents how they feel about a particular thing.

They help you measure your respondents’ opinions and attitudes toward a certain topic.

Quickly find out what they really think about your product, marketing, support, or any other aspect of your business.

SurveySparrow’s survey tool lets you add all kinds of icons and emojis to your rating questions. In other words, you can create rating questions with stars, thumbs, high-voltage emojis, crowns, and smileys. Here are some good survey questions and examples of rating scales.

7. Slider Questions

With a slider question, you ask your survey respondents to evaluate something on a numerical scale. But they pick a number by dragging a slider control.

In some cases, a slider question is fun to answer and makes more sense than other similar kinds of questions.

8. Demographic and Firmographic Questions

You can ask these kinds of questions to gather insights into your target audience.

Demographic questions are asked to collect demographic information such as gender, age, income, location, etc. Here’s a quick demographic survey question example:

Firmographic questions, on the other hand, include those set of survey questions to ask your audience to gather firmographic information related to a business, such as company size, annual revenue, etc.

When you better understand who they are and where they come from, you can segment them, easily analyze data that’s relevant to a particular group, and get better results from your surveys.

9. Open-ended Questions

Unlike other types of survey questions, open-ended survey questions provide respondents with different predefined answer options. This survey question type provides respondents with a text field so they can give an answer in their own words.

It’s commonly used to gather in-depth, qualitative data on a certain topic. Although you will get a ton of insights this way, you will have a hard time analyzing the data you acquire with this kind of question.

10. Dropdown Questions

If you’ve got a multiple choice question that has a long list of answer options, you can use a dropdown question instead if you wish to not overwhelm your respondents.

All your answer options will be hidden in a dropdown menu. Respondents will have to click on the dropdown button to reveal the list of answers.

That said, there are some cases where displaying all the answers upfront helps provide the information your respondents need to give you an answer quickly.

11. Matrix Questions

Got a bunch of questions that seem to give the same answer options? You need a matrix question. This survey question type is a series of Likert scale questions.

While a matrix question can help you simplify and shorten your surveys, it’s quite difficult to take, especially on a mobile device, and most people find it confusing and hard to answer. That’s when checking out matrix question types can help.

12. Picture Choice Questions

Image choice or picture choice questions are similar to multiple-choice survey questions but allow you to use pictures as answer options.

Typically, picture survey questions are used to get feedback on visuals such as logos or product concepts. You can also use them to make things more engaging and give your audience a break from reading.

How Can SurveySparrow Help You?

If you’re eager to try out conversational surveys, SurveySparrow is a great choice. It’s a user-friendly platform that makes surveys interesting and effective, helping you get valuable information for your business decisions.

Here’s why SurveySparrow is a good option:

Use a Mix of Question Types: Variety keeps respondents engaged. SurveySparrow offers a range of question types, including multiple-choice, rating scales, and open-ended questions. This diversity allows you to gather different types of information effectively.

Random Question Generator : If you can’t find the inspiration to construct your own questionnaire, select your desired category and let the tool do the job!

Easy to Use: SurveySparrow makes it simple to create your surveys, making them more interesting and efficient.

Get Better Insights: It allows you to collect detailed and nuanced data, helping you discover insights that you might have missed otherwise.

Smarter Decision-making: The accurate and comprehensive data you gather on the platform enables you to make informed and smarter decisions for your business.

1000+ Templates : You get pre-designed survey templates.

Create conversational surveys with SurveySparrow

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• 14-Day Free Trial
• • Cancel Anytime
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Final Thoughts

The types of survey questions you choose will depend on the goals you want to attain with your survey.

There might be a type of survey question that’s better than the one you’ve chosen for the data you need, so think hard before choosing a survey question type.

Looking for some survey question examples? Here are articles from us that can help you with that:

• 20 Best NPS Survey Questions and Templates (2021 Guide)
• 21 Effective Customer Satisfaction Questions to Ask Your Customers
• 5 Types of Questions to Include in 360 Degree Feedback Surveys
• 12 Product Survey Questions for Insightful Product Feedback
• 6 Employee Pulse Survey Questions You Should Be Asking
• 12 Amazing Customer Support Survey Questions for 2021
• Top Diversity and Inclusion Survey Questions to Ask

Got any questions on picking the right types of survey questions? Any interesting tips or techniques you use to find the right types of survey questions? Let us know about them in the comment section below.

Looking to create surveys that people love to answer? Feel free to check out SurveySparrow

I'm a developer turned marketer, working as a Product Marketer at SurveySparrow — A survey tool that lets anyone create beautiful, conversational surveys people love to answer.

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Questionnaire: Definition, Types, Examples & How To Design

Be it government, a for-profit organisation, or even a not-for-profit organisation, data collection is of paramount importance for all to get insights on the target market and the current and future prospects of an organisation.

You need to ask questions to get answers, and a questionnaire helps you just with the same.

What is A Questionnaire?

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a set of standardized questions to gather statistically useful information on some subject from one or more respondents.

To make it simple, consider questionnaire to be written interview consisting standardized questions which can be answered face-to-face, over the telephone, through the post, or even online.

Purpose Of Questionnaire

The main purpose of a questionnaire is to extract data from the respondents.

It’s a relatively inexpensive, quick, and efficient way of collecting large amount data even when the researcher isn’t present to collect those responses first hand.

But an important factor to note is that a questionnaire isn’t the process of analyzing the responses. The process is surveying.

Survey vs Questionnaire

A questionnaire just a set of questions used to gather statistically useful information from the respondents. It’s often considered as an important tool used in the survey process.

A survey, on the other hand, is a process which includes using a questionnaire to ask the questions, collect responses, and analyse them to get to a result. Analyzing and appraising are important aspects of a survey which makes it different from a questionnaire.

Questionnaire types

A questionnaire is a very useful tool to gather first-hand information from a large audience. It can be categorized into two types –

Descriptive Questionnaire

A descriptive questionnaire is developed to capture or document the extent of a particular topic or issue within a population of interest, that is, what exists at the moment . Questions in this questionnaire are usually focused on how many people participate in a certain behavior or hold a particular opinion.

An example of a descriptive questionnaire would be a questionnaire to calculate the percentage of people who vote and people who don’t .

Analytical Questionnaire

An analytical questionnaire is developed to explore and explain relationships between particular concepts, that is, why certain situations exist . Analytical questionnaires usually examine two or more variables and are used in theory building and hypothesis testing.

An example of an analytical questionnaire would be a questionnaire to examine the interrelationship of lifestyle with TV viewing habi t.

Types Of Questions In A Questionnaire

Now, both descriptive and analytical questionnaires include a set of questions that also be categorized into two types. These are –

Open-Ended Questions (Unstructured)

These include qualitative questions which are more open and allow the target audience to voice their feelings and notions openly. Such questions record more data as they don’t have a predetermined set of responses and the respondents express their opinions in a free-flowing manner.

Not having options to choose from results in avoiding bias and getting actual answers from the respondents.

Qualitative questions, however, prove to be hard from the researcher’s side as different respondents usually have different opinions and it becomes hard to process the qualitative data.

Open-ended questions are usually used –

• At the time of the interview
• To collect data about the personal lives of the respondents like beliefs, family relations, motivations, etc.
• To ask questions to get opinions or views about an aspect.

Examples of such open-ended questions are –

• Suggest your opinion to reduce plastic pollution in urban cities.
• How can we reduce the men-women pay gap?

Close-ended questions (structured)

Structured questions have multiple options as answers and ask the respondents to choose either one or more than one option as an answer. Close-ended questions are used to conduct quantitative research.

Such questions are definite and are usually prepared well in advance so as to get as many responses and information from the respondents.

• To get feedback on a product, service, policy, etc.
• To collect data that can easily be structured into options.

Examples of such close-ended questions are –

• How do you rate the services of your library?
• How much satisfaction do you get from your job?

Importance of Questionnaire

Questions are considered to be of vital importance for research, feedback, and control. A survey without a questionnaire is as incomplete as a dish without ingredients.

A questionnaire is an effective tool to measure the attitudes, beliefs, behavior, preference, opinion, and intentions of a relatively large number of people with respect to one or more than one specific subjects.

Questionnaire Advantages And Disadvantages

Designing and using a questionnaire has its own perks and cons. The advantages of questionnaires include –

• Inexpensive way of collecting data.
• Generates a large amount of data.
• Usually has an easy-to-understand and easy-to-respond design which makes it easy to understand and respond to.
• The responses can be easily quantified. It can also be used to compare and contrast other research.
• It’s easy to analyse the results of a questionnaire.
• The qualitative and quantitative data collected from a questionnaire helps the surveyor to create new strategies and learn about the trends in the audience.
• Questionnaires often let its respondents maintain their anonymity.
• It’s not always necessary to have a personal touch while getting the responses from the respondents.

However, questionnaires have many disadvantages too, like –

• Respondents are sometimes dishonest while answering the questions.
• When it comes to open-end questions, it becomes difficult to understand and interpret the responses.
• A questionnaire isn’t a perfect tool to know about the feelings and emotions of the respondents.
• Lack of personalization demotivate the respondents and many don’t even respond to it.

How To Make A Questionnaire?

Making a questionnaire isn’t an uphill struggle if you are clear about your questionnaire agenda and your target respondents. Here are the four steps you need to follow to design a good questionnaire –

Identify Your Research Aims And Questionnaire Goals

Identify the purpose of your questionnaire and develop a hypothesis you need to test by asking questions. This forms the base of your questionnaire.

Define Your Target Market

The next task is to define who you’ll be asking those questions. Questionnaires only give results when the questions are asked to the right people – those who relate to the questions in some way or the other.

Decide The Medium To Collect Responses

It’s an important task of questionnaire designing. Try to ask questions from your target audience where they actually are.

Remember that they won’t get out of their comfort zone to fill your questionnaire.

Build Your Set Of Questions

Once the questionnaire objective, target respondents, and delivery medium are defined, it becomes easy to list down the questions.

Choose from a mix of open-ended and close-ended questionnaire questions and only include questions that are absolutely necessary. Questionnaires often become boring if unnecessary questions are added to it.

Try not to use technical terms or jargon as much as possible. Also, make sure to optimize each question separately yet build a logical sequence to your questionnaire to make the transition from one question to another as smooth as possible.

Questionnaire Examples

Here are a few questionnaire examples to help you develop your own questionnaire without much hassle.

Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire

Psychographics Questionnaire

Demographic Questionnaire

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something? Come on! Tell us what you think about our article in the comments section.

A startup consultant, digital marketer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over 20 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.

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Questionnaire Method In Research

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written interview . They can be carried out face to face, by telephone, computer, or post.

Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick, and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information from a large sample of people.

Data can be collected relatively quickly because the researcher would not need to be present when completing the questionnaires. This is useful for large populations when interviews would be impractical.

However, a problem with questionnaires is that respondents may lie due to social desirability. Most people want to present a positive image of themselves, and may lie or bend the truth to look good, e.g., pupils exaggerate revision duration.

Questionnaires can effectively measure relatively large subjects’ behavior, attitudes, preferences, opinions, and intentions more cheaply and quickly than other methods.

Often, a questionnaire uses both open and closed questions to collect data. This is beneficial as it means both quantitative and qualitative data can be obtained.

Closed Questions

A closed-ended question requires a specific, limited response, often “yes” or “no” or a choice that fit into pre-decided categories.

Data that can be placed into a category is called nominal data. The category can be restricted to as few as two options, i.e., dichotomous (e.g., “yes” or “no,” “male” or “female”), or include quite complex lists of alternatives from which the respondent can choose (e.g., polytomous).

Closed questions can also provide ordinal data (which can be ranked). This often involves using a continuous rating scale to measure the strength of attitudes or emotions.

For example, strongly agree / agree / neutral / disagree / strongly disagree / unable to answer.

Closed questions have been used to research type A personality (e.g., Friedman & Rosenman, 1974) and also to assess life events that may cause stress (Holmes & Rahe, 1967) and attachment (Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000).

• They can be economical. This means they can provide large amounts of research data for relatively low costs. Therefore, a large sample size can be obtained, which should represent the population from which a researcher can then generalize.
• The respondent provides information that can be easily converted into quantitative data (e.g., count the number of “yes” or “no” answers), allowing statistical analysis of the responses.
• The questions are standardized. All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order. This means a questionnaire can be replicated easily to check for reliability . Therefore, a second researcher can use the questionnaire to confirm consistent results.

Limitations

• They lack detail. Because the responses are fixed, there is less scope for respondents to supply answers that reflect their true feelings on a topic.

Open Questions

Open questions allow for expansive, varied answers without preset options or limitations.

Open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words. Open-ended questions enable the respondent to answer in as much detail as they like in their own words. For example: “can you tell me how happy you feel right now?”

Open questions will work better if you want to gather more in-depth answers from your respondents. These give no pre-set answer options and instead, allow the respondents to put down exactly what they like in their own words.

Open questions are often used for complex questions that cannot be answered in a few simple categories but require more detail and discussion.

Lawrence Kohlberg presented his participants with moral dilemmas. One of the most famous concerns a character called Heinz, who is faced with the choice between watching his wife die of cancer or stealing the only drug that could help her.

Participants were asked whether Heinz should steal the drug or not and, more importantly, for their reasons why upholding or breaking the law is right.

• Rich qualitative data is obtained as open questions allow respondents to elaborate on their answers. This means the research can determine why a person holds a certain attitude .
• Time-consuming to collect the data. It takes longer for the respondent to complete open questions. This is a problem as a smaller sample size may be obtained.
• Time-consuming to analyze the data. It takes longer for the researcher to analyze qualitative data as they have to read the answers and try to put them into categories by coding, which is often subjective and difficult. However, Smith (1992) has devoted an entire book to the issues of thematic content analysis that includes 14 different scoring systems for open-ended questions.
• Not suitable for less educated respondents as open questions require superior writing skills and a better ability to express one’s feelings verbally.

Questionnaire Design

With some questionnaires suffering from a response rate as low as 5%, a questionnaire must be well designed.

There are several important factors in questionnaire design.

Pilot Study

Question order.

Questions should progress logically from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual and behavioral to the cognitive, and from the more general to the more specific.

The researcher should ensure that previous questions do not influence the answer to a question.

Question order effects

• Question order effects occur when responses to an earlier question affect responses to a later question in a survey. They can arise at different stages of the survey response process – interpretation, information retrieval, judgment/estimation, and reporting.
• Types of question order effects include: unconditional (subsequent answers affected by prior question topic), conditional (subsequent answers depend on the response to the prior question), and associational (correlation between two questions changes based on order).
• Question order effects have been found across different survey topics like social and political attitudes, health and safety studies, vignette research, etc. Effects may be moderated by respondent factors like age, education level, knowledge and attitudes about the topic.
• To minimize question order effects, recommendations include avoiding judgmental dependencies between questions, separating potentially reactive questions, randomizing questions, following good survey design principles, considering respondent characteristics, and intentionally examining question context and order.

Terminology

• There should be a minimum of technical jargon. Questions should be simple, to the point, and easy to understand. The language of a questionnaire should be appropriate to the vocabulary of the group of people being studied.
• Use statements that are interpreted in the same way by members of different subpopulations of the population of interest.
• For example, the researcher must change the language of questions to match the social background of the respondent’s age / educational level / social class/ethnicity, etc.

Presentation

Ethical issues.

• The researcher must ensure that the information provided by the respondent is kept confidential, e.g., name, address, etc.
• This means questionnaires are good for researching sensitive topics as respondents will be more honest when they cannot be identified.
• Keeping the questionnaire confidential should also reduce the likelihood of psychological harm, such as embarrassment.
• Participants must provide informed consent before completing the questionnaire and must be aware that they have the right to withdraw their information at any time during the survey/ study.

Problems with Postal Questionnaires

At first sight, the postal questionnaire seems to offer the opportunity to get around the problem of interview bias by reducing the personal involvement of the researcher. Its other practical advantages are that it is cheaper than face-to-face interviews and can quickly contact many respondents scattered over a wide area.

However, these advantages must be weighed against the practical problems of conducting research by post. A lack of involvement by the researcher means there is little control over the information-gathering process.

The data might not be valid (i.e., truthful) as we can never be sure that the questionnaire was completed by the person to whom it was addressed.

That, of course, assumes there is a reply in the first place, and one of the most intractable problems of mailed questionnaires is a low response rate. This diminishes the reliability of the data

Also, postal questionnaires may not represent the population they are studying. This may be because:

• Some questionnaires may be lost in the post, reducing the sample size.
• The questionnaire may be completed by someone not a member of the research population.
• Those with strong views on the questionnaire’s subject are more likely to complete it than those without interest.

Benefits of a Pilot Study

A pilot study is a practice / small-scale study conducted before the main study.

It allows the researcher to try out the study with a few participants so that adjustments can be made before the main study, saving time and money.

It is important to conduct a questionnaire pilot study for the following reasons:

• Check that respondents understand the terminology used in the questionnaire.
• Check that emotive questions are not used, as they make people defensive and could invalidate their answers.
• Check that leading questions have not been used as they could bias the respondent’s answer.
• Ensure the questionnaire can be completed in an appropriate time frame (i.e., it’s not too long).

Frequently Asked Questions 

How do psychological researchers analyze the data collected from questionnaires.

Psychological researchers analyze questionnaire data by looking for patterns and trends in people’s responses. They use numbers and charts to summarize the information.

They calculate things like averages and percentages to see what most people think or feel. They also compare different groups to see if there are any differences between them.

By doing these analyses, researchers can understand how people think, feel, and behave. This helps them make conclusions and learn more about how our minds work.

Are questionnaires effective in gathering accurate data?

Yes, questionnaires can be effective in gathering accurate data. When designed well, with clear and understandable questions, they allow individuals to express their thoughts, opinions, and experiences.

However, the accuracy of the data depends on factors such as the honesty and accuracy of respondents’ answers, their understanding of the questions, and their willingness to provide accurate information. Researchers strive to create reliable and valid questionnaires to minimize biases and errors.

It’s important to remember that while questionnaires can provide valuable insights, they are just one tool among many used in psychological research.

Can questionnaires be used with diverse populations and cultural contexts?

Yes, questionnaires can be used with diverse populations and cultural contexts. Researchers take special care to ensure that questionnaires are culturally sensitive and appropriate for different groups.

This means adapting the language, examples, and concepts to match the cultural context. By doing so, questionnaires can capture the unique perspectives and experiences of individuals from various backgrounds.

This helps researchers gain a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior and ensures that everyone’s voice is heard and represented in psychological research.

Are questionnaires the only method used in psychological research?

No, questionnaires are not the only method used in psychological research. Psychologists use a variety of research methods, including interviews, observations , experiments , and psychological tests.

Each method has its strengths and limitations, and researchers choose the most appropriate method based on their research question and goals.

Questionnaires are valuable for gathering self-report data, but other methods allow researchers to directly observe behavior, study interactions, or manipulate variables to test hypotheses.

By using multiple methods, psychologists can gain a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior and mental processes.

What is a semantic differential scale?

The semantic differential scale is a questionnaire format used to gather data on individuals’ attitudes or perceptions. It’s commonly incorporated into larger surveys or questionnaires to assess subjective qualities or feelings about a specific topic, product, or concept by quantifying them on a scale between two bipolar adjectives.

It presents respondents with a pair of opposite adjectives (e.g., “happy” vs. “sad”) and asks them to mark their position on a scale between them, capturing the intensity of their feelings about a particular subject.

It quantifies subjective qualities, turning them into data that can be statistically analyzed.

Ayidiya, S. A., & McClendon, M. J. (1990). Response effects in mail surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 54 (2), 229–247. https://doi.org/10.1086/269200

Fraley, R. C., Waller, N. G., & Brennan, K. A. (2000). An item-response theory analysis of self-report measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 350-365.

Friedman, M., & Rosenman, R. H. (1974). Type A behavior and your heart . New York: Knopf.

Gold, R. S., & Barclay, A. (2006). Order of question presentation and correlation between judgments of comparative and own risk. Psychological Reports, 99 (3), 794–798. https://doi.org/10.2466/PR0.99.3.794-798

Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of psychosomatic research, 11(2) , 213-218.

Schwarz, N., & Hippler, H.-J. (1995). Subsequent questions may influence answers to preceding questions in mail surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 59 (1), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.1086/269460

Smith, C. P. (Ed.). (1992). Motivation and personality: Handbook of thematic content analysis . Cambridge University Press.

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Home » Research Questions – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Research Questions – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Research Questions

Definition:

Research questions are the specific questions that guide a research study or inquiry. These questions help to define the scope of the research and provide a clear focus for the study. Research questions are usually developed at the beginning of a research project and are designed to address a particular research problem or objective.

Types of Research Questions

Types of Research Questions are as follows:

Descriptive Research Questions

These aim to describe a particular phenomenon, group, or situation. For example:

• What are the characteristics of the target population?
• What is the prevalence of a particular disease in a specific region?

Exploratory Research Questions

These aim to explore a new area of research or generate new ideas or hypotheses. For example:

• What are the potential causes of a particular phenomenon?
• What are the possible outcomes of a specific intervention?

Explanatory Research Questions

These aim to understand the relationship between two or more variables or to explain why a particular phenomenon occurs. For example:

• What is the effect of a specific drug on the symptoms of a particular disease?
• What are the factors that contribute to employee turnover in a particular industry?

Predictive Research Questions

These aim to predict a future outcome or trend based on existing data or trends. For example :

• What will be the future demand for a particular product or service?
• What will be the future prevalence of a particular disease?

Evaluative Research Questions

These aim to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular intervention or program. For example:

• What is the impact of a specific educational program on student learning outcomes?
• What is the effectiveness of a particular policy or program in achieving its intended goals?

How to Choose Research Questions

Choosing research questions is an essential part of the research process and involves careful consideration of the research problem, objectives, and design. Here are some steps to consider when choosing research questions:

• Identify the research problem: Start by identifying the problem or issue that you want to study. This could be a gap in the literature, a social or economic issue, or a practical problem that needs to be addressed.
• Conduct a literature review: Conducting a literature review can help you identify existing research in your area of interest and can help you formulate research questions that address gaps or limitations in the existing literature.
• Define the research objectives : Clearly define the objectives of your research. What do you want to achieve with your study? What specific questions do you want to answer?
• Consider the research design : Consider the research design that you plan to use. This will help you determine the appropriate types of research questions to ask. For example, if you plan to use a qualitative approach, you may want to focus on exploratory or descriptive research questions.
• Ensure that the research questions are clear and answerable: Your research questions should be clear and specific, and should be answerable with the data that you plan to collect. Avoid asking questions that are too broad or vague.
• Get feedback : Get feedback from your supervisor, colleagues, or peers to ensure that your research questions are relevant, feasible, and meaningful.

How to Write Research Questions

Guide for Writing Research Questions:

• Start with a clear statement of the research problem: Begin by stating the problem or issue that your research aims to address. This will help you to formulate focused research questions.
• Use clear language : Write your research questions in clear and concise language that is easy to understand. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that may be unfamiliar to your readers.
• Be specific: Your research questions should be specific and focused. Avoid broad questions that are difficult to answer. For example, instead of asking “What is the impact of climate change on the environment?” ask “What are the effects of rising sea levels on coastal ecosystems?”
• Use appropriate question types: Choose the appropriate question types based on the research design and objectives. For example, if you are conducting a qualitative study, you may want to use open-ended questions that allow participants to provide detailed responses.
• Consider the feasibility of your questions : Ensure that your research questions are feasible and can be answered with the resources available. Consider the data sources and methods of data collection when writing your questions.
• Seek feedback: Get feedback from your supervisor, colleagues, or peers to ensure that your research questions are relevant, appropriate, and meaningful.

Examples of Research Questions

Some Examples of Research Questions with Research Titles:

Research Title: The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health

• Research Question : What is the relationship between social media use and mental health, and how does this impact individuals’ well-being?

Research Title: Factors Influencing Academic Success in High School

• Research Question: What are the primary factors that influence academic success in high school, and how do they contribute to student achievement?

Research Title: The Effects of Exercise on Physical and Mental Health

• Research Question: What is the relationship between exercise and physical and mental health, and how can exercise be used as a tool to improve overall well-being?

Research Title: Understanding the Factors that Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions

• Research Question : What are the key factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions, and how do these factors vary across different demographics and products?

Research Title: The Impact of Technology on Communication

• Research Question : How has technology impacted communication patterns, and what are the effects of these changes on interpersonal relationships and society as a whole?

Research Title: Investigating the Relationship between Parenting Styles and Child Development

• Research Question: What is the relationship between different parenting styles and child development outcomes, and how do these outcomes vary across different ages and developmental stages?

Research Title: The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Treating Anxiety Disorders

• Research Question: How effective is cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating anxiety disorders, and what factors contribute to its success or failure in different patients?

Research Title: The Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity

• Research Question : How is climate change affecting global biodiversity, and what can be done to mitigate the negative effects on natural ecosystems?

Research Title: Exploring the Relationship between Cultural Diversity and Workplace Productivity

• Research Question : How does cultural diversity impact workplace productivity, and what strategies can be employed to maximize the benefits of a diverse workforce?

Research Title: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

• Research Question: How can artificial intelligence be leveraged to improve healthcare outcomes, and what are the potential risks and ethical concerns associated with its use?

Applications of Research Questions

Here are some of the key applications of research questions:

• Defining the scope of the study : Research questions help researchers to narrow down the scope of their study and identify the specific issues they want to investigate.
• Developing hypotheses: Research questions often lead to the development of hypotheses, which are testable predictions about the relationship between variables. Hypotheses provide a clear and focused direction for the study.
• Designing the study : Research questions guide the design of the study, including the selection of participants, the collection of data, and the analysis of results.
• Collecting data : Research questions inform the selection of appropriate methods for collecting data, such as surveys, interviews, or experiments.
• Analyzing data : Research questions guide the analysis of data, including the selection of appropriate statistical tests and the interpretation of results.
• Communicating results : Research questions help researchers to communicate the results of their study in a clear and concise manner. The research questions provide a framework for discussing the findings and drawing conclusions.

Characteristics of Research Questions

Characteristics of Research Questions are as follows:

• Clear and Specific : A good research question should be clear and specific. It should clearly state what the research is trying to investigate and what kind of data is required.
• Relevant : The research question should be relevant to the study and should address a current issue or problem in the field of research.
• Testable : The research question should be testable through empirical evidence. It should be possible to collect data to answer the research question.
• Concise : The research question should be concise and focused. It should not be too broad or too narrow.
• Feasible : The research question should be feasible to answer within the constraints of the research design, time frame, and available resources.
• Original : The research question should be original and should contribute to the existing knowledge in the field of research.
• Significant : The research question should have significance and importance to the field of research. It should have the potential to provide new insights and knowledge to the field.
• Ethical : The research question should be ethical and should not cause harm to any individuals or groups involved in the study.

Purpose of Research Questions

Research questions are the foundation of any research study as they guide the research process and provide a clear direction to the researcher. The purpose of research questions is to identify the scope and boundaries of the study, and to establish the goals and objectives of the research.

The main purpose of research questions is to help the researcher to focus on the specific area or problem that needs to be investigated. They enable the researcher to develop a research design, select the appropriate methods and tools for data collection and analysis, and to organize the results in a meaningful way.

Research questions also help to establish the relevance and significance of the study. They define the research problem, and determine the research methodology that will be used to address the problem. Research questions also help to determine the type of data that will be collected, and how it will be analyzed and interpreted.

Finally, research questions provide a framework for evaluating the results of the research. They help to establish the validity and reliability of the data, and provide a basis for drawing conclusions and making recommendations based on the findings of the study.

Advantages of Research Questions

There are several advantages of research questions in the research process, including:

• Focus : Research questions help to focus the research by providing a clear direction for the study. They define the specific area of investigation and provide a framework for the research design.
• Clarity : Research questions help to clarify the purpose and objectives of the study, which can make it easier for the researcher to communicate the research aims to others.
• Relevance : Research questions help to ensure that the study is relevant and meaningful. By asking relevant and important questions, the researcher can ensure that the study will contribute to the existing body of knowledge and address important issues.
• Consistency : Research questions help to ensure consistency in the research process by providing a framework for the development of the research design, data collection, and analysis.
• Measurability : Research questions help to ensure that the study is measurable by defining the specific variables and outcomes that will be measured.
• Replication : Research questions help to ensure that the study can be replicated by providing a clear and detailed description of the research aims, methods, and outcomes. This makes it easier for other researchers to replicate the study and verify the results.

Limitations of Research Questions

Limitations of Research Questions are as follows:

• Subjectivity : Research questions are often subjective and can be influenced by personal biases and perspectives of the researcher. This can lead to a limited understanding of the research problem and may affect the validity and reliability of the study.
• Inadequate scope : Research questions that are too narrow in scope may limit the breadth of the study, while questions that are too broad may make it difficult to focus on specific research objectives.
• Unanswerable questions : Some research questions may not be answerable due to the lack of available data or limitations in research methods. In such cases, the research question may need to be rephrased or modified to make it more answerable.
• Lack of clarity : Research questions that are poorly worded or ambiguous can lead to confusion and misinterpretation. This can result in incomplete or inaccurate data, which may compromise the validity of the study.
• Difficulty in measuring variables : Some research questions may involve variables that are difficult to measure or quantify, making it challenging to draw meaningful conclusions from the data.
• Lack of generalizability: Research questions that are too specific or limited in scope may not be generalizable to other contexts or populations. This can limit the applicability of the study’s findings and restrict its broader implications.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Survey questions 101: 70+ survey question examples, types of surveys, and FAQs

How well do you understand your prospects and customers—who they are, what keeps them awake at night, and what brought them to your business in search of a solution? Asking the right survey questions at the right point in their customer journey is the most effective way to put yourself in your customers’ shoes.

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This comprehensive intro to survey questions contains over 70 examples of effective questions, an overview of different types of survey questions, and advice on how to word them for maximum effect. Plus, we’ll toss in our pre-built survey templates, expert survey insights, and tips to make the most of AI for Surveys in Hotjar. ✨

Surveying your users is the simplest way to understand their pain points, needs, and motivations. But first, you need to know how to set up surveys that give you the answers you—and your business—truly need. Impactful surveys start here:

❓ The main types of survey questions : most survey questions are classified as open-ended, closed-ended, nominal, Likert scale, rating scale, and yes/no. The best surveys often use a combination of questions.

💡 70+ good survey question examples : our top 70+ survey questions, categorized across ecommerce, SaaS, and publishing, will help you find answers to your business’s most burning questions

✅ What makes a survey question ‘good’ : a good survey question is anything that helps you get clear insights and business-critical information about your customers 

❌ The dos and don’ts of writing good survey questions : remember to be concise and polite, use the foot-in-door principle, alternate questions, and test your surveys. But don’t ask leading or loaded questions, overwhelm respondents with too many questions, or neglect other tools that can get you the answers you need.

👍 How to run your surveys the right way : use a versatile survey tool like Hotjar Surveys that allows you to create on-site surveys at specific points in the customer journey or send surveys via a link

🛠️ 10 use cases for good survey questions : use your survey insights to create user personas, understand pain points, measure product-market fit, get valuable testimonials, measure customer satisfaction, and more

Use Hotjar to build your survey and get the customer insight you need to grow your business.

6 main types of survey questions

Let’s dive into our list of survey question examples, starting with a breakdown of the six main categories your questions will fall into:

Open-ended questions

Closed-ended questions

Nominal questions

Likert scale questions

Rating scale questions

'Yes' or 'no' questions

1. Open-ended survey questions

Open-ended questions  give your respondents the freedom to  answer in their own words , instead of limiting their response to a set of pre-selected choices (such as multiple-choice answers, yes/no answers, 0–10 ratings, etc.). 

Examples of open-ended questions:

What other products would you like to see us offer?

If you could change just one thing about our product, what would it be?

When to use open-ended questions in a survey

The majority of example questions included in this post are open-ended, and there are some good reasons for that:

Open-ended questions help you learn about customer needs you didn’t know existed , and they shine a light on areas for improvement that you may not have considered before. If you limit your respondents’ answers, you risk cutting yourself off from key insights.

Open-ended questions are very useful when you first begin surveying your customers and collecting their feedback. If you don't yet have a good amount of insight, answers to open-ended questions will go a long way toward educating you about who your customers are and what they're looking for.

There are, however, a few downsides to open-ended questions:

First, people tend to be less likely to respond to open-ended questions in general because they take comparatively more effort to answer than, say, a yes/no one

Second, but connected: if you ask consecutive open-ended questions during your survey, people will get tired of answering them, and their answers might become less helpful the more you ask

Finally, the data you receive from open-ended questions will take longer to analyze compared to easy 1-5 or yes/no answers—but don’t let that stop you. There are plenty of shortcuts that make it easier than it looks (we explain it all in our post about how to analyze open-ended questions , which includes a free analysis template.)

💡 Pro tip: if you’re using Hotjar Surveys, let our AI for Surveys feature analyze your open-ended survey responses for you. Hotjar AI reviews all your survey responses and provides an automated summary report of key findings, including supporting quotes and actionable recommendations for next steps.

2. Closed-ended survey questions

Closed-end questions limit a user’s response options to a set of pre-selected choices. This broad category of questions includes

‘Yes’ or ‘no’ questions

When to use closed-ended questions

Closed-ended questions work brilliantly in two scenarios:

To open a survey, because they require little time and effort and are therefore easy for people to answer. This is called the foot-in-the-door principle: once someone commits to answering the first question, they may be more likely to answer the open-ended questions that follow.

When you need to create graphs and trends based on people’s answers. Responses to closed-ended questions are easy to measure and use as benchmarks. Rating scale questions, in particular (e.g. where people rate customer service or on a scale of 1-10), allow you to gather customer sentiment and compare your progress over time.

3. Nominal questions

A nominal question is a type of survey question that presents people with multiple answer choices; the answers are  non-numerical in nature and don't overlap  (unless you include an ‘all of the above’ option).

Example of nominal question:

What are you using [product name] for?

Personal use

Both business and personal use

When to use nominal questions

Nominal questions work well when there is a limited number of categories for a given question (see the example above). They’re easy to create graphs and trends from, but the downside is that you may not be offering enough categories for people to reply.

For example, if you ask people what type of browser they’re using and only give them three options to choose from, you may inadvertently alienate everybody who uses a fourth type and now can’t tell you about it.

That said, you can add an open-ended component to a nominal question with an expandable ’other’ category, where respondents can write in an answer that isn’t on the list. This way, you essentially ask an open-ended question that doesn’t limit them to the options you’ve picked.

4. Likert scale questions

The Likert scale is typically a 5- or 7-point scale that evaluates a respondent’s level of agreement with a statement or the intensity of their reaction toward something.

The scale develops symmetrically: the median number (e.g. a 3 on a 5-point scale) indicates a point of neutrality, the lowest number (always 1) indicates an extreme view, and the highest number (e.g. a 5 on a 5-point scale) indicates the opposite extreme view.

Example of a Likert scale question:

When to use Likert scale questions

Likert-type questions are also known as ordinal questions because the answers are presented in a specific order. Like other multiple-choice questions, Likert scale questions come in handy when you already have some sense of what your customers are thinking. For example, if your open-ended questions uncover a complaint about a recent change to your ordering process, you could use a Likert scale question to determine how the average user felt about the change.

A series of Likert scale questions can also be turned into a matrix question. Since they have identical response options, they are easily combined into a single matrix and break down the pattern of single questions for users.

5. Rating scale questions

Rating scale questions are questions where the answers map onto a numeric scale (such as rating customer support on a scale of 1-5, or likelihood to recommend a product from 0-10).

Examples of rating questions:

How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0-10?

How would you rate our customer service on a scale of 1-5?

When to use rating questions

Whenever you want to assign a numerical value to your survey or visualize and compare trends , a rating question is the way to go.

A typical rating question is used to determine Net Promoter Score® (NPS®) : the question asks customers to rate their likelihood of recommending products or services to their friends or colleagues, and allows you to look at the results historically and see if you're improving or getting worse. Rating questions are also used for customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys and product reviews.

When you use a rating question in a survey, be sure to explain what the scale means (e.g. 1 for ‘Poor’, 5 for ‘Amazing’). And consider adding a follow-up open-ended question to understand why the user left that score.

Example of a rating question (NPS):

6. ‘Yes’ or ‘no’ questions

These dichotomous questions are super straightforward, requiring a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ reply.

Examples of yes/no questions:

Was this article useful? (Yes/No)

Did you find what you were looking for today? (Yes/No)

When to use ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions

‘Yes’ and ‘no’ questions are a good way to quickly segment your respondents . For example, say you’re trying to understand what obstacles or objections prevent people from trying your product. You can place a survey on your pricing page asking people if something is stopping them, and follow up with the segment who replied ‘yes’ by asking them to elaborate further.

These questions are also effective for getting your foot in the door: a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question requires very little effort to answer. Once a user commits to answering the first question, they tend to become more willing to answer the questions that follow, or even leave you their contact information.

70+ more survey question examples

Below is a list of good survey questions, categorized across ecommerce, software as a service (SaaS), and publishing. You don't have to use them word-for-word, but hopefully, this list will spark some extra-good ideas for the surveys you’ll run immediately after reading this article. (Plus, you can create all of them with Hotjar Surveys—stick with us a little longer to find out how. 😉)

📊 9 basic demographic survey questions

Ask these questions when you want context about your respondents and target audience, so you can segment them later. Consider including demographic information questions in your survey when conducting user or market research as well. 

But don’t ask demographic questions just for the sake of it—if you're not going to use some of the data points from these sometimes sensitive questions (e.g. if gender is irrelevant to the result of your survey), move on to the ones that are truly useful for you, business-wise. 

Take a look at the selection of examples below, and keep in mind that you can convert most of them to multiple choice questions:

What is your name?

What is your age?

What is your gender?

What company do you work for?

What vertical/industry best describes your company?

What best describes your role?

In which department do you work?

What is the total number of employees in your company (including all locations where your employer operates)?

What is your company's annual revenue?

🚀 Get started: gather more info about your users with our product-market fit survey template .

👥 20+ effective customer questions

These questions are particularly recommended for ecommerce companies:

Before purchase

What information is missing or would make your decision to buy easier?

What is your biggest fear or concern about purchasing this item?

Were you able to complete the purpose of your visit today?

If you did not make a purchase today, what stopped you?

After purchase

Was there anything about this checkout process we could improve?

What was your biggest fear or concern about purchasing from us?

What persuaded you to complete the purchase of the item(s) in your cart today?

If you could no longer use [product name], what’s the one thing you would miss the most?

What’s the one thing that nearly stopped you from buying from us?

👉 Check out our 7-step guide to setting up an ecommerce post-purchase survey .

Other useful customer questions

Do you have any questions before you complete your purchase?

What other information would you like to see on this page?

What were the three main things that persuaded you to create an account today?

What nearly stopped you from creating an account today?

Which other options did you consider before choosing [product name]?

What would persuade you to use us more often?

What was your biggest challenge, frustration, or problem in finding the right [product type] online?

Please list the top three things that persuaded you to use us rather than a competitor.

Were you able to find the information you were looking for?

How satisfied are you with our support?

How would you rate our service/support on a scale of 0-10? (0 = terrible, 10 = stellar)

How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? ( NPS question )

Is there anything preventing you from purchasing at this point?

🚀 Get started: learn how satisfied customers are with our expert-built customer satisfaction and NPS survey templates .

Set up a survey in seconds

Use Hotjar's free survey templates to build virtually any type of survey, and start gathering valuable insights in moments.

🛍 30+ product survey questions

These questions are particularly recommended for SaaS companies:

Questions for new or trial users

What nearly stopped you from signing up today?

How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0-10? (NPS question)

Is our pricing clear? If not, what would you change?

Questions for paying customers

What convinced you to pay for this service?

What’s the one thing we are missing in [product type]?

What's one feature we can add that would make our product indispensable for you?

If you could no longer use [name of product], what’s the one thing you would miss the most?

🚀 Get started: find out what your buyers really think with our pricing plan feedback survey template .

Questions for former/churned customers

What is the main reason you're canceling your account? Please be blunt and direct.

If you could have changed one thing in [product name], what would it have been?

If you had a magic wand and could change anything in [product name], what would it be?

🚀 Get started: find out why customers churn with our free-to-use churn analysis survey template .

Other useful product questions

What were the three main things that persuaded you to sign up today?

Do you have any questions before starting a free trial?

What persuaded you to start a trial?

Was this help section useful?

Was this article useful?

How would you rate our service/support on a scale of 1-10? (0 = terrible, 10 = stellar)

Is there anything preventing you from upgrading at this point?

Is there anything on this page that doesn't work the way you expected it to?

What could we change to make you want to continue using us?

If you did not upgrade today, what stopped you?

What's the next thing you think we should build?

How would you feel if we discontinued this feature?

What's the next feature or functionality we should build?

🚀 Get started: gather feedback on your product with our free-to-use product feedback survey template .

🖋 20+ effective questions for publishers and bloggers

Questions to help improve content.

If you could change just one thing in [publication name], what would it be?

What other content would you like to see us offer?

How would you rate this article on a scale of 1–10?

If you could change anything on this page, what would you have us do?

If you did not subscribe to [publication name] today, what was it that stopped you?

🚀 Get started: find ways to improve your website copy and messaging with our content feedback survey template .

New subscriptions

What convinced you to subscribe to [publication] today?

What almost stopped you from subscribing?

What were the three main things that persuaded you to join our list today?

Cancellations

What is the main reason you're unsubscribing? Please be specific.

Other useful content-related questions

What’s the one thing we are missing in [publication name]?

What would persuade you to visit us more often?

How likely are you to recommend us to someone with similar interests? (NPS question)

What’s missing on this page?

What topics would you like to see us write about next?

How useful was this article?

What could we do to make this page more useful?

Is there anything on this site that doesn't work the way you expected it to?

What's one thing we can add that would make [publication name] indispensable for you?

If you could no longer read [publication name], what’s the one thing you would miss the most?

💡 Pro tip: do you have a general survey goal in mind, but are struggling to pin down the right questions to ask? Give Hotjar’s AI for Surveys a go and watch as it generates a survey for you in seconds with questions tailored to the exact purpose of the survey you want to run.

What makes a good survey question?

We’ve run through more than 70 of our favorite survey questions—but what is it that makes a good survey question, well, good ? An effective question is anything that helps you get clear insights and business-critical information about your customers , including

Who your target market is

How you should price your products

What’s stopping people from buying from you

Why visitors leave your website

With this information, you can tailor your website, products, landing pages, and messaging to improve the user experience and, ultimately, maximize conversions .

How to write good survey questions: the DOs and DON’Ts

To help you understand the basics and avoid some rookie mistakes, we asked a few experts to give us their thoughts on what makes a good and effective survey question.

Survey question DOs

✅ do focus your questions on the customer.

It may be tempting to focus on your company or products, but it’s usually more effective to put the focus back on the customer. Get to know their needs, drivers, pain points, and barriers to purchase by asking about their experience. That’s what you’re after: you want to know what it’s like inside their heads and how they feel when they use your website and products.

Rather than asking, “Why did you buy our product?” ask, “What was happening in your life that led you to search for this solution?” Instead of asking, “What's the one feature you love about [product],” ask, “If our company were to close tomorrow, what would be the one thing you’d miss the most?” These types of surveys have helped me double and triple my clients.

✅ DO be polite and concise (without skimping on micro-copy)

Put time into your micro-copy—those tiny bits of written content that go into surveys. Explain why you’re asking the questions, and when people reach the end of the survey, remember to thank them for their time. After all, they’re giving you free labor!

✅ DO consider the foot-in-the-door principle

One way to increase your response rate is to ask an easy question upfront, such as a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, because once people commit to taking a survey—even just the first question—they’re more likely to finish it.

✅ DO consider asking your questions from the first-person perspective

Disclaimer: we don’t do this here at Hotjar. You’ll notice all our sample questions are listed in second-person (i.e. ‘you’ format), but it’s worth testing to determine which approach gives you better answers. Some experts prefer the first-person approach (i.e. ‘I’ format) because they believe it encourages users to talk about themselves—but only you can decide which approach works best for your business.

I strongly recommend that the questions be worded in the first person. This helps create a more visceral reaction from people and encourages them to tell stories from their actual experiences, rather than making up hypothetical scenarios. For example, here’s a similar question, asked two ways: “What do you think is the hardest thing about creating a UX portfolio?” versus “My biggest problem with creating my UX portfolio is…” 

The second version helps get people thinking about their experiences. The best survey responses come from respondents who provide personal accounts of past events that give us specific and real insight into their lives.

✅ DO alternate your questions often

Shake up the questions you ask on a regular basis. Asking a wide variety of questions will help you and your team get a complete view of what your customers are thinking.

✅ DO test your surveys before sending them out

A few years ago, Hotjar created a survey we sent to 2,000 CX professionals via email. Before officially sending it out, we wanted to make sure the questions really worked. 

We decided to test them out on internal staff and external people by sending out three rounds of test surveys to 100 respondents each time. Their feedback helped us perfect the questions and clear up any confusing language.

Survey question DON’Ts

❌ don’t ask closed-ended questions if you’ve never done research before.

If you’ve just begun asking questions, make them open-ended questions since you have no idea what your customers think about you at this stage. When you limit their answers, you just reinforce your own assumptions.

There are two exceptions to this rule:

Using a closed-ended question to get your foot in the door at the beginning of a survey

Using rating scale questions to gather customer sentiment (like an NPS survey)

❌ DON’T ask a lot of questions if you’re just getting started

Having to answer too many questions can overwhelm your users. Stick with the most important points and discard the rest.

Try starting off with a single question to see how your audience responds, then move on to two questions once you feel like you know what you’re doing.

How many questions should you ask? There’s really no perfect answer, but we recommend asking as few as you need to ask to get the information you want. In the beginning, focus on the big things:

Who are your users?

What do potential customers want?

How are they using your product?

What would win their loyalty?

❌ DON’T just ask a question when you can combine it with other tools

Don’t just use surveys to answer questions that other tools (such as analytics) can also answer. If you want to learn about whether people find a new website feature helpful, you can also observe how they’re using it through traditional analytics, session recordings , and other user testing tools for a more complete picture.

Don’t use surveys to ask people questions that other tools are better equipped to answer. I’m thinking of questions like “What do you think of the search feature?” with pre-set answer options like ‘Very easy to use,’ ‘Easy to use,’ etc. That’s not a good question to ask. 

Why should you care about what people ‘think’ about the search feature? You should find out whether it helps people find what they need and whether it helps drive conversions for you. Analytics, user session recordings, and user testing can tell you whether it does that or not.

❌ DON’T ask leading questions

A leading question is one that prompts a specific answer. Avoid asking leading questions because they’ll give you bad data. For example, asking, “What makes our product better than our competitors’ products?” might boost your self-esteem, but it won’t get you good information. Why? You’re effectively planting the idea that your own product is the best on the market.

❌ DON’T ask loaded questions

A loaded question is similar to a leading question, but it does more than just push a bias—it phrases the question such that it’s impossible to answer without confirming an underlying assumption.

A common (and subtle) form of loaded survey question would be, “What do you find useful about this article?” If we haven’t first asked you whether you found the article useful at all, then we’re asking a loaded question.

❌ DON’T ask about more than one topic at once

For example, “Do you believe our product can help you increase sales and improve cross-collaboration?”

This complex question, also known as a ‘double-barreled question’, requires a very complex answer as it begs the respondent to address two separate questions at once:

Do you believe our product can help you increase sales?

Do you believe our product can help you improve cross-collaboration?

Respondents may very well answer 'yes', but actually mean it for the first part of the question, and not the other. The result? Your survey data is inaccurate, and you’ve missed out on actionable insights.

Instead, ask two specific questions to gather customer feedback on each concept.

How to run your surveys

The format you pick for your survey depends on what you want to achieve and also on how much budget or resources you have. You can

Use an on-site survey tool , like Hotjar Surveys , to set up a website survey that pops up whenever people visit a specific page: this is useful when you want to investigate website- and product-specific topics quickly. This format is relatively inexpensive—with Hotjar’s free forever plan, you can even run up to 3 surveys with unlimited questions for free.

Use Hotjar Surveys to embed a survey as an element directly on a page: this is useful when you want to grab your audience’s attention and connect with customers at relevant moments, without interrupting their browsing. (Scroll to the bottom of this page to see an embedded survey in action!) This format is included on Hotjar’s Business and Scale plans—try it out for 15 days with a free Ask Business trial .

Use a survey builder and create a survey people can access in their own time: this is useful when you want to reach out to your mailing list or a wider audience with an email survey (you just need to share the URL the survey lives at). Sending in-depth questionnaires this way allows for more space for people to elaborate on their answers. This format is also relatively inexpensive, depending on the tool you use.

Place survey kiosks in a physical location where people can give their feedback by pressing a button: this is useful for quick feedback on specific aspects of a customer's experience (there’s usually plenty of these in airports and waiting rooms). This format is relatively expensive to maintain due to the material upkeep.

Run in-person surveys with your existing or prospective customers: in-person questionnaires help you dig deep into your interviewees’ answers. This format is relatively cheap if you do it online with a user interview tool or over the phone, but it’s more expensive and time-consuming if done in a physical location.

💡 Pro tip: looking for an easy, cost-efficient way to connect with your users? Run effortless, automated user interviews with Engage , Hotjar’s user interview tool. Get instant access to a pool of 200,000+ participants (or invite your own), and take notes while Engage records and transcribes your interview.

10 survey use cases: what you can do with good survey questions

Effective survey questions can help improve your business in many different ways. We’ve written in detail about most of these ideas in other blog posts, so we’ve rounded them up for you below.

1. Create user personas

A user persona is a character based on the people who currently use your website or product. A persona combines psychographics and demographics and reflects who they are, what they need, and what may stop them from getting it.

Examples of questions to ask:

Describe yourself in one sentence, e.g. “I am a 30-year-old marketer based in Dublin who enjoys writing articles about user personas.”

What is your main goal for using this website/product?

What, if anything, is preventing you from doing it?

👉 Our post about creating simple and effective user personas in four steps highlights some great survey questions to ask when creating a user persona.

🚀 Get started: use our user persona survey template or AI for Surveys to inform your user persona.

2. Understand why your product is not selling

Few things are more frightening than stagnant sales. When the pressure is mounting, you’ve got to get to the bottom of it, and good survey questions can help you do just that.

What made you buy the product? What challenges are you trying to solve?

What did you like most about the product? What did you dislike the most?

What nearly stopped you from buying?

👉 Here’s a detailed piece about the best survey questions to ask your customers when your product isn’t selling , and why they work so well.

🚀 Get started: our product feedback survey template helps you find out whether your product satisfies your users. Or build your surveys in the blink of an eye with Hotjar AI.

3. Understand why people leave your website

If you want to figure out why people are leaving your website , you’ll have to ask questions.

A good format for that is an exit-intent pop-up survey, which appears when a user clicks to leave the page, giving them the chance to leave website feedback before they go.

Another way is to focus on the people who did convert, but just barely—something Hotjar founder David Darmanin considers essential for taking conversions to the next level. By focusing on customers who bought your product (but almost didn’t), you can learn how to win over another set of users who are similar to them: those who almost bought your products, but backed out in the end.

Example of questions to ask:

Not for you? Tell us why. ( Exit-intent pop-up —ask this when a user leaves without buying.)

What almost stopped you from buying? (Ask this post-conversion .)

👉 Find out how HubSpot Academy increased its conversion rate by adding an exit-intent survey that asked one simple question when users left their website: “Not for you? Tell us why.”

🚀 Get started: place an exit-intent survey on your site. Let Hotjar AI draft the survey questions by telling it what you want to learn.

I spent the better half of my career focusing on the 95% who don’t convert, but it’s better to focus on the 5% who do. Get to know them really well, deliver value to them, and really wow them. That’s how you’re going to take that 5% to 10%.

4. Understand your customers’ fears and concerns

Buying a new product can be scary: nobody wants to make a bad purchase. Your job is to address your prospective customers’ concerns, counter their objections, and calm their fears, which should lead to more conversions.

👉 Take a look at our no-nonsense guide to increasing conversions for a comprehensive write-up about discovering the drivers, barriers, and hooks that lead people to converting on your website.

🚀 Get started: understand why your users are tempted to leave and discover potential barriers with a customer retention survey .

5. Drive your pricing strategy

Are your products overpriced and scaring away potential buyers? Or are you underpricing and leaving money on the table?

Asking the right questions will help you develop a pricing structure that maximizes profit, but you have to be delicate about how you ask. Don’t ask directly about price, or you’ll seem unsure of the value you offer. Instead, ask questions that uncover how your products serve your customers and what would inspire them to buy more.

How do you use our product/service?

What would persuade you to use our product more often?

What’s the one thing our product is missing?

👉 We wrote a series of blog posts about managing the early stage of a SaaS startup, which included a post about developing the right pricing strategy —something businesses in all sectors could benefit from.

🚀 Get started: find the sweet spot in how to price your product or service with a Van Westendorp price sensitivity survey or get feedback on your pricing plan .

6. Measure and understand product-market fit

Product-market fit (PMF) is about understanding demand and creating a product that your customers want, need, and will actually pay money for. A combination of online survey questions and one-on-one interviews can help you figure this out.

What's one thing we can add that would make [product name] indispensable for you?

If you could change just one thing in [product name], what would it be?

👉 In our series of blog posts about managing the early stage of a SaaS startup, we covered a section on product-market fit , which has relevant information for all industries.

🚀 Get started: discover if you’re delivering the best products to your market with our product-market fit survey .

7. Choose effective testimonials

Human beings are social creatures—we’re influenced by people who are similar to us. Testimonials that explain how your product solved a problem for someone are the ultimate form of social proof. The following survey questions can help you get some great testimonials.

What changed for you after you got our product?

How does our product help you get your job done?

How would you feel if you couldn’t use our product anymore?

👉 In our post about positioning and branding your products , we cover the type of questions that help you get effective testimonials.

🚀 Get started: add a question asking respondents whether you can use their answers as testimonials in your surveys, or conduct user interviews to gather quotes from your users.

8. Measure customer satisfaction

It’s important to continually track your overall customer satisfaction so you can address any issues before they start to impact your brand’s reputation. You can do this with rating scale questions.

For example, at Hotjar, we ask for feedback after each customer support interaction (which is one important measure of customer satisfaction). We begin with a simple, foot-in-the-door question to encourage a response, and use the information to improve our customer support, which is strongly tied to overall customer satisfaction.

How would you rate the support you received? (1-5 scale)

If 1-3: How could we improve?

If 4-5: What did you love about the experience?

👉 Our beginner’s guide to website feedback goes into great detail about how to measure customer service, NPS , and other important success metrics.

🚀 Get started: gauge short-term satisfaction level with a CSAT survey .

9. Measure word-of-mouth recommendations

Net Promoter Score is a measure of how likely your customers are to recommend your products or services to their friends or colleagues. NPS is a higher bar than customer satisfaction because customers have to be really impressed with your product to recommend you.

Example of NPS questions (to be asked in the same survey):

How likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague? (0-10 scale)

What’s the main reason for your score?

What should we do to WOW you?

👉 We created an NPS guide with ecommerce companies in mind, but it has plenty of information that will help companies in other industries as well.

🚀 Get started: measure whether your users would refer you to a friend or colleague with an NPS survey . Then, use our free NPS calculator to crunch the numbers.

10. Redefine your messaging

How effective is your messaging? Does it speak to your clients' needs, drives, and fears? Does it speak to your strongest selling points?

Asking the right survey questions can help you figure out what marketing messages work best, so you can double down on them.

What attracted you to [brand or product name]?

Did you have any concerns before buying [product name]?

Since you purchased [product name], what has been the biggest benefit to you?

If you could describe [brand or product name] in one sentence, what would you say?

What is your favorite thing about [brand or product name]?

How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend or colleague? (NPS question)

👉 We talk about positioning and branding your products in a post that’s part of a series written for SaaS startups, but even if you’re not in SaaS (or you’re not a startup), you’ll still find it helpful.

Have a question for your customers? Ask!

Feedback is at the heart of deeper empathy for your customers and a more holistic understanding of their behaviors and motivations. And luckily, people are more than ready to share their thoughts about your business— they're just waiting for you to ask them. Deeper customer insights start right here, with a simple tool like Hotjar Surveys.

Build surveys faster with AI🔥

Use AI in Hotjar Surveys to build your survey, place it on your website or send it via email, and get the customer insight you need to grow your business.

FAQs about survey questions

How many people should i survey/what should my sample size be.

A good rule of thumb is to aim for at least 100 replies that you can work with.

You can use our  sample size calculator  to get a more precise answer, but understand that collecting feedback is research, not experimentation. Unlike experimentation (such as A/B testing ), all is not lost if you can’t get a statistically significant sample size. In fact, as little as ten replies can give you actionable information about what your users want.

How many questions should my survey have?

There’s no perfect answer to this question, but we recommend asking as few as you need to ask in order to get the information you want. Remember, you’re essentially asking someone to work for free, so be respectful of their time.

Why is it important to ask good survey questions?

A good survey question is asked in a precise way at the right stage in the customer journey to give you insight into your customers’ needs and drives. The qualitative data you get from survey responses can supplement the insight you can capture through other traditional analytics tools (think Google Analytics) and behavior analytics tools (think heatmaps and session recordings , which visualize user behavior on specific pages or across an entire website).

The format you choose for your survey—in-person, email, on-page, etc.—is important, but if the questions themselves are poorly worded you could waste hours trying to fix minimal problems while ignoring major ones a different question could have uncovered. 

How do I analyze open-ended survey questions?

A big pile of  qualitative data  can seem intimidating, but there are some shortcuts that make it much easier to analyze. We put together a guide for  analyzing open-ended questions in 5 simple steps , which should answer all your questions.

But the fastest way to analyze open questions is to use the automated summary report with Hotjar AI in Surveys . AI turns the complex survey data into:

Key findings

Actionable insights

Will sending a survey annoy my customers?

Honestly, the real danger is  not  collecting feedback. Without knowing what users think about your page and  why  they do what they do, you’ll never create a user experience that maximizes conversions. The truth is, you’re probably already doing something that bugs them more than any survey or feedback button would.

If you’re worried that adding an on-page survey might hurt your conversion rate, start small and survey just 10% of your visitors. You can stop surveying once you have enough replies.

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• Knowledge Base
• Methodology
• Questionnaire Design | Methods, Question Types & Examples

Questionnaire Design | Methods, Question Types & Examples

Published on 6 May 2022 by Pritha Bhandari . Revised on 10 October 2022.

A questionnaire is a list of questions or items used to gather data from respondents about their attitudes, experiences, or opinions. Questionnaires can be used to collect quantitative and/or qualitative information.

Questionnaires are commonly used in market research as well as in the social and health sciences. For example, a company may ask for feedback about a recent customer service experience, or psychology researchers may investigate health risk perceptions using questionnaires.

Table of contents

Questionnaires vs surveys, questionnaire methods, open-ended vs closed-ended questions, question wording, question order, step-by-step guide to design, frequently asked questions about questionnaire design.

A survey is a research method where you collect and analyse data from a group of people. A questionnaire is a specific tool or instrument for collecting the data.

Designing a questionnaire means creating valid and reliable questions that address your research objectives, placing them in a useful order, and selecting an appropriate method for administration.

But designing a questionnaire is only one component of survey research. Survey research also involves defining the population you’re interested in, choosing an appropriate sampling method , administering questionnaires, data cleaning and analysis, and interpretation.

Sampling is important in survey research because you’ll often aim to generalise your results to the population. Gather data from a sample that represents the range of views in the population for externally valid results. There will always be some differences between the population and the sample, but minimising these will help you avoid sampling bias .

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Questionnaires can be self-administered or researcher-administered . Self-administered questionnaires are more common because they are easy to implement and inexpensive, but researcher-administered questionnaires allow deeper insights.

Self-administered questionnaires

Self-administered questionnaires can be delivered online or in paper-and-pen formats, in person or by post. All questions are standardised so that all respondents receive the same questions with identical wording.

Self-administered questionnaires can be:

• Cost-effective
• Easy to administer for small and large groups
• Anonymous and suitable for sensitive topics

But they may also be:

• Unsuitable for people with limited literacy or verbal skills
• Susceptible to a nonreponse bias (most people invited may not complete the questionnaire)
• Biased towards people who volunteer because impersonal survey requests often go ignored

Researcher-administered questionnaires

Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in person, or online between researchers and respondents.

Researcher-administered questionnaires can:

• Help you ensure the respondents are representative of your target audience
• Allow clarifications of ambiguous or unclear questions and answers
• Have high response rates because it’s harder to refuse an interview when personal attention is given to respondents

But researcher-administered questionnaires can be limiting in terms of resources. They are:

• Costly and time-consuming to perform
• More difficult to analyse if you have qualitative responses
• Likely to contain experimenter bias or demand characteristics
• Likely to encourage social desirability bias in responses because of a lack of anonymity

Your questionnaire can include open-ended or closed-ended questions, or a combination of both.

Using closed-ended questions limits your responses, while open-ended questions enable a broad range of answers. You’ll need to balance these considerations with your available time and resources.

Closed-ended questions

Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to select from. Closed-ended questions are best for collecting data on categorical or quantitative variables.

Categorical variables can be nominal or ordinal. Quantitative variables can be interval or ratio. Understanding the type of variable and level of measurement means you can perform appropriate statistical analyses for generalisable results.

Examples of closed-ended questions for different variables

Nominal variables include categories that can’t be ranked, such as race or ethnicity. This includes binary or dichotomous categories.

It’s best to include categories that cover all possible answers and are mutually exclusive. There should be no overlap between response items.

In binary or dichotomous questions, you’ll give respondents only two options to choose from.

White Black or African American American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

Ordinal variables include categories that can be ranked. Consider how wide or narrow a range you’ll include in your response items, and their relevance to your respondents.

Likert-type questions collect ordinal data using rating scales with five or seven points.

When you have four or more Likert-type questions, you can treat the composite data as quantitative data on an interval scale . Intelligence tests, psychological scales, and personality inventories use multiple Likert-type questions to collect interval data.

With interval or ratio data, you can apply strong statistical hypothesis tests to address your research aims.

Pros and cons of closed-ended questions

Well-designed closed-ended questions are easy to understand and can be answered quickly. However, you might still miss important answers that are relevant to respondents. An incomplete set of response items may force some respondents to pick the closest alternative to their true answer. These types of questions may also miss out on valuable detail.

To solve these problems, you can make questions partially closed-ended, and include an open-ended option where respondents can fill in their own answer.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended, or long-form, questions allow respondents to give answers in their own words. Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that researchers may not have otherwise considered. For example, respondents may want to answer ‘multiracial’ for the question on race rather than selecting from a restricted list.

• How do you feel about open science?
• How would you describe your personality?
• In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle to productivity in remote work?

Open-ended questions have a few downsides.

They require more time and effort from respondents, which may deter them from completing the questionnaire.

For researchers, understanding and summarising responses to these questions can take a lot of time and resources. You’ll need to develop a systematic coding scheme to categorise answers, and you may also need to involve other researchers in data analysis for high reliability .

Question wording can influence your respondents’ answers, especially if the language is unclear, ambiguous, or biased. Good questions need to be understood by all respondents in the same way ( reliable ) and measure exactly what you’re interested in ( valid ).

Use clear language

You should design questions with your target audience in mind. Consider their familiarity with your questionnaire topics and language and tailor your questions to them.

For readability and clarity, avoid jargon or overly complex language. Don’t use double negatives because they can be harder to understand.

Use balanced framing

Respondents often answer in different ways depending on the question framing. Positive frames are interpreted as more neutral than negative frames and may encourage more socially desirable answers.

Use a mix of both positive and negative frames to avoid bias , and ensure that your question wording is balanced wherever possible.

Unbalanced questions focus on only one side of an argument. Respondents may be less likely to oppose the question if it is framed in a particular direction. It’s best practice to provide a counterargument within the question as well.

Avoid leading questions

Leading questions guide respondents towards answering in specific ways, even if that’s not how they truly feel, by explicitly or implicitly providing them with extra information.

It’s best to keep your questions short and specific to your topic of interest.

• The average daily work commute in the US takes 54.2 minutes and costs $29 per day. Since 2020, working from home has saved many employees time and money. Do you favour flexible work-from-home policies even after it’s safe to return to offices?
• Experts agree that a well-balanced diet provides sufficient vitamins and minerals, and multivitamins and supplements are not necessary or effective. Do you agree or disagree that multivitamins are helpful for balanced nutrition?

Keep your questions focused

Ask about only one idea at a time and avoid double-barrelled questions. Double-barrelled questions ask about more than one item at a time, which can confuse respondents.

This question could be difficult to answer for respondents who feel strongly about the right to clean drinking water but not high-speed internet. They might only answer about the topic they feel passionate about or provide a neutral answer instead – but neither of these options capture their true answers.

Instead, you should ask two separate questions to gauge respondents’ opinions.

Strongly Agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree

Do you agree or disagree that the government should be responsible for providing high-speed internet to everyone?

You can organise the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex. Alternatively, you can randomise the question order between respondents.

Logical flow

Using a logical flow to your question order means starting with simple questions, such as behavioural or opinion questions, and ending with more complex, sensitive, or controversial questions.

The question order that you use can significantly affect the responses by priming them in specific directions. Question order effects, or context effects, occur when earlier questions influence the responses to later questions, reducing the validity of your questionnaire.

While demographic questions are usually unaffected by order effects, questions about opinions and attitudes are more susceptible to them.

• How knowledgeable are you about Joe Biden’s executive orders in his first 100 days?
• Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Joe Biden is managing the economy?
• Do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president?

It’s important to minimise order effects because they can be a source of systematic error or bias in your study.

Randomisation

Randomisation involves presenting individual respondents with the same questionnaire but with different question orders.

When you use randomisation, order effects will be minimised in your dataset. But a randomised order may also make it harder for respondents to process your questionnaire. Some questions may need more cognitive effort, while others are easier to answer, so a random order could require more time or mental capacity for respondents to switch between questions.

Follow this step-by-step guide to design your questionnaire.

Step 1: Define your goals and objectives

The first step of designing a questionnaire is determining your aims.

• What topics or experiences are you studying?
• What specifically do you want to find out?
• Is a self-report questionnaire an appropriate tool for investigating this topic?

Once you’ve specified your research aims, you can operationalise your variables of interest into questionnaire items. Operationalising concepts means turning them from abstract ideas into concrete measurements. Every question needs to address a defined need and have a clear purpose.

Step 2: Use questions that are suitable for your sample

Create appropriate questions by taking the perspective of your respondents. Consider their language proficiency and available time and energy when designing your questionnaire.

• Are the respondents familiar with the language and terms used in your questions?
• Would any of the questions insult, confuse, or embarrass them?
• Do the response items for any closed-ended questions capture all possible answers?
• Are the response items mutually exclusive?
• Do the respondents have time to respond to open-ended questions?

Consider all possible options for responses to closed-ended questions. From a respondent’s perspective, a lack of response options reflecting their point of view or true answer may make them feel alienated or excluded. In turn, they’ll become disengaged or inattentive to the rest of the questionnaire.

Step 3: Decide on your questionnaire length and question order

Once you have your questions, make sure that the length and order of your questions are appropriate for your sample.

If respondents are not being incentivised or compensated, keep your questionnaire short and easy to answer. Otherwise, your sample may be biased with only highly motivated respondents completing the questionnaire.

Decide on your question order based on your aims and resources. Use a logical flow if your respondents have limited time or if you cannot randomise questions. Randomising questions helps you avoid bias, but it can take more complex statistical analysis to interpret your data.

Step 4: Pretest your questionnaire

When you have a complete list of questions, you’ll need to pretest it to make sure what you’re asking is always clear and unambiguous. Pretesting helps you catch any errors or points of confusion before performing your study.

Ask friends, classmates, or members of your target audience to complete your questionnaire using the same method you’ll use for your research. Find out if any questions were particularly difficult to answer or if the directions were unclear or inconsistent, and make changes as necessary.

If you have the resources, running a pilot study will help you test the validity and reliability of your questionnaire. A pilot study is a practice run of the full study, and it includes sampling, data collection , and analysis.

You can find out whether your procedures are unfeasible or susceptible to bias and make changes in time, but you can’t test a hypothesis with this type of study because it’s usually statistically underpowered .

A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analysing data from people using questionnaires.

Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to select from. These questions are easier to answer quickly.

Open-ended or long-form questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that researchers may not have otherwise considered.

A Likert scale is a rating scale that quantitatively assesses opinions, attitudes, or behaviours. It is made up of four or more questions that measure a single attitude or trait when response scores are combined.

To use a Likert scale in a survey , you present participants with Likert-type questions or statements, and a continuum of items, usually with five or seven possible responses, to capture their degree of agreement.

You can organise the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex, or randomly between respondents. A logical flow helps respondents process the questionnaire easier and quicker, but it may lead to bias. Randomisation can minimise the bias from order effects.

Questionnaires can be self-administered or researcher-administered.

Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in person, or online between researchers and respondents. You can gain deeper insights by clarifying questions for respondents or asking follow-up questions.

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surveys | July 8, 2020

Questionnaire: Types, Definition, Examples & How to Design Your Own

Daniel Ndukwu

A well-designed and considered questionnaire can be the difference between success and failure. 

Customers have wants and needs that are constantly changing and evolving. It’s no longer enough to be reactive when situations arise. Now, your customers expect you to solve problems before they become problems.

Questionnaires make it possible to better understand the wants and needs of your customers so you’re in a position to meet them.

This article walks you through what a questionnaire is, the pros & cons, and how to properly design them so you can unlock deep insights.

You may also like: 

Featured Training

This guide is long, detailed, and should serve as a constant reference. Instead of constantly coming back to check it, download the PDF version. When you download it, you’ll also get access to our free email training that shows how to use questionnaires, quizzes, and popups to understand, engage, and convert visitors to leads and customers.

Table of Contents

What is a questionnaire?

A questionnaire is a research device or instrument that is made up of a series of questions which are closed-ended or open-ended . The goal is to   collect relevant data   from respondents which can then be used for a variety of purposes. When you give the respondent the ability to give a longer answer, it can yield more insights because they can elaborate on their thoughts.

It was first developed by the Statistical Society of London in 1838 and has been in continuous use ever since.

Questionnaires, though versatile, aren’t ideal in every situation – especially when you need to understand specific issues.

In today’s digital era, the role of a business website goes beyond just visual appeal, emerging as a critical channel for engaging and communicating with potential customers.

It’s about transforming your online space into a dynamic portal that mirrors user expectations and preferences, fostering a sense of trust and connection with your visitors.

Crafting a business website that effectively intertwines with your audience’s journey is key to not only drawing them in but also keeping them engaged.

Therefore, choosing a design partner who can bring your vision to life, ensuring your site is a true extension of your brand’s ethos and a robust pillar of your digital marketing efforts, is essential

It’s not advisable to use a questionnaire to ask specific questions about a product or service you’re still considering. This may lead to bias and false positives about the feasibility of the product.

Instead, questionnaires should be used to collect more general information – qualitative or quantitative data – regarding features and preferences. For example, instead of asking if they’d buy a new pink button down shirt with a unique collar, ask if they like to wear the color pink or if they like the type of collar you’re considering.

closed-ended

• Levels of Measurement: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Scales
• What is Market Segmentation? The 5 Types, Examples, and Use Cases
• Target Market Examples, Definition, and Finding the Right one
• The 11 Best Free YouTube to MP3 Converters
• Behavioral Segmentation Defined + How to Use it for Explosive Results

7 Data Collection Methods for Qualitative and Quantitative Data

• Best YouTube Downloaders of the Year
• Top 13 Demographic Survey Questions you Should be Using
• 15 Best Landing Page Builder Software
• How to grow your podcast audience with simple surveys

Surveys vs questionnaires

Over time, surveys and questionnaires have gotten mixed up and are used interchangeably. They’re not the same thing. The difference is subtle but important.

A questionnaire is a list of questions used to collect data about someone or something. It’s not used to do statistical analysis or find trends and patterns. An example, would be when you sign up for a gym or go for a checkup and have to answer a series of questions about your current physical condition.

The answers you provide are used to understand your overall health, assess risk, and in some cases help find or diagnose issues. It’s not being used as part of a larger data set to clarify the bigger picture or find trends in a population.

A survey is a bit different. Instead of looking at individual questionnaires, it’s used to understand trends, do detailed analysis, and reveal deep insights. The key with a survey is that it’s collecting data with the express purpose of analysis.

As you can see, surveys deal with a lot of data which highlights the importance of a solid data governance strategy. What is data governance ? In a nutshell, it’s a standardized way you handle data to ensure you maintain the quality throughout the entire lifecycle. 

An example would be customer feedback surveys , demographic surveys , market research surveys, NPS surveys , etc. If only one person were to respond to these types of surveys , it would severely limit its usefulness. The more respondents, the easier it is to spot patterns and make informed decisions.

Why do they get mixed up?

Previously, researchers and professional marketers were the main groups who used surveys and questionnaires regularly. They made a clear distinction about what they are and when they were to be used.

​In the past, the realm of surveys and questionnaires was predominantly inhabited by researchers and seasoned marketers, who meticulously understood their nuances and precisely when to employ them. 

However, as the digital age unfolds, the landscape has transformed dramatically. Today, surveys and questionnaires have evolved into versatile tools, transcending traditional boundaries.

They are now readily accessible to businesses and individuals seeking insights into perplexing customer behaviors, steering marketing strategies with a burstiness that adapts to the ever-shifting dynamics of the market.

This democratization of data collection is reshaping the way we gather information, with surveys and questionnaires becoming indispensable instruments for decision-makers of all backgrounds.

With the advent of easy to access survey software , more and more businesses have started to handle their own research. The terms became interchangeable.

A questionnaire is when you ask someone a series of questions and don’t use it for data analysis.

A survey is when you ask someone a series of questions and you use it for data analysis.

For example, if you send an employee a series of questions about the working environment, it’s a questionnaire. When you send out that same questionnaire to 500 employees then compile the data to find trends, it’s a survey.

Make sense?

Let’s dive into the types of questionnaires.

Types of questionnaires

There are two main types of questionnaires and the one you’ll use depends on what kind of information you want and purpose of that information.

Exploratory questionnaire (qualitative)

These are also known as unstructured questionnaires . They’re used to collect qualitative data which is information that can be observed and recorded but isn’t numerical in nature. It’s used to approximate and characterize.

An example of qualitative data would be someone giving your feedback about your writing. They may mention things about the tone, clarity, word choice, etc. it helps you categorize your writing but you can’t attach a number to the feedback.

In the realm of content creation, the quest for the best writing apps becomes an essential journey. Just as perplexity and burstiness define human expression, these apps offer writers a palette of tools to navigate complexity and embrace stylistic variation. Exploring a range of options allows writers to balance intricately crafted sentences with bursts of concise brilliance.

Exploratory questionnaires are ideal when you’re in the early stages and want to learn more about a topic before designing a solution or hypothesis. For example, if you’re in the early stages of product development and don’t know enough about the market then exploratory questionnaires are ideal.

Formal standardized questionnaire (quantitative)

They’re also known as structured questionnaires. These ones are used to collect quantitative data which is information recorded as a count or numerical value.

The data is quantifiable which means it can be used for mathematical calculations or statistical analysis.  In essence, it answers the question of how much, how many, or how often.

An example of quantitative data would be the answer to the following question, “how old are you?” which requires a numerical reply.

Standardized questionnaires are best used when you’ve already formed an initial hypothesis or built out a prototype for a product. You’ll use it to stress test your assumptions, designs, use cases, etc. before going further with product development. Because of its clear focus, the questions you ask are narrow in scope and solicit specific information.

Just as important as the questionnaire type are the question types you choose.

Questionnaire question types

Not all question types are ideal in every situation. That’s why it’s important to understand the type of questionnaire you’re creating first. With that information, it becomes easier to choose the right question types.

Open ended questions

As the name implies, these questions are open for the respondent to answer with more freedom. Instead of presenting a series of answers choices, the respondent writes as much are as little as they want. This is ideal for exploratory questionnaires which collect qualitative data.

Multiple choice questions

Picture your questionnaire functioning like an engaging online brochure for your enterprise, accumulating responses while simultaneously captivating your target audience. As you formulate your queries, don’t forget to consider your overarching brand persona and communication, mirroring the thoughtfulness inherent in a meticulously designed online brochure .

This question presents the respondent with a list of answer options and they can select one or more. The challenge with multiple-choice questions is providing incomplete answer options.

For example, you may ask what industry do you work in and list out 5 of the most common industries. There are more than 5 industries in the world so some people won’t be represented in this situation. A simple solution to this problem is adding an “other” option.

Dichotomous questions

This is a question with only two possible answers. It tends to be a yes or no question but it can also be something like agree/disagree or true/false. Use this when all you need is basic validation without going too deeply into the motivations.

Scaled questions

Scaled questions are common in questionnaires and are often used to judge the degree of a feeling. This can be used in both exploratory and standardized questionnaires because there are many different types of scaled questions such as:

• Rating scale
• Likert scale
• Semantic differential scale

Pictorial questions

The final type of question used in questionnaires substitutes text for images. Respondents are asked a question and shown pictures to choose from. It usually has a higher response rate than other question types.

Similarly, the technique of background removal can significantly enhance the effectiveness of visual data collection. By isolating the subject from any distracting elements, background removal ensures that respondents’ attention is focused exactly where it needs to be.

Furthermore, integrating an AI background remover can revolutionize the way visuals are utilized in questionnaires. This tool automatically extracts the main subject from its background, allowing for clearer and more impactful visual questions.

The clarity gained through this technology can lead to more accurate respondent perceptions and, consequently, more reliable data. Utilizing an AI background remover ensures that every visual element serves its intended purpose without unnecessary distractions.

This method not only enriches the quality of the visual stimuli but also aligns with the precision and purposefulness of a well-structured questionnaire

Questions to avoid in a questionnaire

While you can ask almost anything in your questionnaire, it may not be a good idea to do so. Some questions may give you poor data while others may stop people from completing the questionnaire.

Here are a few question types to avoid.

Hypothetical questions

A hypothetical question asks a respondent what they would do, think, or feel about a situation that may happen in the future. It’s asking people to talk about their future actions and behavior which we’re notoriously bad at. This kind of question may give you data that can’t be used or will skew your overall understanding of the topic.

Elevating your content’s quality can be achieved by utilizing complimentary tools for background removal . Such a strategy enhances the visual attractiveness and professionalism of your creations, thereby distinguishing your content and more efficiently engaging your audience.

Embarrassing or offensive

Even though questionnaires can be anonymous, it’s not a good idea to embarrass or offend the respondent. It may lead to them dropping the questionnaire without completing it or giving you poor answers on purpose. Neither one is a good scenario.

Extreme positive/negative

You don’t want to bias your respondents before they’ve had a chance to form their own opinion on a topic. If a question is presented as extremely positive or negative then it may create a bias that should always be avoided. In the end, your data will be skewed.

Proper product pricing is a very important and useful thing in business. With the help of proper pricing, you can earn much more. To build your pricing you need to do a detailed analysis of your target audience.

Designing your own questionnaire

There are quite a few factors to consider when you’re designing a questionnaire that gives you the exact information you’re looking for.

At the very least, think about the goal, audience, distribution method, etc. Let’s look at the factors to consider while creating a well thought out questionnaire.

1.    What’s the goal of the questionnaire?

This may be the most important aspect of the questionnaire creation process. The goal of your questionnaire will determine both the type and questions to ask your respondents.

As mentioned earlier, if you’re in the beginning stages and are still trying to form a hypothesis, it’s an exploratory questionnaire with open-ended questions . If you’re trying to prove or disprove an already formulated solution or hypothesis then a standardized questionnaire with closed-ended questions would be used.

A clear goal also makes it easier to determine if a specific question is necessary or not. For example, if you’re doing initial product research for a dog toy, a question about the kinds of toys they’ve purchased in the past may be useful. When you have an initial prototype dog toy and want to gauge market response, that question wouldn’t be as useful to you.

2.    Who is the target group?

Whether or not it’s obvious, every market has multiple groups within it. Let’s take an average SaaS company for example. It usually has  pricing tiers  that are mapped to different personas. The customers on each subscription plan have different wants and needs.

The questionnaire you create and send out should reflect that. If you have the resources, create more than one so you can cater to the specific needs of different groups in your customer base.

In a situation where you’ve not seen different customer groups, it may be worth it for you to identify and  segment your customers . Not only will your messaging become more effective, any time you send out a questionnaire or a survey, but it’ll also be more targeted and get a higher response rate. On average, you can expect only 12.5% of an external audience (nonemployees) to respond to your survey.

Developing an ideal questionnaire is greatly dependent on identifying the appropriate questions to ask . This process includes not only choosing questions that closely match your research objectives but also crafting them in a way that garners straightforward and neutral answers.

Employing a tactful questioning technique can reveal more profound insights, thereby enhancing the efficacy of your data-gathering efforts. To gain a broader perspective on establishing connections via skillful questioning, it’s recommended to explore the nuances of formulating highly influential questions.

3.    How will you reach the target group?

This is often overlooked until the last minute but it’s an important consideration. If you have an email list full of past and present customers then this may not be an issue for you.

What about when you’re trying to enter a new market with a new type of product and don’t have customers there? How will you be able to reach them? Can you even reach them online?

This can have major implications on the design of your questionnaire. For example, if it’s a paper-based questionnaire, the design will necessarily be different and the questions won’t be as dynamic. If you’re using ads to get people to take your questionnaire, you may need to provide an incentive and make it shorter.

4.    Do you have a clear question progression?

The way your questions are ordered sets the tone for the entire questionnaire. You don’t want to start with a deep philosophical question that challenges the meaning of life. That’s too heavy. Almost everyone will bounce.

Instead, you want to start with simple questions that almost anyone can answer without too much thought. These are questions like age, sex, and geography – demographic information . These answers can also be used to further segment your respondents.

After discussing the foundational elements of questionnaires, it’s essential to consider modern advancements. ChatGPT Integration represents a significant leap in this direction.

With the rise of AI and chatbots, integrating tools like ChatGPT into your questionnaire process can greatly enhance user engagement. By utilizing ChatGPT, businesses can provide real-time assistance to respondents, clarifying questions, offering instant feedback, and ensuring a more interactive and smoother experience.

Additionally, exploring ChatGPT alternatives can provide diverse functionalities and features to better suit specific business needs. Diverse AI solutions ensure that each questionnaire feels tailored and responsive, significantly boosting respondent satisfaction. Among these alternatives, some platforms specialize in nuanced language processing, while others excel at handling large volumes of data efficiently.

This flexibility allows for customization at a level that best suits the unique demands of each project, making the deployment of AI in questionnaires not just innovative but also highly adaptable to varying requirements.

Such integrations not only streamline the response process but also pave the way for richer data collection and insights.

After you’ve built up some momentum, move into the core questions you want an answer to. The questions you ask here will depend on your goals but it should relate to your products and services. These questions help you flesh out your product development initiatives as well as create better and more focused marketing messages.

Finally, tie up any loose ends with your final questions. A common but subpar question is “is there anything else you think we should know?” try to avoid this one. Instead, ask things like how they found you, their experience with buying another similar product, how they’d describe a specific problem, etc.

5.    What kind of questions will you use?

Do you want well thought out answers that give you deep insights into the inner workings of the respondent’s mind? Or, do you want a narrow but easily analyzed response? The type of questions you use will determine the type of data you get.

As a rule of thumb, open-ended questions are often used earlier in the research process. Closed-ended questions tend to be used to prove or disprove hypothesis or solutions. Of course, you can use both of them but be sure to pay close attention to question progression so respondents aren’t put off or confused.

6.    Length of questionnaire

There are no hard and fast rules about how long your questionnaire should be. Some of them are hundreds of questions while others are less than five questions. The more questions, the lower your completion rate.

On average, it takes 5 minutes to answer 10 questions. Depending on whether the answers are open-ended or close-ended, the time could be considerably more.

Your customers are busy and most of them won’t sit through a long questionnaire without some form of incentive or compensation. If you’re able to provide that then fine but most customer surveys shouldn’t require it.

Instead, be considerate of the time of others. Keep your questionnaires less than 15 questions and ideally under 10 questions. It makes it easier for respondents to complete the survey and easier for you and your team to analyze the information.

Navigating the complexities of data collection in the digital realm requires a keen understanding of legal boundaries, particularly when dealing with sensitive financial information. Engaging a credit report lawyer becomes essential when your surveys delve into areas that might influence someone’s credit standing.

These legal advisors are adept at ensuring your methods are in line with stringent standards, such as those outlined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Their counsel is vital in crafting data handling procedures that not only respect individual privacy rights but also uphold the integrity of your business operations, thereby mitigating risks associated with credit information mismanagement and privacy infractions.

7.    Presentation

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a thousand bells and whistles to get people to take your questionnaire. A simple design that emphasizes the questions is more valuable than a flashy one. Of course, you can go flashy if you like. The thing is, most people just don’t care.

Select a font that’s easy for people to read and make sure the size is large enough to be legible on all devices. Apart from that, keep the number of pages to a minimum. 2 pages is much better than 30 pages when it comes to a questionnaire.

When you’re ready to present your findings, that’s when you can get flashy. You can use one of these presentation websites to create slides that display the insights you’ve gathered.

8.    Choose language carefully

If you ask a question that creates bias or confuses your respondents then you may accidentally contaminate your data. Use clear terms, be concise, and avoid industry jargon.

For example, “We’ve been told we make great eggs, would you agree or disagree?” this question causes bias before the customer can answer. An unbiased question would be “how would you rate our eggs on a scale of 1 – 5?”

Also, avoid combining multiple questions into one. An example of a combination question would be “how did you enjoy your stay and would you recommend us to a friend?” These are two distinct questions bundled into one.

Advantages & disadvantages of questionnaires

It’s important to understand both the pros and cons of questionnaires and put proper safeguards in place before you start using them to make important business decisions.

Let’s start with a few of the good things.

Inexpensive

Sending out an online questionnaire is one of the cheapest customer research strategies available. Unless you’re offering some type of incentive or are using ads to get in front of respondents, there are few costs associated with it.

Self-administered questionnaires avoid the need for hiring people to administer it, remove the cost of in-person interviews, and have versatile distribution methods.

Results come in quickly & can reach a large audience

Business moves fast so one of the most powerful advantages of a questionnaire is the ability to get it in the hands of a large group of people quickly. You don’t need to start mailing it out and waiting days for it to get to the intended recipient.

Instead, you can send an email, post it on your website, or share it on social media and start getting responses you can use almost instantly. Also, there’s no real upper limit to the number of people who can respond to the questionnaire.

Easy to analyze the results

The majority of questionnaires are quantitative in nature which allows for quick analysis of the answers. This is even more important when you have a larger pool of respondents.

With a survey tool like KyLeads , you can easily spot trends and derive insights from your questionnaire with our easy to use & understand reporting features.

Respondents can remain anonymous

If respondents are unable to remain anonymous, they may not answer some of the questions truthfully. As long as you’ve done proper targeting and they’re not answering for an incentive, it’s ideal to leave the respondents anonymous. They’ll be more comfortable and answer honestly and thoroughly.

Can cover all aspects of a topic

This is an overlooked aspect of questionnaires. With them, it’s possible to ask 100 questions. Of course, we don’t advise this because almost no one will finish an online questionnaire of that length.

With that being said, you can ask as many questions and solicit as much detail as you want. Play around with the number of questions you ask but try not to overdo it.

For instance, a real estate agent might use a questionnaire to understand the specific needs and preferences of potential homebuyers. By asking targeted questions about desired locations, types of homes, budget constraints, and must-have features, the agent can gather valuable insights.

This information not only helps in tailoring property suggestions but also in refining marketing strategies to attract the right clientele. Moreover, such questionnaires can be a great tool for building a database of client preferences, aiding in future property recommendations and personalized service offerings.

Disadvantages

There are a few disadvantages to questionnaires which you should be aware of.

Unanswered questions

Sometimes, people will just skip answers or drop off halfway. Since the questions are online and no one is there to prompt the respondent, this happens fairly often.

There is any number of reasons for this like unclear or confusing questions, irrelevant questions, incomplete answer options, etc. Making the answer required can help with this but it also increases the chances of someone abandoning the questionnaire altogether.

Questionnaire fatigue

Fatigue with your survey as well as the other surveys being sent out by other companies. More and more companies are using surveys and customers can’t answer all of them. This results in a lower overall response rate to surveys or questionnaires as a whole.

Conversely, someone may start your survey but drop off because there are too many questions or the questions seem to be irrelevant. You can’t get rid of the fatigue 100% but you can reduce it by creating shorter questionnaires and making your questions easy to answer.

Little personalization

Everyone who takes the questionnaire gets, for the most part, the same series of questions presented in the same way. Now, technology is making this better with features like logic branching and answer piping so the experience can be personalized a bit more.

In the end, it’s still limited because there’s a predetermined series of questions and the questionnaire can’t react to open ended statements.

Improper interpretation of questions

This is why it’s so important to choose your question language so carefully. It’s easy to misinterpret a written question and give a wrong answer or skip the question entirely. Another thing to consider is that certain words have multiple meanings and, without context, a different meaning may be applied.

Prevent this by using simple direct language in your questions and avoiding jargon.

Difficult to analyze certain types of questions

Multiple choice questions and dichotomous questions are simple to analyze. Open ended questions can’t be analyzed so easily.

They’ll require a human touch to ensure you’ve understood what the person is trying to tell you. This isn’t a bad thing but it can get tedious when there are a lot of answers to sift through.

Examples of questionnaires

There are countless types of questionnaires and surveys you can use to get deep insights about your customers and business. In this section, you’ll learn 6 common types that’ll help you improve your business immediately.

Brand awareness

This questionnaire example is ideal when you’re actively focusing on building awareness and doing demand generation . It helps you gauge whether or not your efforts are yielding fruit.

It’s one thing for people to end up on your website through a search on Google or a random post on social media. It’s another thing for there to be brand recall or positive associations about your business.

It’s impossible to stay on the sidelines when social media is taking over the world.

That’s why it makes sense to consider this option: include the latest social media trends in your questionnaire and gain powerful insights into how these trends are influencing consumer wants and shaping their expectations and associations with your business.

In addition to evaluating traditional website traffic and search engine rankings, this is also a great technique for gleaning relevant information.

The brand awareness questionnaire will give you a better understanding of whether people looking for solutions you provide think of your brand, the kind of associations your name creates, and if you’re considered a leader in your field.

The NPS questionnaire has become popular over the last few years and it helps you measure customer loyalty and satisfaction.

It’s important to note that in its original form, it’s measuring loyalty and satisfaction that pertains to your entire business as opposed to specific products.

It uses a scale to measure customer loyalty. You calculate the score by subtracting the percentage of detractors from promoters and it’s expressed as an absolute number.

CSAT questionnaire

The customer satisfaction (CSAT) questionnaire example we’re sharing is just one of many. CSATs are incredibly varied. Even the NPS questionnaire is a type of CSAT. In general, it’s used to understand how satisfied a customer is with specific products and services or your business as a whole.

Use the basic outline below then tweak the questions to apply to your business or specific product lines. For example, if you were a shoe company, you could ask how often they wear shoes purchased from you.

If you were a hair extensions company, you could ask how satisfied they were with the product or the shopping experience as a whole.

Demographic questionnaire

Demographic questionnaires are often used to identify and segment the groups you have in your audience. This type of questionnaire is ideal if you’re entering a new market and want to start building up a profile of the people who will be your customers.

At the same time, you may want to use this to understand your current customer base so you can create better messaging or product pricing.

Oftentimes, the demographic questions are a small part of larger questionnaires used to understand who’s giving what kind of answer.

For example, if you serve a customer group that varies in age and income, you’d like to know what kind of customers are giving answers so you can make decisions properly.

Psychographic questionnaire

Psychographic segmentation has a firm place in modern business because everyone has demographic data (or can get it).

Demographic segmentation pales in comparison to knowing why a group of people do what they do.

Look at it this way, demographic data helps you understand the characteristics and buying power of your customers.

Psychographics helps you understand the why behind their actions and their attitudes behind certain stances. It can be a goldmine if gathered and used properly.

Post-event questionnaire

Ah, events . If you’re like most of us mere mortals then there’s a love-hate relationship with them. On the one hand, if they go off well then it can power your business to the next level.

On the other hand, everything that can go wrong probably will. As the organizer of the event or someone who had a key role, it may seem like you know exactly what went right and what went wrong.

If you don’t get feedback from as many people as possible then those are just assumptions which may or may not be correct.

Use post-event surveys to talk to as many people as humanly possible to get a clear picture of how you can improve.

This guide has covered a lot of ground so don’t expect to cram everything in one sitting.

Questionnaires are the backbone of surveys. Without them, there’s nothing to analyze. Before you dive in and start designing your questionnaire to collect all that juicy customer data, there are a number of things to do.

Decide on the type of questionnaire and your goals, focus on the right questions, figure out who the target group is, and so much more. Be sure to revisit this guide whenever you’re in doubt.

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5 Essential Types of Questionnaire in Research to Improve Your Survey

Leah Nguyen • 11 September, 2023 • 7 min read

Questionnaires are clutch for rounding up details from people all over the place.

Even though questionnaires are everywhere, people still aren't sure which kinds of queries to add down.

We'll show you the types of questionnaire in research, plus how and where to use one.

Let's get down to it👇

• #1. Open-ended questionnaire in research

#2. Rating scale questionnaire in research

#3. closed-ended questionnaire in research, #4. multiple choice questionnaire in research, #5. likert scale questionnaire in research.

• Key Takeaways 

Frequently Asked Questions

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Types of Questionnaire in Research

When making your questionnaire, you have to think about what type of information you trying to get from people.

If you want rich, exploratory details to help prove or debunk a theory, go with a qualitative survey with open-ended questions. This lets people freely explain their thoughts.

But if you already have a hypothesis and just need numbers to test it, a quantitative questionnaire is the jam. Use closed questions where folks pick answers to get measurable, quantifiable stats.

Once you've got it, now it's time to choose what type of questionnaire in research you'd like to include.

#1. Open-ended question naire in research

Open-ended questions are a valuable tool in research as they allow subjects to fully express their perspectives without limitations.

The unstructured format of open-ended questions, which do not provide predefined answer choices, makes them well-suited for exploratory research early on.

This allows investigators to uncover nuanced insights and potentially identify new avenues for investigation that had not been conceived previously.

While open-ended questions generate qualitative rather than quantitative data, requiring more in-depth coding methods for analysis across large samples, their strength lies in revealing a wide range of thoughtful responses.

Commonly used as introductory questions in interviews or pilot studies to explore explanatory factors, open-ended queries are most useful when a topic needs to be understood from all angles before designing more direct closed-question surveys.

Opinion questions:

• What are your thoughts on [topic]?
• How would you describe your experience with [topic]?

Experience questions:

• Tell me about a time when [event] occurred.
• Walk me through the process of [activity].

Feeling questions:

• How did you feel about [event/situation]?
• What emotions are evoked when [stimulus] is present?

Recommendation questions:

• How could [issue] be improved?
• What suggestions do you have for [proposed solution/idea]?

Impact questions:

• In what ways has [event] affected you?
• How have your views on [topic] changed over time?

Hypothetical questions:

• How do you think you would react if [scenario]?
• What factors do you think would influence [outcome]?

Interpretation questions:

• What does [term] mean to you?
• How would you interpret the finding that [result]?

Rating scale questions are a valuable tool in research for measuring attitudes, opinions, and perceptions that exist on a continuum rather than as absolute states.

By presenting a question followed by a numbered scale for respondents to indicate their level of agreement, importance, satisfaction, or other ratings, these questions capture the intensity or direction of feelings in a structured yet nuanced way.

Common types include Likert scales involving labels like strongly disagree to strongly agree as well as visual analogue scales.

The quantitative metric data they provide can then be easily aggregated and statistically analysed to compare mean ratings, correlations, and relationships.

Rating scales are well suited for applications like market segmentation analysis, pre-testing, and post-implementation program evaluation through techniques such as A/B testing.

While their reductive nature may lack the context of open responses, rating scales still efficiently gauge sentiment dimensions for examination of predictive links between attitude facets when appropriately placed after initial descriptive inquiry.

Closed-ended questions are commonly used in research to collect structured, quantitative data through standardised answer choices.

By providing a restricted set of response options for subjects to select from, such as true/false, yes/no, rating scales or predefined multiple choice answers, closed-ended questions yield responses that can be more easily coded, aggregated, and statistically analysed across large samples compared to open-ended questions.

This makes them suitable during later validation phases after factors have already been identified, such as hypothesis testing, measuring attitudes or perceptions, subject ratings, and descriptive inquiries relying on fact-based data.

While limiting responses simplifies surveying and allows for direct comparison, it risks omitting unanticipated issues or losing context beyond the given alternatives.

Multiple choice questions are a useful tool in research when administered properly through closed questionnaires.

They present respondents with a question along with four to five pre-defined answer options from which to select.

This format allows for easy quantification of responses that can be statistically analysed across large sample groups.

While quick for participants to complete and straightforward to code and interpret, multiple-choice questions also carry some limitations.

Most notably, they risk overlooking important nuances or missing relevant options if not carefully pilot-tested beforehand.

To minimise the risk of bias, answer choices must be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

With considerations for wording and options, multiple choice questions can efficiently yield measurable descriptive data when the key possibilities are pre-identified, such as for classifying behaviours, and demographic profiles or assessing knowledge on topics where variations are known.

The Likert scale is a commonly used type of Rating scale in research to quantitatively measure attitudes, opinions, and perceptions on various topics of interest.

Utilising a symmetrical agree-disagree response format where participants indicate their level of agreement with a statement, Likert scales typically feature a 5-point design although more or fewer options are possible depending on the needed sensitivity of measurement.

By assigning numeric values to each level of the response scale, Likert data allows for statistical analysis of patterns and relationships between variables.

This yields more consistent results than simple yes/no or open-ended questions for certain types of questions aimed at gauging the intensity of sentiments on a continuum.

While Likert scales provide easily collectable metric data and are straightforward for respondents, their limitation is oversimplifying complex viewpoints, though they still offer valuable insight when properly applied in research.

A researcher wants to understand the relationship between job satisfaction (dependent variable) and factors like pay, work-life balance, and supervision quality (independent variables).

A 5-point Likert scale is used for questions like:

• I am satisfied with my pay (Strongly disagree to Strongly agree)
• My job allows for a good work-life balance (Strongly disagree to Strongly agree)
• My supervisor is supportive and a good manager (Strongly disagree to Strongly agree)

We cover all types of questionnaire in research. Get started right away with AhaSlides' free survey templates !

General Event Feedback Survey

Team Engagement Survey

Environmental Issues Survey

Key takeaways.

These types of questionnaire in research are typically common and easy for people to fill out.

When your queries are straightforward to grasp and your options are uniform, everyone's on the same page. Answers then compile nicely whether you got one response or a million.

The key is making sure respondents always know exactly what you're asking, then their replies will slide right into place for the smooth assembling of sweet survey scoops.

What are the 4 types of questionnaire in research?

The four main types of questionnaires used in research are structured questionnaires, unstructured questionnaires, surveys and interviews. The appropriate type depends on the research objectives, budget, timeline and whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods are most suitable.

What are the 6 main types of survey questions?

The six main types of survey questions are closed-ended questions, open-ended questions, rating scale questions, ranking scale questions, demographic questions and behavioural questions.

What are the three types of questionnaires?

The three main types of questionnaires are structured questionnaires, semi-structured questionnaires and unstructured questionnaires.

Leah Nguyen

Words that convert, stories that stick. I turn complex ideas into engaging narratives - helping audiences learn, remember, and take action.

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Microbe Notes

Questionnaire- Types, Format, Questions

• A questionnaire is defined as a document containing questions and other types of items designed to solicit information appropriate for analysis.
• The questionnaire may be regarded as a form of an interview on paper.
• Procedure for the construction of a questionnaire follows a pattern similar to that of the interview schedule.
• However, because the questionnaire is impersonal it is all the more important to take care of its construction.
• Since there is no interviewer to explain ambiguities or to check misunderstandings, the questionnaire must be especially clear in its working.
• The variety of possible answers to each question must be anticipated more fully than for an interview.

Table of Contents

Interesting Science Videos

The Essentials of the Questionnaire Construction

• Questionnaire design is a very crucial and important part of the research because an inappropriate questionnaire misleads the research, academics, and policymaking.
• Therefore, a set of adequate and appropriate questions in a sequential order is required in a questionnaire.
• The format of the questionnaire mostly depends on the type of questionnaire used.

Types of Questionnaire

There are roughly two types of questionnaires, structured and unstructured. A mixture of these both is the quasi-structured questionnaire that is used mostly in social science research.

• Structured questionnaires include pre-coded questions with well-defined skipping patterns to follow the sequence of questions. Most of the quantitative data collection operations use structured questionnaires. Fewer discrepancies, easy to administer consistency in answers and easy for the data management are advantages of such structured questionnaires.
• Unstructured questionnaires include open-ended and vague opinion-type questions. Maybe questions are not in the format of interrogative sentences and the moderator or the enumerator has to elaborate the sense of the question. Focus group discussions use such a questionnaire.
• Not all questions are easily pre-coded with almost possible alternatives to answers. Given answer alternatives of some questions in the standard questionnaires are left as ‘others’ (please specify). A common and pragmatic practice is that most of the questions are structured, however, it is comfortable to have some unstructured questions whose answers are not feasible to enumerate completely. Such a type of questionnaire is called a quasi-structured questionnaire .

The Format of Questionnaire

• It should be smaller in size than that of the schedule.
• The extent in length and breadth should be appropriate.
• It should not be more than two or three pages as to the nature of the research.

Appearance:

• It should be constructed on a good quality paper and printing.
• It should have an attractive layout.
• The questions should be short, clear in terms, tenure, and expression.
• The question should be arranged according to the importance and preference.

Communicability:

• The questions of the questionnaire should be able to keep the interest of the     respondents
• The length of the questions of the questionnaire should be as short as possible.
• The questionnaire should not be long in length.

Question Types in a Questionnaire

The questions asked can take two forms:

• Restricted questions , also called closed-ended, are the ones that ask the respondent to make choices — yes or no, check items on a list, or select from multiple choice answers.

Restricted questions are easy to tabulate and compile.

• Unrestricted questions are open-ended and allow respondents to share feelings and opinions that are important to them about the matter at hand.

Unrestricted questions are not easy to tabulate and compile, but they allow respondents to reveal the depth of their emotions.

• If the objective is to compile data from all respondents, then sticking with restricted questions that are easily quantified is better.
• If degrees of emotions or depth of sentiment are to be studied, then develop a scale to quantify those feelings.

Characteristics of Good Questions in a Questionnaire

General rules of question crafting:

• Clear objective
• Simple language
• Clear concepts
• Without bias
• Adequate answer options
• Shorter questions
• The single question at a time
• Affirmative sentences
• Mathematics not imposed
• Short/clear reference periods
• Avoid question reference

Question Types to be avoided in a Questionnaire

• Question without objective
• Each question should have an objective.

The proposed research is to assess the knowledge of respondents on sexually transmitted diseases. If the proposed analytical framework has no consideration of the educational (by discipline) background of the respondent it is futile to ask: “Which subject did you study at university before you joined the recent job?”

• Complex language
• The language of the questionnaire should not be complicated to understand. The vocabulary of the respondents should be used in the questionnaire.
• A simple language is preferred. The use of rhetorical and elite language creates problems while the questionnaire is administered.

Did you realize the complexities of life in a different way by the behavior of your spouse when you were tested positive with HIV/AIDS? Instead, the questions like Do your spouse knows about your HIV positive? (If Yes, Do you find a change in his/her behavior? If Yes, What kind)

• Ambiguous concepts
• Ambiguous concepts should not be incorporated into the questions.

Example: What is your opinion about some medical researches that pledge for the high prevalence of transmission of HIV among the elite group of Nepal after the restoration of a multiparty system? This question has three major elements as medical research, HIV transmission, and restoration of multiparty democracy. Elite group and high prevalence are other minor elements. Respondent would not be able to correctly form his/her opinion.

• Reference of previous questions

It is extremely not suggested to ask the questions like “As I asked in Question number 12 above about ….. “. If reference or cue of previous questions is required to recall the answer of respondents by stating full questions and answers to continue the further interview.

• Longer and vague reference periods

Reference periods should be clear and preferably shorter. Longer reference period causes recall lapse errors. These errors mislead the research.

For example, after the year of a greater earthquake or in these ten years how many times did you visit the health post for antenatal check-ups? Instead ” How many times did you visit health post for a check-up during the period of your last pregnancy (or three months)?

• Questions with calculations
• As far as possible, avoid all calculation seeking questions. Respondents do hesitate to calculate and there is always the possibility of receiving wrong answers.
• Respondents who can not calculate also give wrong answers to hide their ignorance and who can, they also have a tendency of wrong calculation to exhibit their confidence in calculations.

Example: What percent of your income is spent on the treatment? Instead, use “What is your monthly income?” as a preceding question of “How much do you spend in your treatment?” and calculation should be performed in the data processing and analysis phase.

• Do not give strains to the respondents.
• Double negative (Double-barrelled)
• Double negatives must be avoided in the language of the question.
• Double negative gives positive meaning but sounds like negation to the statement. It also creates confusion for the interviewers and respondents.

Example: “Do not you want to move from this place not to expose yourself?” Instead, “Do you want to move from this place to hide?” would be better.

• Two in one Questions
• Merging of two questions into one should be completely avoided.
• Such merging often confuses the respondent and according to the cognitive capacity, some respondents serve answers to the latter and some to the former.
• No, all respondents provide answers to both parts.

Example: When did you visit your spouse and how many nights did you spend there? There are clearly 2 questions and they are to be segregated.

• Leading and embarrassing questions (Wording, Leading and threatening)
• Leading and embarrassing questing should be biased.
• People feel offensive to answer these questions.
• Such questions also lead towards biased answers, therefore these are to be avoided.

Example: Don’t you agree that persons with HIV positive have also rights to marry? Or suppose, you are suffering from HIV positive, should not you have the right to marry? Such types of questions insist the respondent provide answers that match the positive or negative tone of the question itself.

• Khatiwada, R. P., Pradhan, B. L. & Poudyal, N. (2015). Research Methodology. KEC Publication, Kathmandu Nepal.
• Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Los Angeles: SAGE.
• Walliman, Nicholas. Research Methods: The Basics. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.
• http://www.studylecturenotes.com/social-research-methodology/qualities-of-a-good-questionnaire
• https://bizfluent.com/info-8419146-characteristics-good-questionnaire.html

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How to create a CRM questionnaire (examples included)

Researching customer relationship management (CRM) questionnaires opens a Pandora’s box of possibilities as there are a bunch of different types.

In this post, we’ll explain how to create a comprehensive questionnaire to gather insights from clients or customers. Whether you’re here to improve client interactions or streamline your sales process, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s take a look!

Professional questionnaires at your fingertips

Content Snare makes it easy to create a CRM questionnaire. Sign up to access our library of form templates, or build your questionnaire from scratch in minutes.

Types of CRM questionnaires

A CRM questionnaire is a data-gathering form for businesses to collect information about their prospects or target audience. It’s a pretty broad definition though because CRM questionnaires can have lots of different goals . Here are just a few possibilities:

• CRM implementation questionnaires : This type of questionnaire helps CRM providers or implementors understand the needs of their clients before creating a tailored offer.
• Audience research CRM questionnaires : In this case, companies create online forms to learn as much as possible about their target audience. 
• CRM data update questionnaires : Reports show that more than 90% of CRM data is incomplete, stale, or duplicated every year, so agile organizations make questionnaires to update customer-related information.

Now you know a few different purposes of using a CRM form, but how do you actually create it?

We’ll explain it in the following section. 

CRM survey questions to include in your form

We already mentioned that different types of CRM forms demand different types of questions. For this reason, we’ll create three separate lists of questions to include in your online form.

Questions for a CRM implementation questionnaire

• What industry does your business operate in?
• Can you describe your company’s products or services?
• How many employees does your company have?
• What challenges or pain points are you currently facing in your business?
• How do you currently manage your customer data and interactions?
• Have you used a CRM system before? If so, please specify.
• What specific features or functionalities are you looking for in a CRM system?
• Do you have any specific integration requirements with other software systems?
• What is your budget range for investing in a CRM solution?
• Who will be the primary users of the CRM system within your organization?
• Are there any regulatory compliance requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) that the CRM system needs to adhere to?
• What is your timeline for implementing a new CRM solution?

Questions for audience research CRM surveys

• What is your age range?
• What is your gender identity?
• Where do you live (city, state, country)?
• What is your highest level of education?
• What is your employment status?
• What social media platforms do you use regularly?
• What types of products or services do you typically purchase?
• What factors influence your purchasing decisions?
• How do you prefer to communicate with brands (e.g., email, social media, live chat)?
• What are your favorite brands and why do you like them?
• What motivates you to recommend a product or service to others?
• What are your main frustrations when interacting with brands online?

Questions for updating your CRM software data

• What is your current residential address?
• Can you confirm your email address for communication purposes?
• Are there any updates to your preferences or interests that would help us personalize your experience?
• Have you recently purchased any products or services from us or engaged with our brand in any way?
• Are there any feedback or suggestions regarding our products or services that you would like to share with us?
• Would you like to opt-in or update your preferences for receiving marketing communications from us?

Practical tips for creating your questionnaire

All of the options suggested above provide a nice blueprint for kickstarting your questionnaire creation process, but it’s important to customize it to match the peculiarities of your project. 

These tips will help you with that.

1. Clearly define your objectives

We already explain three different types of CRM questionnaires, but there are many more. For instance, you could create one for understanding customer lifecycle, conducting product research, sales analysis, or customer satisfaction analysis. 

That’s why you must clearly outline the purpose of your questionnaire to know exactly what you hope to gather. Setting clear objectives will guide the design of your CRM form to make it much more effective. 

2. Speak your respondents’ language

The second tip is just as important as you have to write questions in an easy-to-understand language. This means avoiding everything that could confuse respondents — jargon, technical terms, ambiguous phrasing, or loanwords. For example:

• Replace the word “optimize” with “improve”
• Don’t write “pro bono” when you can write “free of charge” or just “free”
• Avoid “pivot” and use “change direction” 

These are only a few simple examples, but you’ll probably find lots of opportunities to simplify the language in your CRM questionnaire. 

3. Keep it as short as possible 

Another important tip is to respect your respondents’ time by keeping the questionnaire as short as possible. That’s because complex online forms often lead to respondent fatigue and decrease completion rates. 

One solution is to prioritize questions and eliminate any unnecessary fields. 

It’s also recommended to use a form-building tool that shows respondents how much work is left to do. For instance, Content Snare does a great job in this field with its progress bar:

4. Pilot test and iterate

The last tip is to pilot test your questionnaire with a small group of representative respondents before sending it out to a larger group. This helps identify any confusing or misleading questions, and assess the overall flow of your CRM questionnaire. 

Design a questionnaire with a professional form-building tool

We’ll give one last piece of advice instead of conventional conclusion — use a professional online form builder to design your questionnaire. This gives you all the features you’ll need to create an eye-pleasing survey with intuitive navigation and questions that perfectly suit your campaign.

Content Snare ticks all of these boxes and goes the extra mile to provide you with many other advanced form-building functionalities such as:

• Automated notifications and reminders
• A fairly simple drag-and-drop builder
• In-form instructions and conversations 
• More than 20 filed and question types
• Multiple security layers

The best part about Content Snare is that you can try right now by signing up for a free two-week trial . 

Professional questionnaires at your fingertips 

Drazen Vujovic

Dražen Vujović is a journalist and content writer. More importantly, he is a father of two and a long-distance runner.

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Variation in Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) eggshell thickness: DDT, measurement methods, and location

We collected Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) eggshells from nests in the Tucson, Arizona, USA, area in the 1990s incidental to other activities and compared them to pre-DDT Cooper's Hawk eggshells (119 museum specimens from 14 states, 1894–1939) ranging from 0.284–0.402 mm (x̄= 0.348 mm, SD = 0.0243) and we also compared them to reported thicknesses found in the literature. We found that within-state eggshell thickness varied as did eggshell thickness among states. Of the pre-DDT eggshells measured, those from Arizona, Utah, and Nevada were thinnest and generally eggs from western states (x̄= 0.339 mm, SD = 0.0184) had significantly thinner eggshells than those for eastern states (x̄= 0.359 mm, SD = 0.0256). Other published measurements of pre-DDT Cooper's Hawk eggshells were slightly lower than ours but were generally within the lower range of our measurements, which was expected because of the measuring technique used in earlier studies versus our method. Cooper's Hawk eggshells that were collected from nests in the Tucson area in the 1990s had a mean thickness of 0.309 mm (SD = 0.0191) and the pre-DDT mean thickness of museum eggshells from Arizona was 0.333 mm (SD = 0.018). Although the Tucson eggshells were significantly thinner than pre-DDT eggshells overall (t = 10.8, df = 100.4, P < 0.001), some individual pre-DDT eggshells and even some means from other regions (e.g., New Hampshire, New York, and Nevada) were similarly thin. Measurements of these pre-DDT eggshells show wide variation and demonstrate the importance of comparing eggs from the same geographical area and having an adequate sample size.

Citation Information

Related Content

Clint boal, phd, research wildlife biologist.

Olympic officials address gender eligibility as boxers prepare to fight

PARIS – The case of two Olympic boxers has drawn attention to a thorny issue: Who and what determines which female athletes can compete.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan both were disqualified from the 2023 women’s boxing world championships when they reportedly failed gender eligibility tests.

But this week, the International Olympic Committee confirmed the two boxers have been cleared to compete here at the Paris Games , as they both did at the Tokyo Games in 2021. The issues of so-called gender verification or sex testing have fueled discussion at the Olympics as the fighters prepare to enter the ring at North Paris Arena.

Khelif, a silver medalist at the 2022 world championships, is scheduled to fight Thursday against Angela Carini of Italy in the welterweight division at 146 pounds. Lin, a two-time world champion, is scheduled to fight Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in the featherweight division at 126 pounds.

“Yeah, it’s really tricky," Australian boxer Tiana Echegaray told reporters Tuesday when asked about the situation. "I don’t know exactly what their circumstances are."

IOC spokesman Mark Adams indicated Tuesday no personal information about the boxers' medical histories would be disclosed. "They've been competing in boxing for a very long time," Adams told reporters. “They've achieved all the eligibility requirements in terms of sex and age. We're following the rules in place in Tokyo."

Who's in charge of boxing?

At the Summer Olympics, when it comes to gender eligibility, the IOC defers to the international federations that govern each of the 32 sports.

The IOC does provide a framework to the international federations . But it's “nonbinding."

In other words, it’s not up to the IOC. And the situation has grown especially complicated with boxing.

Last year the IOC banished the International Boxing Association (IBA), long plagued with scandal and controversy that jeopardized the future of Olympic boxing. In fact, the IOC denied IBA the right to run Olympic boxing during the Tokyo Games in 2021 and instead turned over control to an ad-hoc unit.

Opinion: Olympic female boxers are being attacked. Let's just slow down and look at the facts

With that ad-hoc unit in charge, Kehlif and Lin both competed at the Tokyo Olympics. Neither won a medal.

But the IBA has maintained control of the world championships and gender eligibility rules. And after Lin won gold and Kehlif won bronze at the event in March 2023, officials announced the boxers had failed medical eligibility tests and stripped them of the medals.

IBA president Umar Kremlev said DNA tests “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded."

What's the eligibility criteria?

A passport could be key, based on comments from Adams, the IOC spokesman.

“I would just say that everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules," he said. “They are women in their passports and it is stated that is the case.”

Thursday Adams added that the issues with the previous tests for the boxers "was not a transgender issue, there's been some misreporting on that in press. ... These women have been competing as women for many years.

"What I would say just quickly on testosterone is, the testosterone (test) is not a perfect test. Many women can have testosterone, even what would be called 'male levels' and still be women and still compete as women. So this is not a panacea − this idea that suddenly you test, do one test for testosterone. Each sport needs to deal with this issue but I think we agreed, I hope we're agreed, we're not going to go back to the bad old days of 'sex testing'. That would be a bad idea."

In the past, other eligibility standards have hinged on science.

Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field in 2012 and 2016, was forced to give up competing in the 800 meters because her testosterone levels were too high based on tests administered by World Athletics, the sport’s international federation previously known as the IAAF.

Semenya was assigned female at birth. She said she was told at age 18 that she has XY chromosomes and naturally had high levels of testosterone.

Khelif and Lin have not publicly addressed details of their medical histories regarding the tests.

The issue of eligibility surfaced as a source of controversy in the United States in 2022 when swimmer Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA championship.

At the time, the NCAA required transgender female athletes to have undergone one year of testosterone suppression treatment to be eligible to compete on a women's team in any sport. The NCAA has been under pressure to update its guidelines after the NAIA banned all transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a decision in June by World Aquatics, the international federation for swimming, that prevented Thomas from competing in elite competitions through World Aquatics or USA Swimming.

Who are these two boxers?

Lin, 28, has been fighting as an amateur for more than a decade, according to BoxRec, a widely regarded boxing site.

She made her official amateur debut about three months shy of her 18th birthday, winning at the 2013 AIBA World Women’s Championships. She won gold medals at the world championships in 2019 and 2022.

At 5-foot-9, she often has enjoyed a height advantage while amassing a record of 40-14 with one knockout. The record does not reflect the four fights she won at the 2023 world championships before her disqualification, which resulted in the outcome of the fights being changed to “no contest.’’

She lost her last fight – a split-decision defeat against Brazil’s Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu in April at the 2024 USA Boxing International Invitational in Pueblo, Colorado.

Khelif, 25, made her amateur debut at the 2018 Balkan Women's Tournament. She won a silver medal at the 2022 world championships.

At 5-foot-10, she also has enjoyed a height advantage while amassing a record of 36-9 with four knockouts, according to BoxRec. That does not include the three fights she won at the 2023 world championships before her disqualification resulted in the fights being changed to “no contest.’’

In one of those fights, Khelif stopped her opponent by TKO.

Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard

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Types of Organizational Change & Strategies for Business

Organizations need to adapt to survive and thrive in today’s rapidly evolving business environment. This adaptation often involves organizational change. That allows companies to redefine themselves in response to new challenges, opportunities, and technological advancements. 

But what exactly does organizational change entail, and how can businesses navigate this complex process effectively? As Charles Darwin’s famous quote suggests, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.”

In this blog, we’ll explore the concept of organizational change, why it’s essential, strategies for successfully implementing change, and the various organizational change initiatives that can reshape a company’s future.

What Is Organizational Change?

Organizational change refers to any alteration in a company’s operations, including changes to its strategies, structures, processes, or culture. These changes can be small-scale or large-scale and impact various business processes.

The primary goal is to improve efficiency, align with market demands , or capitalize on new opportunities. Organizational change can stem from various sources, such as technological advancements, market dynamics, regulatory updates, or shifts in consumer preferences.

In practice, managing organizational change might involve: 

• Restructuring teams and departments.
• Implementing new technologies or processes.
• Shifting the company culture to align with new values or goals.
• Merging with or acquiring other businesses.
• Expanding into new markets or product lines.

The success of organizational change hinges on meticulous workforce planning , flawless execution, and adept management of the process. This approach is crucial in minimizing disruptions and maximizing positive outcomes.

Why Is Organizational Change Important?

Organizational change is critical for businesses to remain competitive and relevant. Here are several reasons why organizational change is important:

• Adaptability: The business landscape is constantly evolving due to technological advancements, market dynamics, and regulatory changes. Organizational change enables companies to adapt to these shifts and stay ahead of the competition.
• Innovation: Change encourages innovation by promoting a culture of continuous improvement. It allows organizations to develop new products, services, and processes, which can lead to increased market share and profitability.
• Efficiency: By re-evaluating and restructuring processes, organizations can eliminate inefficiencies, reduce costs, and improve overall performance. This is especially important in a global economy where margins can be tight.
• Employee Engagement: Change initiatives can boost employee engagement by providing opportunities for personal and professional growth. Engaged employees are more productive, loyal, and motivated to contribute to the organization’s success.
• Resilience: Organizations that embrace change are better equipped to handle crises and disruptions. This resilience ensures long-term sustainability and the ability to capitalize on new opportunities.

Strategies for Successful Organisational Change

Successfully implementing organizational change requires a strategic approach. Here are key strategies to consider:

Clear Vision and Objectives:

• Establish a clear vision for the change initiative and communicate it effectively.
• Define specific, measurable objectives that align with the overall strategic goals.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Identify all stakeholders affected by the change, including employees, customers, suppliers, and investors.
• Engage stakeholders early to gather input, address concerns, and build buy-in.

Effective Communication:

• Develop a comprehensive communication plan to inform everyone about the change process, benefits, and progress.
• Use multiple channels to reach different audiences and ensure the message is consistent and transparent.

Training and Support:

• Provide training and development programs to help employees acquire the skills and knowledge needed to adapt to the change.
• Offer support resources, such as coaching and mentoring, to assist employees during the transition.

Leadership Commitment:

• Ensure that leadership at all levels is committed to the change and actively participates in the process.
• Leaders should model the desired behaviors and act as change champions to inspire and motivate others.

Monitor and Adjust:

• Continuously monitor the progress of the change initiative and gather feedback from stakeholders.
• Be prepared to adjust based on feedback and changing circumstances to keep the initiative on track.

Celebrate Successes:

• Recognize and celebrate milestones and successes throughout the change process.
• Celebrating achievements helps to maintain momentum and reinforces the positive aspects of the change.

What Are the Types of Organizational Change Initiatives?

Organizational change initiatives vary widely, depending on the company’s goals and challenges. Here are some common types of organizational change:

1. Strategic Change

Strategic change involves altering an organization’s goals, purpose, or mission. It often requires redefining the company’s long-term vision, aligning resources, and making high-level structural adjustments to stay competitive.

• Shifting from a product-based to a service-based business model.
• Entering new markets or regions.
• Mergers and acquisitions.

2. Structural Change

Structural change focuses on modifying an organization’s internal framework. This can include changing organizational hierarchies, job roles, or department structures to improve efficiency and communication.

• Implementing a matrix organizational structure.
• Centralizing or decentralizing operations.
• Restructuring teams for better collaboration.

3. Technological Change

Technological change involves integrating new technologies into an organization’s operations to improve productivity and competitiveness. This type of change is often driven by advancements in digital tools and the need to keep up with technological trends.

Adopting cloud computing solutions.

Implementing automation in manufacturing processes.

Upgrading IT infrastructure.

4. Cultural Change

Cultural change aims to transform the underlying beliefs, values, and behaviors that define an organization’s culture. This type of change is essential when the existing culture hinders growth or adaptation to new business realities. Cultural change initiatives are often necessary to address financial or emotional turbulence within an organization.

• Promoting a culture of innovation and risk-taking.
• Enhancing diversity and inclusion.
• Shifting from a hierarchical to a more collaborative work environment.

5. Process-Oriented Change

The process-oriented change focuses on improving an organization’s internal processes and workflows. This change aims to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve service delivery.

• Implementing lean management techniques.
• Streamlining supply chain operations.
• Enhancing customer service procedures.

6. People-Centric Change

People-centric organizational change revolves around managing changes that directly affect employees, such as changes in roles, skills, or work environments. This type of change is crucial for organizations undergoing significant transformations. 

• Implementing new training and development programs.
• Reskilling employees for new job roles.
• Enhancing work-life balance policies.

What are the Main Types of Organisational Change?

While organizational change initiatives can be diverse, they can be broadly categorized into two main types:

1. Incremental Change

Incremental change refers to minor adjustments to improve existing processes or structures. These changes are often continuous and aim to enhance efficiency without causing significant disruption.

Characteristics:

• Low risk and less resistance from employees.
• Easier to implement and manage.
• Focus on continuous improvement.
• Minor updates to software systems.
• Regular process optimization efforts.
• Gradual enhancement of customer service practices.

2. Transformational Change

Conversely, transformational change involves significant shifts fundamentally altering an organization’s operations or culture. These changes are often radical and may be necessary to respond to external pressures or internal inefficiencies.

• High risk and potential for resistance.
• Requires comprehensive planning and execution.
• Aims for substantial improvement or competitive advantage.
• Company-wide digital transformation initiatives.
• Complete business model overhaul.
• Large-scale mergers or acquisitions.

How to Utilize QuestionPro Workforce for Defining the Types of Organizational Change?

Organizational change is crucial for growth and adaptability. QuestionPro Workforce can be a powerful tool in defining and managing these changes. Here’s how to effectively use it:

1. Conduct Comprehensive Surveys

Begin by conducting surveys to gather insights from employees across all levels. QuestionPro Workforce allows you to design tailored surveys to identify areas needing change. Include questions about current processes, technological needs, cultural aspects, and structural efficiencies.

2. Analyze Employee Feedback

Leverage QuestionPro’s advanced analytics to interpret survey results. This analysis helps pinpoint the changes required.

• Strategic, 
• Structural,
• Technological, 
• Cultural, or 
• Process-oriented. 

For example, feedback on outdated technology can highlight the need for technological change.

3. Identify Key Change Drivers

Use the data to identify key drivers for change. QuestionPro Workforce’s reporting tools can help visualize trends and pinpoint areas where change is most needed. Understanding these drivers allows you to prioritize initiatives effectively.

4. Engage Stakeholders

Engage stakeholders by sharing survey findings and analysis. QuestionPro Workforce facilitates easy sharing of reports and data visualizations, ensuring all key stakeholders understand the necessity and scope of the proposed changes. This engagement is crucial for gaining buy-in and support. 

5. Monitor Progress

Implement changes and use QuestionPro Workforce to monitor their impact. Continuous feedback through follow-up surveys can track progress and employee sentiment, allowing for real-time adjustments. This ensures that the changes are effective and aligned with organizational goals.

6. Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Encourage a culture of continuous improvement by regularly utilizing QuestionPro Workforce. Periodic surveys and consistent feedback loops help maintain momentum and adaptability, ensuring the organization evolves in response to internal and external changes.

Organizational change is an inevitable part of business growth and development. Understanding the various types of organizational change —strategic, structural, technological, cultural, process-oriented, or people-centric—can help organizations navigate the complexities of transformation. 

By implementing an effective organizational change management strategy and creating a culture of adaptability, businesses can successfully embrace change and position themselves for long-term success. 

Whether dealing with incremental improvements or transformational overhauls, embracing change with a clear strategy and a commitment to progress is key to thriving in today’s dynamic business landscape. 

Utilizing QuestionPro Workforce equips organizations to navigate and manage change effectively. By conducting detailed surveys, analyzing feedback, and engaging stakeholders, you can identify and address key areas for improvement. 

This strategic approach creates a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring your business remains agile and competitive in a dynamic environment.

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