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100 Open-Ended Survey Questions for Effective Consumer Research

Consumer research surveys are an impactful way to gain valuable customer insights. Here is a list of 100 open-ended survey questions to get you started.

March 22, 2024

Because we live in a globalized economy, market trends and customer preferences constantly morph and change over time. This only leaves brands with (open-ended) questions about their customers.

Among the constant waves of competition and increasing power of choice given to consumers, a company’s ability to maintain an agile strategy with this added pressure will determine its rate of survival over the next decade.

With that in mind, conducting effective and impactful market research is now more essential to basic business survival than at any point in history.

That's why we put together this epic list of 100 open-ended survey questions for market research.

Should I Use Closed-Ended or Open-Ended Survey Questions?

Often, the first step in collecting consumer data is developing a strong customer survey that has high response rates. The type of questions you use would then be dependent on the type of insights you are looking to collect.

A close-ended question can be highly effective in helping you achieve quantitative data of your customers. For example, if you were conducting research on condiment usage patterns, multiple answer or rating scale questions can help you quickly understand the percentage of users that consume cilantro on a weekly basis.

On the other hand, open-ended questions can help you gain qualitative data and customer insights . For example, as part of the same research, open-ended questions can you help collect free form verbatims on what difficulties survey respondents face when they cook with spices.

What is an example of an Open-Ended Survey Question?

Good survey questions are built with specific insights in mind. Within the world of market research, we believe that strong qualitative survey questions can fall under five broad categories:

• Customer Behavior:  Understanding general consumer trends and purchase behavior.
• Customer Feedback:  Understanding what customers feel about your products and services.
• Concept Testing:  Understanding what customers feel about a new concept for a product or feature.
• Marketing:  Understanding the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising campaigns.
• Competitive Analysis:  Understanding how your brand and product stand up against your competitors.

Implementing the appropriate open-ended questions in a survey helps you collect the most relevant insights to your needs. But what are the different types of questions and response options your company can use to collect the strongest survey data?

Customer Behavior Survey Questions

What does the customer journey look like for your consumers? What are some of the key pain points they face? Use these questions to gain better insights into those behaviors and preferences.

• What solutions did you try before using our product?
• When you started using our product, what were you thinking about?
• How do you typically find information about this type of product?
• What websites do you use to discover new products?
• What do you research about a product before purchasing it?
• What type of product do you research the most before purchase?
• What is the biggest difficulty you face when purchasing this type of product?
• How does Product X make you feel?
• How have you tried to solve Problem Y?
• What are the main challenges you are currently facing without a product like Product X?
• What persuaded you to [action] today?
• What is stopping you from [action] today?
• Now that you’ve solved Problem Y, what’s next?
• What influences you to purchase from a store in person?
• What influences you to purchase a product online?
• What deters you from purchasing a product online?
• What discourages you from purchasing a product in-store?
• What is your preferred brand of this product?
• At what point do you re-purchase this product type?
• What additional product are you likely to purchase alongside this product?
• How do you feel before purchasing this product?
• How do you feel immediately after purchasing this product?
• What factors determine your budget for this product?

Customer Feedback Survey Questions

Customer feedback management has a bad reputation for existing in quantitative scales of 1 to 5 and smiley faces of measurement delivered via cold email. Whether a customer’s feedback for your product or service is positive or not, this type of data collection will likely not give your company the feedback you want. Instead, try a few of these open-ended questions to collect quick, meaningful data.

• Follow Up: Why do you like using that feature?
• Follow Up: What makes you say that?
• What surprised you about using this product?
• What annoys you about this product?
• What problem does our product solve for you?
• How well does our product solve your problem?
• What part of our product is easy to use?
• What were the main difficulties you faced when using our product?
• How could we have helped you better use our product?
• If you could change one thing about our product, what would you change?
• What other features would you have liked to see on this product?
• Describe how you feel about our product.
• How can we improve your general experience with the company?
• In what situations do you use our product?
• If someone asked you about this product, what would you say to them?
• What is the primary benefit that you have received from using our product?
• Who would you recommend our product to?
• Describe your experience with our customer service team.
• What is the main factor that influences your decision to switch brands?
• How does past experience influence your decision to purchase from a brand?
• What do you expect from customer service after purchasing a product?
• What are your standards of quality when purchasing similar products?
• How do you prefer that a customer service team handles your complaints?
• What celebrity can you see endorsing or representing this product?
• Describe your purchasing process for this type of product.
• What influences your decision to purchase a new product?
• What was disappointing about your last experience with us?
• What was delightful about your last experience with us?

Concept Testing Survey Questions

Your company can collect data on a variety of types of customer feedback - and you don’t have to wait until after a product’s launch. Gauge customer interest for new products or features by writing a survey that measures perception, usage, tone, and experience before the concept ever reaches fruition. Use these questions to launch your inquisition into a new concept.

• How would you use this new feature?
• Follow Up: Why don’t you like that part of the feature?
• What considerations do you have when deciding on a version of the product?
• Among these different versions of the product, why did you decide on _____?
• How does this new feature make you feel?
• What excites you about this new feature?
• Follow Up: Why did you answer that way?
• If you had a magic wand and could have any new feature that you wanted on this product, what would it be?
• Have you seen something similar to this feature elsewhere?
• How do you think this new feature will improve your experience?
• How much would you expect to pay for this product?
• How do you envision incorporating this product into your daily life?
• Describe why this product is innovative.
• Describe why this product is not so innovative.
• At what stage of development do you think this product is at?

Marketing Survey Questions

Qualitative research is not exclusive to product development and concept testing. Surveys can also be used to understand the customer and consumer perceptions of marketing and advertising campaigns. These questions will help your company better understand external perceptions of your product.

• What do you think about our product’s story?
• What originally attracted you to our product?
• What do you like best about the messaging we use to promote our product?
• How would you explain our product to a friend, family member, or colleague?
• In one line, describe our product.
• What communication channels would you prefer we use?
• What supplementary content would help you use our product?
• Where exactly did you first hear about us?
• What companies or products do you perceive as our competitors?
• How does our messaging stand out from the competition?
• Who do you think uses our product?
• Which product attributes are most important to you?
• What would you improve about the product description?
• Write a one-sentence description of this product.
• How could our brand be more honest and transparent?
• What charity pairs well alongside our product?
• How could our product be more tailored to you?
• What does our product design make you feel?
• What does the product design remind you of?

Competitive Analysis Survey Questions

Although competitors come up in a variety of conversations with customers, asking specific competitive analysis questions is your time to dig deeper into your market share and potentially obtain internal information from competing companies.

• How would you feel if you couldn’t use our product?
• What other solutions have you considered?
• Which other options did you consider before choosing our product?
• Why did you choose our product rather than a competitor’s?
• What do we do better than other companies in this field?
• Who should we try and learn from?
• What would you use as an alternative if our product was no longer available?
• What are the first three brands in this category that come to your mind?
• In your opinion, what could we do to stand out from the competition?
• In the past three months, what have you heard about our brand?
• How would you describe your overall opinion of our brand?
• Do you have any additional comments or feedback for us?
• What could we have done to get a 10/10 today?

So you’ve developed a strong set of questions. What’s next? Check out the next step in our guide to writing better online surveys or discussion guides .

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Your quick guide to open-ended questions in surveys.

17 min read In this guide, find out how you can use open-ended survey questions to glean more meaningful insights from your research, as well as how to analyse them and best practices.

When you want to get more comprehensive responses to a survey – answers beyond just yes or no – you’ll want to consider open-ended questions.

But what are open-ended questions? In this guide, we’ll go through what open-ended questions are, including how they can help gather information and provide greater context to your research findings.

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What are open-ended questions?

Open-ended questions can offer you incredibly helpful insights into your respondent’s viewpoints. Here’s an explanation below of what they are and what they can do:

Free-form and not governed by simple one word answers (e.g. yes or no responses), an open-ended question allows respondents to answer in open-text format, giving them the creative thinking, freedom and space to answer in as much (or as little) detail as they like.

Open-ended questions help you to see things from the respondent’s perspective, as you get feedback in their own words instead of stock answers. Also, as you’re getting more meaningful answers and accurate responses, you can better analyze sentiment amongst your audience.

Open-ended versus closed-ended questions

Open-ended questions provide more qualitative research data; contextual insights that accentuate quantitative information. With open-ended questions, you get more meaningful user research data.

Closed-ended questions, on the other hand, provide quantitative data ; limited insight but easy to analyze and compile into reports. Market researchers often add commentary to this kind of data to provide readers with background and further food for thought.

Here are the main differences with examples of open-ended and closed-ended questions:

For example, an open-ended question might be: “What do you think of statistical analysis software?”.

Whereas closed-ended questions would simply be: “Do you use statistical analysis software?” or “Have you used statistical analysis software in the past?”.

Open-ended questions afford much more freedom to respondents and can result in deeper and more meaningful insights. A closed question can be useful and fast, but doesn’t provide much context. Open-ended questions are helpful for understanding the “why”.

When and why should you use an open-ended question?

Open-ended questions are great for going more in-depth on a topic. Closed-ended questions may tell you the “what,” but open-ended questions will tell you the “why.”

Another benefit of open-ended questions is that they allow you to get answers from your respondents in their words. For example, it can help to know the language that customers use to describe a product of feature, so that the company can match the language in their product description to increase discoverability.

Open-ended questions can also help you to learn things you didn’t expect, especially as they encourage creativity, and get answers to slightly more complex issues. For example, you could ask the question “What are the main reasons you canceled your subscription?” as a closed-ended question by providing a list of reasons (too expensive, don’t use it anymore). However, you are limited only to reasons that you can think of. But if you don’t know why people are canceling, then it might be better to ask as an open-ended question.

You might ask open-ended questions when you are doing a pilot out preliminary research to validate a product idea. You can then use that information to generate closed-ended questions for a larger follow-up study.

However, it can be wise to limit the overall number of open-ended questions in a survey because they are burdensome.

In terms of what provides more valuable information, only you can decide that based on the requirements of your research study. You also have to take into account variables such as the cost and scale of your research study, as well as when you need the information. Open-ended questions can provide you with more context, but they’re also more information to sift through, whereas closed-ended questions provide you with a tidy, finite response.

If you still prefer the invaluable responses and data from open-ended questions, using software like Qualtrics Text IQ can automate this complicated process. Through AI technology Text IQ can understand sentiment and articulate thousands of open-ended responses into simplified dashboards.

Open-ended question examples

While there are no set rules to the number of open-ended questions you can ask, of course you want to ask an open-ended question that correlates with your research objective.

Here are a few examples of open-ended survey questions related to your product:

• What do you like most about this product?
• What do you like least about this product?
• How does our product compare to competitor products?
• If someone asked you about our product, what would you say to them?
• How can we improve our product?

You could even supplement closed-ended questions with an open-ended question to get more detail, e.g. “How often do you use our product?” — with a multiple choice, single word answers approach. These might be simple answers such as “Frequently”, “Sometimes”, “Never” — and if a respondent answers “Never”, you could follow with: “If you have never used our product, why not?”. This is a really easy way to understand why potential customers don’t use your product.

Also, incorporating open-ended questions into your surveys can provide useful information for salespeople throughout the sales process. For example, you might uncover insights that help your salespeople to reposition your products or improve the way they sell to new customers based on what existing customers feel. Though you might get helpful answers from a closed-ended question, open-ended questions give you more than a surface-level insight into their sentiments, emotions and thoughts.

It doesn’t need to be complicated, it can be as simple as what you see below. The survey doesn’t need to speak for itself, let your survey respondents say everything.

Asking open-ended questions: Crafting question that generate the best insights

Open responses can be difficult to quantify. Framing them correctly is key to getting useful data from your answers. Below are some open ended questions examples of what to avoid.

1. Avoid questions that are too broad or vague

Example :  “What changes has your company made in the last five years due to external events?”

Problem : There are too many potential responses to this query, which means you’ll get too broad a range of answers. What kind of changes are being referred to, economic, strategic, personnel etc.? What external events are useful to know about? Don’t overwhelm your respondent with an overly broadquestion – ask the right questions and get precise answers.

Solution : Target your questions with a specific clarification of what you want. For example, “What policy changes has your company made about working from home in the last 6 months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?”. Alternatively, use a close-ended question, or offer examples to give respondents something to work from.

2. Make sure that the purpose of the question is clear

Example :  “Why did you buy our product?”

Problem : This type of unclear-purpose question can lead to short, unhelpful answers. “Because I needed it” or “I fancied it” don’t necessarily give you data to work with.

Solution : Make it clear what you actually want to know. “When you bought our product, how did you intend to use it?” or “What are the main reasons you purchased [Our Brand] instead of another brand?” might be two alternatives that provide more context.

3. Keep questions simple and quick to answer

  Example :  “Please explain the required process that your brand uses to manage its contact center (i.e. technical software stack, approval process, employee review, data security, management, compliance management etc.). Please be as detailed as possible.”

Problem : The higher the level of effort, the lower the chances of getting a good range of responses or high quality answers. It’s unlikely that a survey respondent will take the time to give a detailed answer on something that’s not their favorite subject. This results in either short, unhelpful answers, or even worse, the respondent quits the survey and decides not to participate after seeing the length of time and effort required. This can end up causing bias with the type of respondents that answer the survey.

Solution : If you really need the level of detail, there are a few options to try. You can break up the question into multiple questions or share some information on why you really need this insight. You could offer a different way of submitting an answer, such as a voice to text or video recording functionality, or make the question optional to help respondents to keep progressing through the survey. Possibly the best solution is to change from open-ended questions in a survey to a qualitative research method, such as focus groups or one-to-one interviews, where lengthier responses and more effort are expected.

4. Ask only one  question at a time

Example :  “When was the last time you used our product? How was your experience?”

Problem : Too many queries at once can cause a feeling of mental burden in your respondents, which means you risk losing their interest. Some survey takers might read the first question but miss the second, or forget about it when writing their response.

Solution : Only ask one thing at a time!

5. Don’t ask for a minimum word count

Example :  “Please provide a summary of why you chose our brand over a competitor brand. [Minimum 50 characters].”

Problem : Even though making a minimum word count might seem like a way to get higher quality responses, this is often not the case. Respondents may well give up, or type gibberish to fill in the word count. Ideally, the responses you gather will be the natural response of the person you’re surveying – mandating a word count impedes this.

Solution : Leave off the word count. If you need to encourage longer responses, you can expand the text box size to fit more words in. Offer speech to text or video recording options to encourage lengthier responses, and explain why you need a detailed answer.

6. Don’t ask an open-ended question when a closed-ended question would be enough  

Example :  “Where are you from?”

Problem : It’s harder to control the data you’ll collect when you use an open question when a closed one would work. For example, someone could respond to the above question with “The US”, “The United States” or “America”.

Solution : To save time and effort on both your side and the participant’s side, use a drop-down with standardized responses.

7. Limit the total number of open-ended questions you ask  

Example :  “How do you feel about product 1?” “How do you feel about product 2?” “How do you feel about product 3?”

Problem : An open question requires more thought and effort than a closed one. Respondents can usually answer 4-6 closed questions in the same time as only 1 open one, and prefer to be able to answer quickly.

Solution : To reduce survey fatigue,lower drop-off rates, and save costs, only ask as many questions as you think you can get an answer for. Limit open-ended questions for ones where you really need context. Unless your respondents are highly motivated, keep it to 5 open-ended questions or fewer. Space them out to keep drop-offs to a minimum.

8. Don’t force respondents to answer open-ended questions

Example :  “How could your experience today have been improved? Please provide a detailed response.”

Problem : A customer may not have any suggestions for improvements. By requiring an answer, though, the customer is now forced to think of something that can be improved even if it would not make them more likely to use the service again.  Making these respondents answer means you risk bias. It could lead to prioritizing unnecessary improvements.

Solution : Give respondents the option to say “No” or “Not applicable” or “I don’t know” to queries, or to skip the question entirely.

How to analyze the results from open-ended questions

Step 1: collect and structure your responses.

Online survey tools can simplify the process of creating and sending questionnaires, as well as gathering responses to open-ended questions. These tools often have simple, customisable templates to make the process much more efficient and tailored to your requirements.

Some solutions offer different targeting variables, from geolocation to customer segments and site behavior. This allows you to offer customized promotions to drive conversions and gather the right feedback at every stage in the online journey.

Upon receipt, your data should be in a clear, structured format and you can then export it to a CSV or Excel file before automatic analysis. At this point, you’ll want to check the data (spelling, duplication, symbols) so that it’s easier for a machine to process and analyze.

Step 2: Use text analytics

One method that’s increasingly applied to open-ended responses is automation. These new tools make it easy to extract data from open-text question responses with minimal human intervention. It makes an open-ended question response as accessible and easy to analyze as that of a closed question, but with more detail provided.

For example, you could use automated coding via artificial intelligence to look into buckets of responses to your open-ended questions and assign them accordingly for review. This can save a great deal of time, but the accuracy depends on your choice of solution.

Alternatively, you could use sentiment analysis — a form of natural language processing — to systematically identify, extract and quantify information. With sentiment analysis, you can determine whether responses are positive or negative, which can be really useful for unstructured responses or for quick, large-scale reviews.

Some solutions also offer custom programming so you can apply your own code to analyze survey results, giving complete flexibility and accuracy.

Step 3: Visualize your results

With the right data analysis and visualization tools, you can see your survey results in the format most applicable to you and your stakeholders. For example, C-Suite may want to see information displayed using graphs rather than tables — whereas your research team might want a comprehensive breakdown of responses, including response percentages for each question.

This might be easier for a survey with closed-ended questions, but with the right analysis for open-ended questions’ responses, you can easily collate response data that’s easy to quantify.

With the survey tools that exist today, it’s incredibly easy to import and analyze data at scale to uncover trends and develop actionable insights. You can also apply your own programming code and data visualization techniques to get the information you need. No matter whether you’re using open-ended questions or getting one-word answers in emojis, you’re able to surface the most useful insights for action.

Ask the right open-ended questions with Qualtrics

With Qualtrics’ survey software , used by more than 13,000 brands and 99 of the top 100 business schools, you can get answers to the most important market, brand, customer, and product questions with ease. Choose from a huge range of multiple-choice questions (both open-ended questions and closed-ended) and tailor your survey to get the most in-depth responses to your queries.

You can build a positive relationship with your respondents and get a deeper understanding of what they think and feel with Qualtrics-powered surveys. The best part? It’s completely free to get started with.

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Home • Knowledge hub • Your Guide to Using Open-Ended Questions in Market Research.

Your Guide to Using Open-Ended Questions in Market Research.

When conducting market research, asking the right questions is crucial. The magic happens when you dig deeper than the traditional ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses. This is where open-ended questions come in. These questions allow respondents to express their thoughts in their own words, providing richer, more meaningful insights. 

This blog will guide you on effectively using open-ended survey questions in your market research, analyzing the responses, and highlighting some best practices. We’ll also share some examples of effective open-ended questions.

The Power of Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They allow respondents to express their opinions, thoughts, and feelings in a more detailed and nuanced manner.

For instance, instead of asking, “Do you like our product?” (a close-ended question), you could ask, “What do you like most about our product?” The latter question provides more room for detailed responses, giving you deeper insights into what your customers value about your product.

Also, read “ Bad Survey Questions and How to Avoid Them. “

How to Use Open-Ended Questions in Your Survey

Strategically placing open-ended questions in your survey is key. Too many open-ended questions can make the survey long and tedious, leading to lower response rates. Consider mixing both close-ended and open-ended questions to maintain balance.

Open-ended questions should be clear and straightforward. Avoid using industry jargon or complex language that might confuse the respondent. 

Here are a few examples of effective open-ended questions:

• “What features would you like to see added to our product in the future?”
• “Can you describe a situation where our service helped solve your problem?”
• “What made you choose our product over others available in the market?”

Here are some examples of less-effective questions, why they’re problematic, and how they could be improved for better insights

Example 1: “Are there any comments you’d like to share?”

Problem: This question is too vague. Respondents may need to learn precisely what you’re asking for, which could lead to irrelevant responses or discourage respondents from answering.

Solution: Instead, ask, “Can you share your thoughts on how we could improve our product?” This question is more specific and invites respondents to provide actionable feedback.

Example 2: “Do you like our new website?”

Problem: While seemingly open-ended, this question can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It doesn’t encourage respondents to provide details or reasons behind their answers.

Solution: A better way to phrase this could be, “What do you like most about our new website, and what could be improved?” This invites respondents to share specific positive feedback and offer constructive criticism.

Example 3: “What features do you want in our product?”

Problem: While this question seeks valuable feedback, it might be too open-ended. Respondents might suggest features beyond your product’s scope, making the feedback less actionable.

Solution: Instead, consider asking, “Which existing feature would you like us to enhance in our product, and why?” This question still captures the desire for improvement but focuses on the product’s current capabilities.

Example 4: “Tell us about our customer service.”

Problem: This question is broad and might lead to unfocused answers. It doesn’t guide respondents on which aspects of customer service they’re interested in.

Solution: An improved version of this question could be, “Could you describe a recent experience you had with our customer service team and how it could have been better?” This question prompts respondents to share specific experiences and provide targeted feedback.

Crafting effective open-ended questions is about clarity and relevance. Strive for questions that encourage detailed, focused responses while ensuring the question is directly relevant to the respondent and the purpose of your research.

Analyzing Responses to Open-Ended Questions

Analyzing open-ended responses can be more complex than analyzing close-ended ones due to the qualitative nature of the responses. 

Here are some strategies to help:

• Thematic Analysis: This involves identifying recurring themes or patterns in the responses. For example, if many respondents mention that they love your product’s ‘ease of use’, it’s a recurring theme worth noting.
• Sentiment Analysis: This is used to gauge the overall sentiment of the responses, i.e., whether they are positive, negative, or neutral. This can give you a quick understanding of the overall perception of your product or service.
• Coding: This involves categorizing responses into predefined categories. For example, responses to the question “What do you like most about our product?” could be coded into categories such as ‘price’, ‘quality’, ‘customer service’, and so on. 

Best Practices for Using Open-Ended Questions

• Use sparingly: Avoid overwhelming respondents with too many open-ended questions. They should be used sparingly and strategically.
• Ensure clarity: The question should be easy to understand. Avoid ambiguity that may confuse respondents.
• Invite elaboration: Encourage respondents to provide as much detail as possible. You can do this using phrases like, “Please explain…” or “Could you elaborate on…”
• Keep it relevant: Ensure that your open-ended questions are relevant to the respondent and the purpose of your survey. Irrelevant questions may lead to incomplete responses or drop-outs.

When and Why Should You Use an Open-Ended Question?

Open-ended questions can be incredibly useful, but knowing when to deploy them is vital for their effectiveness. 

Here are a few scenarios where open-ended questions are particularly beneficial:

• Gathering In-Depth Insights: Open-ended questions are perfect when seeking detailed and nuanced insights from your respondents. They encourage respondents to share their experiences, perspectives, and opinions in their own words, providing richer and more complex data than close-ended questions.
• Exploring New Ideas: Open-ended questions can be a valuable tool if you’re looking for fresh ideas or creative input. They give respondents the freedom to think outside the box and offer suggestions they might not have considered.
• Understanding Customer Sentiment: When you want to gauge how customers feel about your brand, product, or service, open-ended questions can reveal more about their emotions and attitudes. Sentiments are often complex and can’t be captured fully by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.
• Problem Diagnosis: If customers face issues with your product or service, open-ended questions can help diagnose the problem more effectively. By allowing customers to describe the issue in their own words, you’re more likely to understand the root of the problem.

Why should you use open-ended questions? Open-ended questions are essential when you want to:

• Understand the ‘Why’: Open-ended questions help you understand why respondents feel a certain way, providing context that can help inform your decision-making.
• Identify Trends and Patterns: By identifying common themes or trends in the responses to open-ended questions, you can gain valuable insights into broad customer attitudes and behaviors.
• Empower Respondents: Open-ended questions give your respondents a voice, making them feel valued and engaged. This can help build stronger relationships with your customers.

The ultimate goal of using open-ended questions is to collect meaningful and actionable insights to help you make informed decisions, enhance your product or service, and ultimately better serve your customers.

Analyzing results from open-ended questions can be challenging due to the qualitative nature of the data. 

However, the following steps can guide you through the process and help you extract meaningful insights:

• Organize Your Responses: Start by collecting and organizing all the responses you’ve received. You might transcribe them if they were collected verbally, or if they’re written, gather them into a single document or spreadsheet for analysis.
• Read and Familiarize Yourself with the Responses: Read through all the responses carefully to get a sense of what your respondents are saying. This will give you an initial understanding of the general sentiments and main ideas.
• Code Your Responses: Coding is the process of categorizing responses based on shared themes or concepts. You could categorize responses to product improvement questions into themes like ‘product features’, ‘pricing’, and ‘customer service.’
• Identify Themes or Patterns: After coding, analyze the categories to identify common themes or patterns. These recurring themes can reveal significant insights about your respondents’ opinions or experiences.
• Quantify Your Data: You should quantify your data depending on the number of responses. For instance, you can calculate the percentage of responses that mention a particular theme. This can help when comparing the prominence of different themes.
• Perform Sentiment Analysis: This involves assessing the emotional tone of the responses. Software tools can assist with this, especially for larger datasets. You can classify responses as positive, negative, or neutral.
• Review and Interpret Your Findings: Review your coded data, theme patterns, and sentiment analysis results. What do they suggest about your respondents’ perspectives? What actionable insights can you extract?
• Present Your Findings: Summarize your findings clearly and concisely, suitable for presentation. Visual aids such as charts, graphs, or word clouds can help communicate your results effectively.

Analyzing open-ended responses can be time-consuming, but the depth and richness of the insights you’ll gain make it a worthwhile endeavor.

Open-ended questions can provide rich, in-depth insights into your customers’ thoughts, feelings, and motivations. Remember, it’s not about the quantity of data you collect but the quality of the insights you glean that truly matter in market research.

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Open Ended Questions: 25 Examples for Customer Research

Unlock deeper insights with 30 open-ended questions for customer research. Learn how to use them effectively for rich feedback.

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Imagine you've just completed the design of your customer survey. You've spent weeks crafting the perfect survey questions, and you're ready to launch.

But here's the catch – not all questions are created equal. While closed-ended questions provide straightforward, quantitative data, it's the open-ended questions that unlock deeper insights, revealing the true voice of your customers .

Open-ended questions are the secret sauce of effective customer research. They allow respondents to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions in their own words, providing rich, detailed responses that paint a full picture of their experiences. In this article, we’ll dive into some open-ended question examples and explore why they are crucial for surveys, offering tips on how to use them effectively.

Table of Contents

What are open-ended questions, open-ended questions vs. closed-ended questions, 30 open-ended question examples, how to use open-ended questions for surveys and customer research.

Open-ended questions are those that cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." Instead, they require respondents to provide more detailed and thoughtful answers. These questions typically start with words like "how," "what," "why," or "describe," inviting people to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings.

For example, instead of asking, "Did you find our product useful?" (a closed-ended question), you could ask, "What did you find most useful about our product?" This approach encourages respondents to provide specific feedback, offering deeper insights into their experiences and perceptions.

The importance of open-ended questions in research cannot be overstated. They allow you to:

Capture Detailed Responses: Open-ended questions provide rich, qualitative data that can reveal underlying motivations, emotions, and opinions.

Uncover Hidden Insights: By allowing respondents to express themselves freely, you can discover insights that you might not have anticipated.

Enhance Customer Understanding: These questions help you understand your customers' perspectives more deeply, enabling you to address their needs and improve their experience.

Understanding the difference between open-ended and closed-ended questions is crucial for designing effective surveys . Here's a quick comparison:

Closed-ended questions, such as those requiring "yes/no" or multiple-choice responses, are popular for their ease of analysis and quantifiable data. However, they often fall short in uncovering nuanced customer sentiments and detailed feedback. These questions tend to elicit a short, one-word answer. They tend to provide superficial data without delving into the underlying reasons or motivations behind respondents' choices.

Closed Versus Open Question Examples

For instance, consider a closed-ended question like, "Did you find our service satisfactory?" A respondent can answer with a simple "yes" or "no," providing little context or elaboration on what aspects of the service were satisfying or lacking. So rather than designing your survey for ease of analysis , it's best to swap your single-word answer with ones that will produce more detailed answers.

Let's break down three examples to illustrate this difference:

Satisfaction with Service:

Open-ended: "What aspects of our service did you find most satisfying?"

Closed-ended: "Were you satisfied with our service?" (Yes/No)

Product Feedback:

Open-ended: "How would you describe your experience with our product?"

Closed-ended: "Did you like our product?" (Yes/No)

Suggestions for Improvement:

Open-ended: "What suggestions do you have for improving our product?"

Closed-ended: "Would you like to see changes in our product?" (Yes/No)

Open-ended questions encourage critical thinking and provide a depth of insight that closed-ended questions simply cannot match. They'll get you to the heart of your customer's perspective, offering a much more detailed response packed with nuances about their experiences and opinions.

Next, we'll dive into the heart of the article: examples of open-ended questions you can use in your surveys to gather valuable customer insights.

Open-ended questions are powerful tools for gathering detailed feedback and gaining a deeper understanding of your customers. Here are 30 examples of open-ended questions you can use in your surveys:

Customer Experience

These open-ended questions help gather detailed customer feedback on various touch points – from initial contact to post-purchase interactions. By asking about their customer experiences, you can identify strengths and themes for improvement with these in-depth responses.

"How would you describe your overall experience with our company?"

"What did you enjoy most about your experience with us?"

"How can we improve your next experience?"

Product Feedback

Product feedback questions are essential for understanding how customers perceive and use your products. Use these questions when you're looking to gather detailed opinions on product features, usability, and overall satisfaction. This feedback is invaluable for product development teams to make informed decisions about enhancements, new features, and addressing any issues that customers face.

"What features do you find most useful in our product?"

"What challenges did you face while using our product?"

"What improvements would you suggest for our product?"

Service Satisfaction

Service satisfaction questions focus on the quality and effectiveness of customer support and service interactions. These questions help you identify how well the service team is performing, with detailed insights on what improvements are needed. By understanding customer satisfaction with service, businesses can enhance their support processes, training, and overall customer service strategy.

"How would you describe the quality of our service?"

"What could we do to make our service more valuable to you?"

"Can you describe a recent interaction you had with our support team?"

Suggestions for Improvement

Gathering suggestions for improvement directly from customers provides actionable insights that can drive meaningful changes. These questions encourage customers to share their ideas and feedback on how your business can better meet their needs. Use this information when you're looking to prioritize enhancements that will have the most significant impact on customer satisfaction and business growth.

"What changes would you suggest for our product/service?"

"What additional features would you like to see?"

"How can we make your experience with us better?"

Customer Needs

Identifying and understanding customer needs is fundamental to delivering products and services that truly resonate with your audience. These questions help you uncover unmet needs and preferences, providing a clear direction for product development and marketing strategies.

"What problems are you hoping to solve with our product?"

"Are there any needs you have that our product/service does not currently meet?"

"What are your most important needs when using our service?"

Brand Perception

Understanding how customers perceive your brand is vital for shaping your brand strategy and positioning. These questions help you gather detailed feedback on brand attributes, strengths, and areas for improvement. With these insights around your brand sentiment , you'll be better equipped to head into brainstorming sessions with your team on how to refine your messaging, marketing efforts, and overall brand strategy to better resonate with your target audience.

"How would you describe our brand to a friend?"

"What comes to mind when you think of our company?"

"What words would you use to describe our brand?"

Competitor Comparison

Competitor comparison questions provide insights into how your business stacks up against others in the market. These questions help you better understand the competitive landscape from the customer's perspective. These insights are crucial for strategic planning, getting to the heart of your brand strengths and your weaknesses relative to competitors.

"How do we compare to other companies you have used?"

"What makes you choose us over other options available?"

"What do you think we do better or worse than our competitors?"

Purchase Decision

Understanding the factors that influence purchase decisions can help you refine your sales and marketing strategies. These questions dive into the motivations, concerns, and information needs of customers during the buying process. Use this feedback to optimize the customer journey, address barriers to purchase, and enhance the overall buying experience.

"What factors influenced your decision to purchase our product?"

"How did you first hear about us?"

"What concerns did you have before making your purchase?"

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty questions aim to uncover the reasons behind repeat business and long-term customer relationships. These questions help insights managers understand what drives loyalty and what might cause customers to switch to competitors. By identifying the key factors that contribute to loyalty, you can develop strategies to retain customers and foster long-term relationships.

"What keeps you coming back to us?"

"What would make you consider switching to another provider?"

"How likely are you to continue using our services?"

Overall Satisfaction

Overall satisfaction questions provide a broad view of how customers feel about your business and its offerings. These questions help you gauge general satisfaction levels and identify overarching themes in customer feedback. Understanding overall satisfaction is crucial for maintaining a positive customer relationship and ensuring that your business meets or exceeds customer expectations.

"How satisfied are you with your overall experience?"

"What could we do to improve your satisfaction?"

These examples illustrate the versatility and depth that open-ended questions can bring to your surveys. By using these questions, you can gather rich, qualitative data that provides a deeper understanding of your customers' thoughts, feelings, and experiences. To get the most out of your research efforts, make sure you have a customer experience dashboard set up that centralizes your data and helps you interpret themes and findings quickly.

Open-ended questions play a crucial role in effective survey design and customer research. Here are some tips on how to best use them in your survey strategy:

Mix with Closed-Ended Questions: Combining open-ended and closed-ended questions can provide a balanced view and rich insights. Use closed-ended questions for quick insights and open-ended ones for detailed feedback.

Use Probing Questions: Use follow-up questions in your survey sequence to encourage respondents to elaborate on their answers. For example, "Can you tell me more about that?"

Analyze Responses Thoroughly: Qualitative data analysis tools, like Kapiche , can help you make sense of the responses. Look for common themes, patterns, and sentiments.

Encourage Honest Feedback: Assure respondents that their feedback is valuable and will be used to improve products or services. This can lead to more thoughtful and honest responses.

Keep Questions Relevant: Ensure that each question is relevant to your research objectives. Irrelevant questions can lead to disengaged respondents and lower-quality data.

Open-ended questions are invaluable for gaining a deeper understanding of your customers. By using them effectively, you can uncover insights that drive meaningful improvements and foster stronger customer relationships.

Effective survey design starts with asking the right questions. At Kapiche, we understand the power of open-ended questions in uncovering valuable customer insights. Our feedback analytics platform is designed to analyze unstructured data from open-ended responses, helping you uncover trends, sentiments, and actionable insights effortlessly. 

Ready to transform your surveys with insightful open-ended questions? Discover how Kapiche can elevate your customer research efforts and drive meaningful improvements in your business. Watch an on-demand demo today and see how our platform can turn raw feedback into actionable intelligence.

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