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Types of survey questions

This document is intended to help business owners to better understand market research and its importance. You will find below a review of the different kinds of closed and open-ended questions that can be used in surveys.

Closed-ended questions

Four types of closed-ended questions are most commonly used: rating scale, forced choice, dichotomous and demographic/firmographic questions (firmographic data is concerned with company or industry type, size, etc.). It should be noted that by making sure that the scales of a question are the same for all questions, the ratings can be directly compared with each other (e.g. a score of 3 out of 5 is not the same value as 3 out of 12).

Rating scale questions

Respondents assess the issue based on a given dimension. Three frequently used types of rating scale questions are Likert-type scales, balanced scale and semantic differential.

Likert-type scales

• Example: "Using a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 means very dissatisfied and 5 means very satisfied, rate your satisfaction with the performance of ______ on the following factors...."
• Value: This is a good measure of overall attitude toward a product or service, or of attitudes toward specific facets of a product or service.
• Strengths: It is quick and flexible for analysis, and enables easy comparison with competitors.
• Weaknesses: It is susceptible to error because it does not address the issue of "why" and requires clear, complete development work before the survey is launched in order to identify all necessary facets to be measured.

Balanced scale

• Example: "Based on the product description, please tell me if you would definitely buy, probably buy...."
• Value: It attempts to predict future purchase behaviour.
• Strengths: It is quick and flexible for analysis.
• Weaknesses: It does not address the issue of "why" and requires clear, complete development work before the survey is launched in order to identify all necessary facets to be measured.

Semantic differential

• Example: "Please read the following list of opposites that might be used to characterize the brands. On a scale from 1 to 7 where 1 is slow and 7 is fast, how would you describe ______?"
• Value: It can assess an intuitive or conceptual response to a product or service.
• Strengths: It is quick and flexible for analysis, and enables easy comparison with competitors.
• Weaknesses: Depending on the abstraction of items, it can create respondent resistance. It does not address the issue of "why" and requires clear, complete development work before the survey is launched in order to identify all necessary facets to be measured.

Forced-choice questions

Respondents must choose among a set of alternatives.

Paired comparisons

Respondents must choose between two alternatives.

• Example: "When you are deciding which ______ brand you are going to purchase, which of the following characteristics is more important: ______ or ______?"
• Value: It can assess rank ordering of objects and identify degree of difference between objects. It also forces discrimination among objects.
• Strengths: It is quick and avoids uncertainty. It also forces discrimination among alternatives.
• Weaknesses: There are a limited number of options and can be fatiguing for the respondent. It does not address the issue of "why" and tends to have decreased reliability for mid-range responses.

Forced preference

With this type of question, respondents are required to choose among several alternatives. There are two types of forced-preference questions: 1) The forced-preference ranking approach requires sequential ranking from high to low until all factors are ranked. 2) The alternation ranking approach requires rank ordering that alternates between most favourite and least favourite until all factors are ranked.

• Example: "Looking at the list of ______ and thinking about all of them again, please tell me which one you think is best."
• Value: It enables identification of "best" and "worst".
• Strengths: It is quick and forces discrimination among alternatives.
• Weaknesses: There are a limited number of objects and can be fatiguing for the respondent. It doesn't answer "why" questions, and has decreased reliability for mid-range responses.

Dichotomous questions

Respondents must choose between two alternatives.

• Example: "In the past 30 days, have you seen or heard any advertising for ______? Yes or no?"
• Value: It enables identification of quality.
• Strengths: It is quick and does not allow ambivalent answers.
• Weaknesses: It does not allow for a certain degree of sensitivity and differentiation.

Demographic/firmographic questions

Demographic/firmographic questions are asked at the conclusion of the study for classification purposes in analysis.

• Examples: "Into which category does your age fall?" "What level of education do you have?" "What is the size of your organization?"
• Value: It enables researchers to place respondents into categories.
• Strengths: It is quick.
• Weaknesses: Some questions (e.g., salary) may be considered offensive to respondents and generally, it does not address the issue of "why".

Open-ended questions

There are two types of open-ended questions: free response and free response with pre-codes.

Free response

• Example: "Why do you say you are very interested in ______?"
• Value: It allows respondents to define central issues and enables the development of closed-ended questions. It can also collect a respondent's actual words/response.
• Strengths: It addresses the issue of "why" and fully represents a respondent's understanding of an object.
• Weaknesses: It takes more time than closed-ended questions.

Free response with pre-codes

• Example: "What do you see as the strengths of this product? a) You don't have to use it with other products; b) Ease of application; c) It is effective; d) Other (specify); e) None; f) Don't know."
• Value: It allows respondents to define central issues.
• Strengths: It takes less time than free response and addresses the issue of "why".
• Weaknesses: It takes more time than closed-ended questions.