Questionnaire Design — Open-ended and Close-ended Questions
Questionnaires typically
comprise mainly close-ended questions and some open-ended ones. Open-ended
questions tend to be of the type — “Do you have any suggestions on how to
improve our service?” They solicit additional information from the respondent
and allow respondents greater freedom to express themselves. They often yield
useful insights that help diagnose issues and interpret responses to
close-ended questions e.g. — “Please share the reasons why you stopped using brand
A.” Open-ended questions may also yield quotable comments (verbatim) that
enrich the research findings.
Note however that the exploratory nature of
open-ended questions makes them amenable more to qual than quant. Unlike
closed-ended questions which offer predetermined lists or categories of
possible answers, open-ended questions are not as easy to manage in quant. They
are harder to record, code, process, analyse and report, and consequently add
to the expense of the study. For these reasons they should be used sparingly in
quant studies.
Close-ended questions provide a set of answers
from which the respondent must choose. Examples include dichotomous closed
questions (For instance Yes/No — Did you drink tea today?), or multiple choice
questions. These questions are apt for quant where we aim to close rather than
expand the focus of inquiry. Responses are comparable across respondents, and
they are quicker, easier and cheaper to administer in field, and process in the
office.
Close-ended questions are, however, rigid and may
restrict some respondents to a list that does not apply to them. It also
prevents them from expressing their complete feelings and experiences, which is
why a few open-ended questions provide for good balance.
A good understanding of the subject is required to
develop good questions and pre-code lists. Where there is lack of familiarity,
exploratory qual study may be carried out prior to quant, to determine the
right questions and the anticipated responses. It also helps to pick up the
terminology consumers commonly used for terms pertaining to the category.
