Market Research: Foundations to Practice · Survey Design Fundamentals
Matching Question Types to What You Need to Learn
Every survey question type trades off respondent effort against analytical richness, and choosing the wrong type for a given question wastes one or the other. This chapter covers the main types and where each fits.
Closed-ended questions, where respondents choose from predefined options, include single-select (choose one), multi-select (choose all that apply), rating scales (such as a 1-to-5 or 1-to-7 Likert scale), and ranking questions (ordering options by preference); these are fast to answer and produce data that is straightforward to analyze statistically across a large sample.
Key Takeaways
- Closed-ended questions (single-select, multi-select, rating scales, ranking) are fast to answer and straightforward to analyze at scale.
- Open-ended questions capture nuance and unanticipated answers but reduce completion and require more effort to analyze.
- Rating scale length (5-point vs 7-point) is a deliberate choice about sensitivity, and switching lengths mid-tracking-program breaks comparability.
- A well-designed survey deliberately mixes question types by need, rather than defaulting entirely to one type throughout.