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Open-ended survey questions with a word limit?
I was reading a blog recently that discussed asking open-ended survey questions with a word limit. The example given was "Tell us what you like about the product in 20 words or less." What do you think of this approach to collecting unprompted responses? Is it effective to force respondents to pair down their responses? A strategic way to not intimidate respondents with giant empty text boxes? Or just limiting your customer's valuable feedback?
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4 Answers
"Pare down".
It's limiting, and unnecessary in today's connected world. Sure, put in a data limit so people don't drop War and Peace into the text box, but make it a usable limit - 64K characters is a standard one and comes out to about a thousand words.
20-word limits and so forth are only really useful for generating bits of fluff and the occasional keyword. They're rarely any good for intense feedback, and responders may feel slighted that they're (a) not being listened to, and (b) being asked to do the survey-commissioner's job for them.
Don't limit the customer, and don't make them think about just the "right" words to fit into those "20 words or less." If you make them edit, you'll lose the raw, unbiased feedback you want.
Most survey tools let you show a limited size box, but that box can go on forever. Just like these answer boxes on Focus, they're approximately 10 lines long but I can keep writing and writing.
If you're asking your customers to be succinct, it's likely because you don't want to take the time to read their long answers. But if you don't really want to read their feedback, why are you asking for it in the first place?
Let them talk, let them share, let them vent if they need to. Just make sure you're listening, really listening when they do.
Limiting the feedback seems to be making the assumption the customer only has limited feedback of value and the rest is not welcome. I want to make it as easy as possible to give feedback since I am requesting it so they can help me do a better job. I want them to understand that I value all of what they have to say.
I have not found the open ended questions too verbose. Generally, it is the other way and I wish they would tell me more about their experience. I am very happy any time someone takes the time to fill out the open ended field.
I'm with Tim on this. I don't think I've ever had the problem of respondents writing too much. Typically you're trying to develop strategies to get them to provide more than just a one or two word answer.
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