60 Open-Ended Survey Question Examples

Quick answer: a good open-ended survey question asks about one thing, uses neutral wording and invites a specific answer, such as "What is the main reason for your score?" rather than "Any comments?". Below are 60 examples grouped by survey type, plus tips for writing your own and analyzing the answers.

What makes a good open-ended question

One topic per question. "What do you like and dislike about the app?" produces tangled answers. Ask two questions.
Neutral wording. "What did you think of checkout?" beats "How easy was our quick checkout?"
A clear focus. "What is the one thing we should improve?" gives sharper answers than "Any feedback?"
Placed after a related rating. "What is the main reason for your score?" right after a rating question gets specific, explainable answers.
Few of them. Two or three open questions per survey keeps completion rates and answer quality up.

Customer feedback and satisfaction

What is the one thing we could do to improve your experience?
What almost stopped you from buying from us?
What do you value most about our product or service?
What would you tell a friend about us?
What problem were you trying to solve when you found us?
What, if anything, has disappointed you about our service?
What would make you more likely to buy from us again?
How would you describe us to a colleague in one sentence?
What other companies did you consider before choosing us, and why did you choose us?
What is the most frustrating part of working with us?

NPS and CSAT follow-ups

What is the main reason for your score?
What is the one change that would raise your score?
What do we do better than alternatives you have used?
What would have made this interaction a 10?
What was missing from your experience today?
What should we never change?
If you were in charge for a day, what would you fix first?

Analyze these by score group. See NPS comment analysis.

Product and feature feedback

What were you trying to do the last time you used the product?
What is the hardest part of using the product?
Which feature would you miss most if it disappeared, and why?
What feature would make the product significantly more useful to you?
What do you use instead of us for tasks we do not cover?
What nearly made you stop using the product?
Describe a recent time the product saved you time or effort.
What confused you during your first week?

Cancellation and churn

What is the main reason you are cancelling?
What could we have done to keep you?
What will you use instead?
What did you expect the product to do that it did not?
Would anything make you come back? What?

Employee engagement and HR

What is one thing that would make this a better place to work?
What should leadership start doing?
What should leadership stop doing?
What gets in the way of doing your best work?
What do you value most about working here?
What support would help you grow in your role?
What is one process that wastes the most time for your team?
If you could change one thing about your role, what would it be?

Analyze these with anonymity in mind. See employee survey comment analysis.

Events, webinars and training

What was the most useful part of the event?
What would you change about the format?
What topic should we cover next time?
What is one thing you will do differently after this session?
What, if anything, was confusing?
What would make you more likely to attend again?

UX and user research

Walk us through what you did right before you gave up.
What did you expect to happen when you clicked that button?
What words would you use to search for this feature?
What is the most annoying part of your current workflow?
Describe the last time you tried to do this task. What happened?
What would make this screen easier to understand?

Market research and brand

What comes to mind when you think of our brand?
What would make you switch from your current provider?
How do you usually decide which product to buy in this category?
What do you wish companies in this industry understood better?
Where do you go for advice before buying?

Education and course evaluation

What helped you learn the most in this course?
What would you change to improve the course?
What was the most difficult topic, and why?
What should the instructor keep doing?
What advice would you give to a future student?

Questions to avoid

Avoid	Why	Better
"Any other comments?"	Too vague, gets few useful answers	"What is one thing we should improve?"
"How great was our support?"	Leading	"How would you describe your support experience?"
"What did you like and dislike?"	Two questions in one	Ask likes and dislikes separately
"Why don't you use feature X more?"	Assumes a reason exists	"How do you use feature X, if at all?"

How to analyze the answers

Open-ended questions are only useful if someone analyzes the answers. For a few hundred responses, follow our step-by-step guide to analyzing open-ended survey responses and use the free coding template. For larger surveys, upload the export to the free thematic analysis tool and get named themes with counts in minutes.

FAQ

What is an open-ended survey question?

A question that lets respondents answer in their own words instead of choosing from options, such as "What could we improve?"

How many open-ended questions should a survey have?

Usually two or three. More than that lowers completion rates and answer quality, and each one adds analysis work.

Should open-ended questions be required?

Usually not. Required open questions produce many "n/a" answers and can increase drop-off. Make them optional, except for a key follow-up such as "What is the main reason for your score?" in short surveys.

Where should open-ended questions go in a survey?

Right after the related rating question, or near the end. Asking for an explanation directly after a score produces the most focused answers.

60 Open-Ended Survey Question Examples (and How to Analyze the Answers)