Question types

Sometimes you'll need to add a custom question to your survey. This might be because you need to ask a question unique to your organisation or to dig deeper into a specific problem highlighted in a previous survey.

You can add your custom question during Step 3 when you create your survey. You can add up to 20 custom questions, and as part of this process, you'll need to decide which question type(s) to use.

Let's learn more about the question types available.

Scale-based question types

There are four scale-based (sometimes called rating-based) question types you can use:

• Agree-Disagree: Uses the existing Strongly disagree to Strongly agree emoticon scale and behaves the same way as our standard assertions. Free-text comments are optional.
• Yes/No: Allows the participant to select Yes or No to a question. Free-text comments are optional.
• 0 – 10: Allows participants to respond on a 0 – 10 scale. Free-text comments are optional.
• Multi-choice: Allows participants to select from a list of options. Free-text comments are optional.

How to structure questions for each option

You need to write your question in a way that matches the question type and its answer options.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

Agree-Disagree

The Agree-Disagree scale allows participants to select how much they agree or disagree with a statement.

Participants select from one of six options:

• Strongly disagree
• Disagree
• Somewhat disagree
• Somewhat agree
• Agree
• Strongly agree

This type of scale is called a Likert scale, named after its creator, American social scientist Rensis Likert. It's one of the most reliable ways to measure opinions, perceptions, and behaviours. It can also be used when you need to measure attitudes and opinions with more nuance than a Yes' or 'No' question provides.

Yes/No

The Yes/No question is useful when you need to capture clear, specific responses. It should not be used for complex issues that required more detailed answers.

It must be written in a way that can be clearly answered with a yes or no response. It should avoid being leading or involve an emotion which the participant may feel uncomfortable answering either yes or no. If a comment is also required, the question must direct the participant to explain or clarify.

Learn more about how to write great survey questions.

0-10 scale

On the survey the 0-10 scale does not provide any indication of what 0 means or 10 means. The question must be written with a description of the scale included.

Multi-choice

Multi-choice questions allow you to add a question and enter a list of up to 20 options that participants can select from. You can instruct participants on how many options they can choose by setting a minimum and maximum number of responses or a range.

For example:

• Select 1 option.
• Select 3 options.
• Select 1 to 3 options.

Response options can be ordered or randomised.  We recommend randomising options to remove the potential for bias by people just selecting the first option in the list.

Free text

You can also choose to include free text questions. A free text question isn't looking for an answer that fits into a set of options. It allows the participant to tell their story and write their own answer.