Open-ended survey questions: 30 examples

An open-ended survey question lets people answer in their own words instead of picking from a list. Ask one, make it optional, and put it right after the score it explains. Below are 30 examples sorted by the score they follow, each with the moment it fits, then how to word your own and how to read the answers when you are the only person reading them.

One question works after any score: "What is the main reason for your score?" The 30 below go further, for when you want to learn something specific.

Open-ended vs closed-ended questions

A closed question gives people a fixed set of answers, such as a 0 to 10 scale. An open question gives them a text box.

The extra effort shows. Pew Research Center found that closed questions on its online panel go unanswered 1% to 2% of the time, while open questions average about 18%, ranging from 3% to just over 50%. ¹ The questions people skipped most were the ones that took the longest to answer. That is why the examples below are short and ask about one thing.

After an NPS score

The Net Promoter Score question asks how likely someone is to recommend you, from 0 to 10. It is usually a regular check-in, such as every quarter or a month after signup.

1. What would you miss most if you stopped using us tomorrow? Use it to learn what customers really value, in their words.
2. What problem were you trying to solve when you signed up? Use it in the first NPS survey, a month or so after signup.
3. What did you use before us? Use it to learn which tools or habits you replaced.
4. What do you open our product to do most often? Use it to see which part of your product carries the relationship.
5. What has changed for your team since you started using us? Use it with long-time customers to collect outcomes.
6. What is still missing for your team? Use it with passives and detractors to find the gap that holds the score down.
7. What would make you think about switching? Use it to spot churn risks before they show up as cancellations.
8. What do you use alongside us to get the job done? Use it to find the integrations and workarounds people rely on.

For a different follow-up for promoters, passives and detractors, see these NPS follow-up questions by group.

After a CSAT rating

CSAT asks how satisfied someone was with one moment, often on a 1 to 5 scale. Ask while that moment is fresh: right after a support chat closes, a purchase goes through or an onboarding call ends.

9. What were you trying to get done when you contacted us? Use it after support, to learn the real task behind the ticket.
10. Which part of the conversation helped most? Use it to find what your best replies have in common.
11. What would have made this a 5? Use it when the rating is 3 or 4 and you want the missing piece.
12. What did you have to explain more than once? Use it to find handovers and tickets that bounced between people.
13. What should we have told you before you had to ask? Use it to find gaps in your docs and emails.
14. How well did the answer fit what you were trying to do? Use it when replies may be correct but not useful.
15. What will you do next with the answer you got? Use it to check whether the problem is really solved.
16. What is still unclear after today's session? Use it after an onboarding or training call.

After a CES rating

The Customer Effort Score asks how easy something was, such as connecting an integration, exporting a report or inviting teammates. Ask it right after the person finishes the task.

17. Which step took the longest? Use it to find where time goes in a flow.
18. Where did you pause or hesitate? Use it to find labels and screens that make people stop and think.
19. What did you have to look up to finish? Use it to find what your product does not explain on its own.
20. What did you expect to happen that did not? Use it to find mismatches between your design and people's habits.
21. What would you rename or move to make this clearer? Use it to get concrete design suggestions.
22. What did you need from someone else to finish? Use it to find permission and handover blockers.
23. How did you work around anything that got in your way? Use it to find the hacks people invent when a step fails them.

For your team: eNPS and ESAT

The employee Net Promoter Score asks how likely someone is to recommend your company as a place to work, often every quarter. ESAT asks how satisfied someone is with one thing, such as their onboarding or a recent launch. Tell people who will read the answers before you ask.

24. What helped you most this quarter? Use it after eNPS, to learn what to protect.
25. What slows you down in a normal week? Use it to find the small, constant friction people stop mentioning.
26. What should we start doing as a team? Use it when you are ready to act on ideas.
27. What should we stop doing? Use it to find meetings, rules and habits that cost more than they give.
28. What would make you stay another two years? Use it with experienced people you want to keep.
29. What do you know now that you wish you had known on day one? Use it with ESAT after onboarding.
30. What would you do differently next time? Use it with ESAT after a launch or a busy month.

How to word your own

• Ask one. On Pew's panel an open question went unanswered about 18% of the time on average, so every extra box costs answers. ¹
• Place it after the rating it explains. mTab's guidance is to put an open question right after the closed one, never to open a survey with it, and to ask as few as you need: one to three for a survey of about ten minutes. ²
• Make it optional, so people with nothing to add can move on. You will get fewer answers, but each one comes from someone who chose to write. ³
• Ask about one thing. "What did you like and what should we change?" is two questions in one box. People answer the first half.
• Keep it neutral. "What did you love about the new dashboard?" assumes they loved it. "What do you think of the new dashboard?" does not.
• Keep it light. Ask for a reason rather than an essay. Questions that take less time to answer get answered more often. ¹

How to read the answers when it is just you

Read a sample, name a few themes, tag the rest, count them, and check your own tagging a few days later. Research teams add a second person who codes a sample to check the first, ² and most small teams do not have that person. These steps work without one.

1. Read 50 to 100 answers before you decide anything. ² Write down every idea you see, in the customer's words.
2. Group them into a short list of themes, plus "other" for what does not fit. A list you can hold in your head is easier to count and act on.
3. Tag the rest. An answer can carry two themes when it really says two things.
4. Count, then quote. Report how many answers mention each theme, with one typical quote for each. Skip the most dramatic one.
5. Come back a few days later, re-read a sample you tagged and recount. If you would tag them differently now, adjust the theme names.

Made-up example: a support team gets 160 CSAT comments in a month. After reading 50, they settle on five themes and tag the rest.

Slow first replies are the biggest complaint, and outdated docs come next. That is a clearer to-do list than the average rating alone.

Watch small numbers. If 12 of the 40 people on one plan mention billing, write "12 of 40" instead of "30% of customers". One more mention among those 40 people would move the figure by 2.5 points.

If you collect feedback in Pulseri, each answer can carry one optional comment next to its score. Pulseri can tag comments as they arrive with a sentiment and any of your themes that clearly fit, and it leaves the theme empty rather than forcing one. When it gets one wrong, you correct it, and the correction sticks.

Where to go next

For ready-made question sets you can copy, start with the NPS question template. Support teams can use the matching CSAT question template, and everything else is in the survey resources and templates. To ask one of these questions at the right moment, see how Pulseri builds surveys and scores.

For a wider bank of closed and open questions sorted by moment in the customer journey, see customer satisfaction questions by moment.