What’s a close-ended question and how do you get quantitative data? Here’s what to know, including question examples, survey examples, and more.
Close-ended questions are a critical part of a researcher’s toolbox, especially if they want to pinpoint trends over time. From multiple-choice questions to ranking questions, from market research to employee surveys, closed-ended survey questions are all about gathering specific data for analysis.
Let’s dive into what you need to know about close-ended questions, including why they’re important, what close-ended question types are most common, and how you can use them.
Closed-ended questions, also known as close-ended questions or quantitative questions, are questions with pre-determined answer options.
Whether those answer options are true/false, yes/no, or a rating scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” close-ended questions don’t leave room for “gray area” results. Respondents choose the answer that most closely matches their opinion without necessarily expressing themselves in their own words.
Researchers use close-ended survey questions to spot statistical trends and track how responses change over time. That’s because closed-ended questions collect quantitative data that can be easily compared and analyzed.
For example, let’s say you asked your customers this closed-ended question:
“On a scale of extremely satisfied to extremely dissatisfied, how would you rate your recent experience with our customer service?”
With a closed-ended scale of answer options, you can get a numerical measurement of how your customer service team is doing and use that as a baseline to improve.
Whether you're looking to conduct market research, improve customer satisfaction, or boost employee engagement, you likely need to ask some closed-ended survey questions to get quantitative data.
There are many question types that fall under the umbrella of closed-ended questions—and they can be useful in different ways.
Let’s walk through some common close-ended question types and how they might be used in specific survey examples.
Multiple-choice questions are a popular type of close-ended question that allows survey respondents to select an answer from a list of choices. They’re a low-effort way for respondents to indicate everything from their demographics to their opinions or habits.
Multiple choice questions are often the foundation of Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys, where customers are asked to rate their satisfaction with a company, product, or experience.
Here’s an example of how this multiple choice closed-ended question might look in a CSAT survey:
This close-ended question format gives you numerical data for statistical analysis—revealing how satisfied your customers are with your product.
Close-ended questions that ask respondents to choose from a set scale of answer options are called rating scale questions, or ordinal questions. The range of a rating scale can vary (0 to 100, 1 to 10, etc.), and respondents select the number that most accurately represents their opinion.
Customer experience (CX) metrics tend to rely on close-ended rating scale questions. For example, the Net Promoter Score (NPS®) question uses a rating scale to measure customer loyalty or, in the case of employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), employee satisfaction.
Here’s how this rating scale question appears in an NPS survey:
The close-ended rating scale is essential for calculating your NPS—you won’t get your score without it.
The Likert scale is a type of rating scale that measures respondents’ opinions, attitudes, motivations, and more. You’ve probably come across a Likert scale close-ended survey question if you’ve been asked how much you agree or disagree with a certain statement.
For example, in employee feedback surveys, employees might be asked to rate how much they agree or disagree with statements like:
The quantitative results from these close-ended rating scale questions could help an HR professional understand and track the employee experience and make data-driven improvements.
Matrix questions are a way to ask respondents several related questions in a row while keeping the same scale of answer options. A series of Likert scale questions or rating scale questions are often used as a matrix question.
Matrix questions are handy for market research since they can be used to consolidate questions and gain lots of data. However, the trick is to make sure that your matrix isn’t too complex or lengthy.
Here’s an example of a matrix question that could be found in a market research survey:
Dropdown questions are a simple and effective way of offering a long list of scrollable answer options without overwhelming your respondents. Think of it this way: If you’re a marketer conducting research on American consumers and need to know where respondents are located, listing out every state and territory may take up valuable survey space—but a dropdown question would save the day.
In fact, you’ll often run into dropdown questions that ask for demographic information like birth year, nationality, or level of education. Here’s an example:
Speaking of demographics, most surveys will use demographic questions to gather information for demographic segmentation. These questions give you the option to filter the data you collect based on things like gender, race/ethnicity, income, or marital status.
These closed-ended questions help you uncover any preferences or behaviors within specific groups of people—like if women under age 30 love your product or if single people are more likely to recommend your brand to a friend. You can also use demographic responses to create more targeted surveys down the line, which could boost your response rates.
Here is an example of a closed-ended demographic question:
A ranking question asks respondents to place several answer options in order of preference or importance, usually in a drag-and-drop format. This can provide you with valuable weighted data; you’ll be able to see how respondents feel about each answer option and understand each option’s relative popularity.
For example, a marketing events team that’s planning a conference might use a ranking question to understand attendees’ top expectations:
Please rank the following in order of importance to your conference experience:
With image choice questions, the answer options are images. These close-ended question types are especially important when you want to evaluate whether visuals are resonating with people or falling flat.
In market research, image choice questions are essential for logo design testing, package testing, and ad testing.
Here is an example of an image choice question:
Click map questions are a type of image choice question, but they provide additional context and data. Businesses will commonly use this question type to see which parts of a visual pop, so they can know what catches customers’ eyes on a supermarket shelf or in an online ad.
Here is an example of a click map question:
The results from this close-ended question will show exactly which part of the package people like the most.
Slider questions are a form of rating scale questions where respondents use a slider to indicate their response. As interactive questions, these are useful for breaking up more standard (and potentially repetitive) multiple-choice questions.
Here is an example of a slider question:
The difference between closed-ended questions and open-ended questions comes down to whether your question offers pre-determined answer options or a text box where people can share their thoughts or opinions in their own words.