Text Question
Text Question: Open-Ended Feedback, in the Respondent's Own Words
A free-form written answer, best for capturing reasons, feelings and suggestions that a list of options can't cover.
What it is
A text question lets respondents answer in their own words. It's the only question type designed for open, unstructured feedback—perfect for uncovering the "why" behind a number or discovering ideas you didn't think to offer as options.
When to use it
- You need the respondent's own words - reasons, suggestions, or specific examples
- You're exploring a new topic and don't yet know the full range of possible answers
- You want a "tell us more" follow-up on a closed question, like a rating or NPS score
- The answer is too open-ended to fit a fixed set of options, like "what should we build next?"
Best practices
- Including too many open text questions can negatively impact completion rates.
- Make the question optional whenever possible, so it doesn't slow down an otherwise quick survey.
- Ask one clear thing at a time - avoid stacking two questions into one text field
- Use it right after a closed question (rating, NPS, choice) to capture the reasoning behind the answer
- Keep the prompt specific - "what could we improve?" gets more useful answers than "any comments?"
Common pitfalls
- Too many open text questions in one survey drive down completion rates
- Vague prompts produce vague, hard-to-act-on answers
- Analyzing open-ended text responses requires more effort than processing structured clicks; keep this in mind before adding too many of these questions.