Customer feedback is great for improving your business.
With accurate feedback, you can find out if your customers are happy and how they feel about your product or service. Multiple choice questions (MCQs) can be one of the best tools to get this type of feedback.
These questions allow customers to pick one or more answers from a list of options provided. They are the most popular survey questions because they are easy to answer and give you correct feedback.
MCQs also work to gather information for your organization through polls and quizzes.
However, knowing about MCQs is not enough. You’ll also need to know how to ask the right questions and pick a format that works for your business.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to write great multiple-choice questions and the most popular types to choose from. Once done, you’ll be able to write MCQs that can provide you with solid insights into your customers and their preferences.
So, let’s begin starting with when to use MCQs.
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When to use multiple choice questions?
Multiple choice questions serve different purposes, as we mentioned earlier. Here are some ways to use them:
At Specific Events:
You can use MCQs to get feedback at specific events, like website redesigns or product launches. MCQs are useful for getting customer feedback regarding the new changes you’ve implemented.
If you find any issues, you’ll be able to address them before they become major issues.
All Through the Customer Journey:
The customer journey covers the steps customers go through from when they find your business till they make a purchase.
Using MCQs, you’ll be able to find the pain points and areas that can be improved on their journey. For instance, issues during the delivery and purchase processes.
After a Purchase:
Multiple choice questions are great for measuring customer experience after buying from your brand. You can then use the insights you get to improve your process and services.
For Follow-Up:
MCQs work great as a follow-up on previous conversations and customer feedback. For instance, your customer support team can send a follow-up survey to customers.
The goal is to determine the professionalism and effectiveness of the support service. Based on the feedback, you’ll then improve the process.
13 Tips to create multi choice questions
It’s essential to write questions that not only encourage respondents to answer, but also collect data so you can get valuable insights.
Let’s take a look at a few ways to do that:
1. Define your goal
The first step is to define your goals. I have put together some helpful questions you should answer:
- What do you want to achieve with your multiple choice questions?
- Do you want to learn about customer issues or satisfaction?
- Are you trying to introduce a new product and want to see if customers will find it useful? Or perhaps you just want to see ways to improve your current offerings.
Multiple choice questions serve different purposes. It is important to answer the questions above before you start writing. This will determine the approach you take when creating your questions.
2. Pick the right type of MCQ
There are different types of multiple choice questions that are useful for getting feedback. However, picking the type that works for your business is important.
This will ensure you get useful and valuable insights. If you don’t know the options at your disposal, we will cover them later in this article.
3. Use simple language
You’re likely going to be targeting different types of clients with your multiple choice questions, and your audience will come from different backgrounds and won’t have the same levels of education.
Therefore, you’ll want to use simple to understand language instead of complicated ones that’ll make your respondents stop answering questions.
4. Avoid industry jargon
This is an extension of the point above. While using jargon might make it easier for you to write your multiple questions survey, it can be stressful for respondents.
Stay away from abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon that will make respondents visit Google or a dictionary.
This will result in a time-consuming survey that’ll be abandoned midway. Cut down on abbreviations and acronyms, or write them in full to ensure your respondents understand.
5. Don’t use biased questions
Biased multiple-choice questions subtly lead the respondents to choose a specific answer. While this will get you the answer you want, the feedback will be inaccurate.
For instance, What’s your favorite tool that Zoho offers?
This question is biased because it assumes the respondent enjoys using Zoho. It isIt’s best to improve this question by asking questions that don’t imply the respondent has a favorite tool.
A better way to ask this question would be: What is the best feature your favorite Customer Management Tool offers?
This question does not lead respondents and allows them to pick a genuine answer. If you are not sure if your questions are biased, let someone who is not in your field crosscheck it.
6. Keep questions neutral
Don’t assume you know the respondents or their preferences in your questions. Instead, you’ll want to add extra information or details to ensure you get the correct answer.
E.g. An assumption in a question could be: What mobile device brand do you use?
This question assumes the respondent owns a mobile device. While this may be a fair assumption, it is not always the case. The respondent could be answering your multi-choice questions using a laptop or shared device.
If you must ask this type of question, add an answer that helps avoid assumptions. For instance, there should be an option for “I don’t own a mobile device.”
7. Don’t use double-barreled questions
Double-barreled questions ask two questions at the same time. If you present these types of questions to respondents, they’ll be unsure of which to answer. Ultimately, you’ll get incorrect answers and results.
Here’s an example of double-barreled questions:
Are you happy with the pricing and functionality of our product?
If the respondent likes how your product functions but doesn’t like the pricing, they won’t know whether to pick “Happy” or “Unhappy” as their answer.
To avoid this, separate this question into two with different answers. This way, you’ll avoid confusing your respondents and ensure they provide the most appropriate answer.
8. Provide alternative answers
Regardless of your goal with these multiple choice tests, you’ll need answers to all the questions. Having respondents skip questions or pick “Not Relevant” as an answer can be frustrating and affect your results.
However, you also don’t want the process to be inconvenient to your customers. Therefore, when asking questions, there should be an an answer choice for “I would rather not answer this question.”
While this means you don’t get the answer you want, you won’t be forcing your customers to reveal information they don’t want to. What’s more, it would be better for you if respondents skipped some questions instead of abandoning the survey entirely.
Another benefit of this method is that it’s a great way of measuring your capacity to write multiple choice questions. If clients constantly skip questions or abandon the survey, you’ll know its time to change things.
You can then crosscheck the layout of your multiple choice questions and adjust it as needed for more engagement.
9. Mix the order or Answers
You’ll want to make sure that there is no pattern to your correct answers. Don’t place all the answers or obviously incorrect choices on the C and D positions.
Instead, make the positions random and ensure there is no pattern.
This will ensure your results are accurate, and respondents won’t figure out the pattern and start guessing answers instead of filling them in genuinely.
10. Keep questions short and clear
Many customers, including myself, would rather abandon extremely long multiple-choice questions. The best MCQs, especially when gathering information, are short and require only a few short minutes to complete.
This is evident in studies which show that completion rates drop by as high as 20% if surveys require over 7 – 8 minutes to complete.
Why do you think this happens? Well, customers are humans with life obligations who are more likely to answer feedback questions if they don’t take much time.
Another great idea is to showcase how much time you think a survey will take to complete beforehand. This will let them decide if they can stick around long enough to provide the possible answers.
11. Consider the number of answers
Too many answer choices in your MCQs can make it stressful for respondents. Instead, keep the number of answer options to a maximum of 5 and a minimum of 3.
Having too few questions is also a bad thing, as it might force respondents to pick an answer because it is available, even though it doesn’t reflect their thoughts. This will also leave you with inaccurate feedback, making the process pointless.
12. Add open-ended questions
While MCQs can be great for getting straightforward feedback, adding a few open-ended questions can take this to the next step. This will help you get more insights that wouldn’t have been possible with the Multiple-choice questions.
Open-ended questions will allow customers to provide more details on their choices, which means you get better feedback.
13. Test your questions
Testing your multiple-choice questions is a great way to see if they appeal to your customer base. We recommend you do a trial run with a few participants to see how they answer questions.
If you don’t have enough engagement or the feedback is poor, adjust the questions and address possible issues. With this strategy, you can ensure your multiple-choice questions are perfect before sending them to your customers.
Choosing the right multiple-choice questions
You have many options when it comes to multiple-choice questions. They all offer the same outcomes and allow you to adjust as needed. Let’s break down some of the major ones:
1. Single-select multiple choice questions
As the name implies, single-select questions provide many options for participants to select a single correct answer.
This option is a great way to get a clear response when only one answer is relevant.
To create a single-select multiple choice question, ask a question with many likely answers but limit respondents to choosing only one. This format is great for questions where one choice determines what the respondent thinks or prefers.
For instance: How do you prefer contacting the support team?
- Live chat
- Telephone
- Social Media
- In-person
2. Multi-select multiple choice questions
As you may have guessed from the name, these questions allow respondents to choose multiple answers from a limited list.
These questions are ideal for capturing different aspects of a respondent’s experience or opinion. With more than one answer, you get better insights into your customers’ preferences and behaviors.
You’ll want to structure questions in a manner that’ll allow participants choose more than one answer. Make it clear that they can pick many answers.
Example: What do you consider when buying a new product (Choose all answers that apply)
- Price
- Functionality
- Quality
- Design
- Security
- Customer Support
3. Dropdown menu multiple choice questions
Dropdown menu multiple-choice questions allow respondents to select one answer from a list displayed in a dropdown format.
This design is great when you have many answers. It helps keep your survey arranged and saves space. It’s recommended to use this approach when you want detailed insights into customer preferences.
To set this up, pick a dropdown with multiple options for respondents.
For instance: What is your age range?
- Under 18
- 18 – 24
- 25 – 34
- 25 – 44
- 45 and above
4. Star rating multiple choice questions
Star rating MCQs allow customers to rate an experience or item on a scale with stars. Using his format, respondents can show you what they think or how satisfied they are with your service or product.
It is a great way to get engagement and works without issues on mobile devices. To use this MCQ, create questions where customers can rate their experience using a star scale.
For instance, How would you rate our purchase process?
- 1 star (Very Poor)
- Two stars (poor)
- Three stars (average)
- Four stars (good)
- Five stars (excellent)
5. Text slider multiple choice questions
Text slider MCQs are almost like the star rating option. The major difference is that respondents slide a bar along a scale. This format is your best bet for getting responses on a continuous scale instead of a fixed option.
Customers will be able to show their level of satisfaction simply by sliding the bar to their satisfaction level. To do this, create a slider with labels at the end, each showing the range of likely responses.
For example, how satisfied are you with our customer service on a scale of 1 to 10?
Then, create a slider that ranges from 1 to 10, which customers can pull up or down like volume controls.
6. Thumbs up / down multiple choice questions
These multiple-choice questions allow customers to choose either a thumbs up(yes) or a thumbs down (no). This format is straightforward and easy for anyone to understand, and it is also great for quickly learning how your customers feel.
To use this, ask a question with two clear answers where respondents can show if they approve or not. We also recommend them if you want fast answers.
For instance: Was your last purchase satisfactory?
- (Thumbs up) Yes
- (Thumbs down) No
7. Smiley face multiple choice questions
Smiley face MCQ is another type of visual question that makes it easy for customers to pick a rating. Unlike the others, they can add an emotion to it.
For instance: How was your experience with our product?
- Angry smiley for bad
- Frowning smiley for poor
- Straight face smiley for average
- Happy face smiley for excellent
8. Rank order multiple choice questions
Rank-order multiple choice questions ask participants to arrange answers based on preference or importance.
This will help you understand how your customers prioritize various items and give you insight into what they prefer.
To use this format, write down different options and get your customers to give them a ranking based on what they prefer. This strategy will show you the choices that appeal to your customers more.
Example: Rate these product features from the most important to the least
- Price
- Functionality
- Quality
- Design
- Security
- Customer Support
Conclusion
Now, you know the meaning of multiple-choice questions, the types, and how to use them to get feedback through surveys. The next step is to start creating your own multi-choice questions.
We have provided all the tips you need to create MQCs that drive engagement and give you insight into your customers’ needs.
Remember that there are different types of multiple choice questions, which are great for feedback. Adjust them as you see fit, send them to customers, and get feedback that’ll help improve your business.