Missing answer options are one of the most common mistakes in online surveys. If a respondent can’t find a fitting answer, the question is either left blank or answered incorrectly. Both distort your results and frustrate respondents.
Exhaustive: something for everyone
Answer options are exhaustive when every respondent can assign themselves to at least one of them. In other words, no plausible answer should be missing from your list. For why the options must also not overlap, see Imprecise Answer Options.
Plan for neutral options
Not everyone can or wants to answer every question. Options such as “no answer”, “don’t know” or “not applicable” keep respondents from being forced into a wrong answer. That gives you cleaner data than a forced, meaningless response.
Open fields as a safety net
What reliably helps: open text and comment fields. They let any respondent add a missing option themselves. From years of experience we know it is rarely possible to list every fitting answer for every respondent. Even seemingly clear yes/no questions don’t always allow a simple yes or no. That is why modern surveys offer, for the question of gender, not only “female” and “male” but also “diverse”, “other” or a free text field.
Test before you launch
Most missing options surface in a short pretest. Have a few people fill in the questionnaire beforehand and watch where they hesitate or reach for the comment field. LamaPoll’s plausibility check additionally scans your questionnaire, for example for answers missing in one language version. Only you, however, know the actual context.
Your survey is only worth something with correct results. Meet your respondents halfway, and they will return the favour with an honest answer.
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is an online survey tool for creating employee surveys and measuring employee satisfaction. With us, you can create, conduct, and analyse all types of employee surveys.
Set up your employee survey in just a few steps, customise it with your company's corporate design, and invite your employees conveniently by email or via your intranet. You'll gather insights to boost employee satisfaction in no time. Sign up for free with our online survey tool. You can then run surveys for up to 50 employees immediately and with no obligation. If you need more responses for your online employee survey, simply use our monthly plans. You can also make use of our templates and examples for employee survey questionnaires.
