Can Mobile Open-End Survey Question Quality Be Improved?

Summary

FocusVision/Decipher and ResearchNow have seen mobile survey starts in their platforms climb to more than one-third of all surveys in 2016.  While their clients are improving closed-end question design, open-end questions remain problematic:

• Response rates are roughly 20% lower on mobile devices than PCs.
• The number of words used in mobile open-end responses are 10-20% less than on PC open-ends

FocusVision and ResearchNow, along with MartizCX, piloted 3 alternated response options to the open-end text box with the objective of improving the quality of open-end responses and the respondent experience :

1. An Opt-Out Checkbox
2. Voice-to-text response
3. Video response

Unfortunately, none of the three experiments showed significant gains on both objectives:

• For the Opt-Out Checkbox option, completions, meaningful word count, and respondent satisfaction were all at parity with the control option.
• For Voice-to-Text, while the number of meaningful words increased, the completion rate and respondent satisfaction were again at parity. Many mobile respondents noted that they weren’t comfortable yet with the voice-to-text features of their device.
• For Video Response, while the quality of response was much greater, the completion rates were low. Two-thirds of respondents who chose not to reply said they simply prefer not to have their video on file.

While none of the experimental options fulfilled the objective, the learning was valuable, and FocusVision and ResearchNow plan further research-on-research to solve the mobile open-end dilemma.