Should online surveys force respondents to answer certain questions?
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Posted by: Todd Hollander in Questionnaire Design
Online surveys can be configured so a respondent is required to provide a response to a question before proceeding to the next question. This practice is known as forced completion. Here are the arguments for and against this practice.
For
The case for forced completion is that the researcher gets data that is needed (as long as the right questions are asked in the right way).
Against
The case against forced completion is that it may reduce response rates. For example, some respondents might prefer to abandon a survey rather than answer a specific question such as their income. Although one could add a “prefer not to answer” option, this increases the amount of missing data.
All or Nothing
With many interviewing systems, especially the free or low-cost ones, the forced completion option is all or nothing (either “off” or “on”). Unfortunately, neither of these is a very good option because:
- Turning the feature off means that the respondent can skip each important question. This decreases both the number of responses and the validity of the responses that are captured.
- Turning the feature on can force respondents to answer questions that are not relevant to them (for example, forcing a response to an open-ended questions such as “Is there anything else you like about this product” can frustrate those who do not have anything to say on this subject but are required to type something in the text box in order to proceed with the survey. This can result in high rates of incomplete surveys.
Recommendation
The ideal approach is to force responses to most questions but allow the respondent to opt out of a response when appropriate. Before fielding a survey that does not allow this functionality, you should consider using one that does as it is likely to produce both a better quantity and quality of data.
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