Questioning methods you should be using in your work now

The way you ask questions affects the quality and validity of the responses you get. Learn how to write better test questions for any assessment to be able to choose the right data-gathering tools and ensure you succeed when implementing the test results.

It only takes a few moments to learn more about specific types of questions which you can ask to elevate your business. Whether you work in human resources and recruitment, professional development training or sales and customer service, you probably ask questions for assessment and evaluation on a regular basis.

The purpose of tests, quizzes and exams in the business environment is to get viable, unbiased information on the respondents. When you ask the wrong questions, you can jeopardize the entire process. You might get data that will make drawing actionable conclusions complicated and time-consuming, if not impossible.

How to ask the right test questions, and why is it so important?

The goal of a conversation, quiz, test, or exam should determine the approach you take. After all, it is only logical to ask different questions during a pre-hiring assessment, a post-training evaluation or in the middle of a team-building event.

People have a natural urge to know more, and when they don't, they fill the information gaps with their assumptions, leading to misunderstandings and misjudgments. Ultimately, it leads to failures in the business environment, which nearly always incur a significant loss of money.

There are two main question categories: open and closed. The main difference between them lies in whether the respondents have to select an answer from those available or phrase it independently. There are also many types within those categories, so make sure you're familiar with all examples of test questions in detail.

Open questions

Open (or open-ended) questions require participants to provide answers in their own words. They are much more thorough in verifying skills and knowledge or getting other data from respondents and provide test authors with much more data than closed questions, such as "yes/no".

Unlike closed-ended, open questions don't limit answers to a pre-generated set of alternatives. They have the advantage of prompting respondents to provide more extended and personal responses. Those are usually ideas, reviews, lists, or stories, which give much more profound insights.

The main advantage of open questions, however, is that using open questions examples encourages dialogue and expression, such as in the case of divergent questions. It also helps create stronger connections, essential to successful business applications.

Purpose

In the business world, open-ended questions are crucial in getting vital feedback and collecting data from the target group.

Sales, customer service, HR, and recruitment professionals choose open questions when they need qualitative answers from their customers. That data is full of uninfluenced information, unlike in the case of closed questions.

The closed evaluation questions examples come with several disadvantages. For example, due to their nature, they offer a limited number of alternatives and influence respondents with predefined answers.

Open-ended questions allow people to share their thoughts, providing answers that the question creators might not expect. You can also use some open questions, such as prompting questions, to give respondents clues and assist them in answering the original question.

Simply put, open-ended questions allow respondents to answer whatever they like.

Applications

Use open questions to gather qualitative data from your respondents without limiting the available predefined answers. It is also the right type to use whenever you need insights into personal feelings, opinions and perceptions. Open questions are also empowering, as they give voice to respondents.

You should also ensure that your open questions are specific and leave little room for off-topic. Another good idea is to ask respondents for short answers, which are usually more precise than long ones and much quicker to analyze.

Closed questions

Closed questions require respondents to select a correct answer from predefined alternatives and give respondents limited options. They are also called multiple-choice questions, and there are two types of those, depending on their complexity:

1. Simple (also called dichotomous questions), with only two alternatives, for example, “yes/no”, "true/false", or more specific to the business environment, such as "satisfied/dissatisfied with the service." They are simple and provide test authors with basic data only.

2. Complex, with more than two alternatives. These multiple-choice questions can assess knowledge and skills, and they can also be used, for example, to get qualitative data on customer satisfaction (such as the rating scale or Likert scale) and feedback surveys. Complex questions, which challenge respondents with many alternatives, can provide test authors with more insightful data.

Closed questions are easier to understand than open questions. That is why your respondents won't have to spend much time reading the quiz or test questions time and again. Closed questions are also quicker to respond to, so you can put much more of them in your assessment or evaluation than you would if you chose open questions.

Different types of close-ended questions provide data that is easy to visualize, allowing researchers to gain visual insights into the results of a quiz, a test or an exam.

Purpose

Use closed questions examples to collect quantitative data. Depending on the application, they can thoroughly verify the skills of job applicants during the recruitment process or learners' knowledge during an online quiz or test. They can also gather valuable insights about customer satisfaction when asked in the form of a survey.

Closed questions in business and education have the benefit of providing fast, valuable insights. That's why they are very often used in surveys. One downside to MCQs is that it is enough for the test respondents to eliminate incorrect answers. If they can do that, they don't really have to remember the right answer, only recognize it.

However, some professionals claim this is an advantage, as it verifies respondents' flexibility and ability to improvise and solve problems.

Applications

Closed questions are an effective tool for gathering detailed information quickly in a business setting. You can get much higher response rates when you don't ask your respondents to type so much.

It is especially relevant in short surveys typical in the digital environment, for example, in user research, after contact with customer success agents, completing an online sale or attending a web-based training session.

During such surveys, you have respondents' attention only for a few seconds. If you ask them to provide lengthy answers, they will leave without giving feedback. That is why you should use closed questions such as those below.

There are also other question types, which mostly fall under the open or closed ones, but not all of them.

Rhetorical questions

This type of question is not really a question because the person asking doesn't expect an answer. It is also neither an open nor closed type of question.

People use it to make a point, for example, in a discussion. You can find rhetorical questions in books, newspapers (especially in feature writing), and persuasive content.

Rhetorical questions examples are almost useless in business applications, as they will not provide the test author with any relevant information. However, it can add humor to a formal job interview, corporate training, or team building with rhetorical questions, meaning they will be less stressful.

When using rhetorical questions in the business environment, always ensure they align with your company's communication policy, tone and voice.

They might help build better engagement or create marketing messages. You can also introduce fun to formal content, such as team-building and training tests, to help participants relax.

Probing questions

Probing questions are open-ended inquiries designed to get profound, insightful answers about a specific topic. They often start with "what", "why", or "how". Their job is to encourage respondents to speak their minds so that the inquirer can identify problems and find solutions.

They are part of the open questions family, so they do not limit respondents' answers in any way.

Application

Probing questions examples are used, for example, in education, psychology and psychotherapy; however, they show their full potential in business applications.

Probing questions for customer service departments

They allow professionals to get to the root of the reported problem. For example, even when a client doesn't know at all what is wrong with their product or service (apart from the obvious fact that it doesn't work), a CS agent will find out by asking only a few questions.

Probing questions in sales

Here, probing questions make it easier for the agents to understand the prospect's pain points and address them with the features of the goods or services they offer.

Probing questions for interviews

Probing questions allow recruiters to understand their candidates better and measure their professional and cultural fit. Ultimately, they make it easier to discover real talents and offer them jobs.

Probing questions in professional training and development assessments

These questions allow trainers and mentors to go beyond collecting data from multiple-choice questions. While they might be less helpful with such people as engineers, technicians or IT professionals in management, customer service, sales or HR roles, probing questions facilitate drawing a career path for employees.

Examples of probing questions are sometimes confused with another type, which we explain below.

Clarifying questions

This question type is sometimes confused with probing questions. They both fall under the open-ended category, but there are differences between the two. Probing and clarifying questions serve two different purposes.

Purpose

You ask clarifying questions in response to previous questions to ensure you understand the respondent's point correctly. It is not their job to dig deeper into the subject, like probing questions do.

This question type is never the initial one. It serves as a follow-up to other types, such as closed, open-ended or probing. Of course, it helps if you have at least some idea about the subject.

Their job is to prevent confusion and misunderstanding caused by earlier questions and to get important information. Clarifying questions ensure that everyone understands the message correctly.

Application

Use clarifying questions examples whenever you feel that you have not enough understanding of the respondent's problem. Begin by admitting that you don't fully comprehend it, and remember to show that you’re listening.

Split the information you got into smaller parts and ask the respondents to clarify them piece by piece. Make sure you keep track of what they tell you and pause whenever you need to avoid information overload.

The best idea is to repeat whole phrases, asking if they understood their meaning correctly.

It works both ways. When talking to respondents, let them know they can ask questions if they don't understand the instructions. Ensure you don't press too hard for additional information, as sometimes respondents might react with frustration.

Clarifying questions will improve recruitment, training, and team-building activities and ensure you leave no vital information out due to misunderstandings. See the examples below.

Inference questions

The inference is, by definition, a conclusion a person reaches based on evidence and reasoning. Inferential questions are about drawing logical conclusions from information in an image, film, text, or other sources. We could also call them the "reading between the lines" questions.

Respondents can never find answers to this kind of question directly in the data from the stem. Instead, they should use clues from that material to come up with the correct response.

Purpose

Inference questions measure the understanding of a specific topic and the ability to explain it to others. They will usually ask test-takers about the meaning of the content from the question's stem or require them to finish incomplete information.

The correct answer usually requires respondents to figure out the following:

• What or where something is.

• What it is like.

• Why it is as it is, etc.

There is always only one correct answer to inference questions. But because it is at the same time an open question, answers provided by the test-takers might be subjective.

Applications

Inference questions are valuable in all kinds of learning processes as problem solving questions. Apart from reading comprehension in K12 and higher education, they are instrumental in professional training as well as in sales and customer success teams skills and knowledge development.

Inference questions allow us to assess respondents' problem-solving and reasoning skills, which are essential for customer-facing jobs.

Funnel questions

Funnel questions are a series of questions asked in order to move from general to specific or from specific to general. As they progress, you can either increase or decrease the data you need from your respondents.

A sequence of these questions makes the theoretical shape of a funnel. Hence the name of this technique is the Funnel Effect. This funnel can either lean toward more specific information with close-ended questions or broader insights from open questions.

Purpose

Funnel questions base on the TED and TEDW models, which are great for asking open-ended questions.

Application

In business, funnel questions are used to gather information from a respondent by following a specific process.

In customer service agents can start with an open question to determine a general area where a customer is experiencing problems. Afterwards, they can ask more specific questions to assess the client's issue and address it adequately.

In hiring processes recruitment professionals can create a friendly, relaxed atmosphere with their questions. They can start by asking closed questions about the applicant's broad critical skills for the job, then gradually go into more detail.

This technique allows sales agents to increase the probability of closing the deal by going from broad questions to more detailed ones. It allows them to address any customer concerns and convince them that the product or service fits their needs.

In all business use cases, funnel questions can help calm a high-tension atmosphere. When respondents are nervous, there is a high risk that they will underperform and the test results will not be valid. Respondents tend to relax and regain self-confidence when they answer a few initial, straightforward questions.

Not all questions are helpful when you need to get actionable data from your respondents. There are also types of biased questions; the two most common are loaded and leading.

Loaded questions

Loaded questions are tricky and often used for rhetorical purposes to presuppose unverified assumptions about respondents. They imply that respondents did something they should feel bad or ashamed about.

This question type is sometimes not intended to hurt anyone but to get them to do what we want. However, it puts people in a disadvantageous situation when they must defend against subtextual slander.

Purpose

Below is a vile example of a loaded question, as it presupposes that the person had a history of working under the influence.

Application

Even though you can find this bias in all kinds of questions, this type is completely useless. It will not give you any valuable information, meaning loaded questions are poinless for assessment and evaluation purposes.

Leading questions

In another type of biased question, we can unintentionally or on purpose prime our respondents to confirm the bias or assumption expressed in the question's stem. It is a way of swaying them to provide answers that don't account for actual preferences, especially when the content of the question makes it clear what is the “correct” answer.

Purpose

You can sometimes hear lawyers or journalists asking leading questions examples to trick people into admitting something that they would say openly. However, in straightforward business relations, they can only do harm by confirming biases and leading to poor decisions.

Customers and stakeholders may be suspicious of your intentions and respond with a negative review.

For example, the question below fails to identify if the respondent (the darling wants to watch any film in the first place, but it is most likely harmless.

Examples of leading questions are also common in the business environment, especially in surveys. The questionnaires we can find online are often generic and designed with a 'typical' client in mind. Unfortunately, they are also very likely to produce nonviable results.

It is a terrible and widespread example of a loaded post-sales customer satisfaction survey. It implies that the customers are happy about the product or service when in fact, they might feel something opposite.

Application

Avoid leading questions. Asking genuine ones produces better outcomes and creates good relations between people.

Final thoughts on question formulating

Asking all kinds of questions seems like the easiest thing in the world since we do it every day. In the business environment, however, where the firm's money, market position and reputation are at stake, it looks different.

Proper question formulation leads to credible, valid, reliable, and insightful results. Companies can use those to make informed business decisions that benefit their employees and customers.

It is essential in the case of team members who interact with other people, especially in client-facing positions. Sales and customer service staff need to be able to ask pertinent questions and comprehend customers' requirements.

For professional development trainers, HR departments and hiring managers, better question formulating results in more meaningful interactions and leads to better business decisions made on facts.