What do web survey panel respondents answer when asked “Do you have any other comment?”

Abstract

Near the end of a web survey respondents are often asked whether they have additional comments. Such final comments are usually ignored, partially because open-ended questions are more challenging to analyze. A random sample of final comments in the LISS panel and Dutch immigrant panel were categorized into one of nine categories (neutral, positive, multiple subcategories of negative). While few respondents chose to make a final comment, this is more common in the Immigrant panel (5.7%) than in the LISS panel (3.6%). In both panels there are slightly more neutral than negative comments, and very few positive comments. The number of final comments about unclear questions was 2.7 times larger in the immigrant panel than in the LISS panel. The number of final comments complaining about survey length on the other hand was 2.7 times larger in the LISS panel than in the immigrant panel. Researchers might want to consider additional pretesting of questions when fielding a questionnaire in the immigrant panel.