What is a survey in qualitative research?

When most people think about surveys, they picture something fast. Something a little rigid, like clicking bubbles on a screen, rating an experience from 1 to 5, and moving on. That’s how we’ve been trained to see them: as tools for measuring. But surveys can also be used to explore on a much deeper level.

That’s what qualitative research does. It shifts the focus away from how many people feel a certain way, and asks why they feel that way in the first place. And a qualitative survey is the medium, it’s how we start the conversation.

So What Is a Qualitative Survey, Really?

It’s a set of open-ended questions that gives people space to speak in their own voice. There’s no fixed scale. No yes or no. Just prompts that invite people to reflect, explain, or share something personal.

For example:

— “What’s one thing you wish our product did better?”

— “Tell us about a recent time when you felt frustrated during onboarding.”

— “How do you usually feel after visiting our location?”

These types of questions invite a story, instead of demanding a number. You’re not trying to confirm a trend or get statistical proof. You’re trying to understand something deeply, especially things you didn’t even think to ask yet. That’s where qualitative surveys shine: they let people show you what matters to them, often in their own words.

When Do Researchers Use Qualitative Surveys?

This kind of research is especially useful:

— When developing a new product or service

— When exploring customer satisfaction in a nuanced way

— When working on brand perception or emotional response

— When studying social and behavioral patterns that don’t fit inside a checkbox

The beauty is in the detail. And detail, in qualitative work, means you need fewer responses to find meaning. You’re looking for depth, not scale.

Key Differences: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Surveys

It helps to put the two formats side by side. Here’s a quick breakdown of how they compare:

Feature	Qualitative Surveys	Quantitative Surveys
Purpose	Understand experiences and meaning	Measure attitudes, behaviors, or trends
Response Type	Narrative, descriptive	Numeric, categorical
Sample Size	Small to moderate	Larger for statistical reliability
Question Format	Open-ended prompts	Closed questions with fixed options
Analysis	Thematic or content-based coding	Statistical analysis and data modeling
Insights Produced	Stories, quotes, emotional patterns	Charts, percentages, patterns

They both have value, it’s just a matter of what you’re trying to learn. If you want to know how many people chose option A, go quantitative. But if you want to know why someone didn’t even see option A as relevant, that’s where qualitative takes over.

Tips for Designing a Strong Qualitative Survey

So how do you actually build one of these? There’s no one-size-fits-all formula, but there are a few ground rules that tend to hold up across industries.

First, keep it simple. Don’t overthink the wording. Ask questions the way you’d speak them. If it sounds like corporate jargon or reads like it was written for a legal brief, people are going to skim it or respond with generic fluff.

Second, be intentional with each question. You don’t need twenty. You probably don’t even need ten. Ask a handful of questions that get to the heart of what you’re trying to learn. And leave a little breathing room. Sometimes the best insights come when people feel like they can go off-script.

Third, always test it. Send it to a colleague or friend before it goes live. See how they respond, or where they pause. If something doesn’t make sense to them, it won’t to your participants either.

The Challenge: Analyzing Open-Ended Data

Now here’s the hard part. Reading and making sense of qualitative responses can take lots of time. It’s not like you can drop answers into a spreadsheet and hit ‘sort.’ You have to read, interpret, code for themes, and maybe read again.

This is where many teams get stuck. They want the richness of qualitative data but don’t always have the bandwidth to process it. That’s why automation tools have started to play a much bigger role.

For example, Yasna.ai offers a free text processing tool that solves this challenge, instantly analyzing open-ended survey responses.

The New Research Method for Collecting Meaningful Insights: Conversational Research

While qualitative surveys offer a powerful way to explore open-ended responses, a newer approach is pushing the boundaries even further: conversational research.

Using an automated moderator to engage respondents in thoughtful, adaptive dialogue, conversational research uncovers rich, human insights. It takes the best of qualitative depth and blends it with the scale and efficiency of quantitative methods.

But this isn’t about replacing surveys, focus groups, or even human researchers. Instead, it’s about unlocking new possibilities. Tools like Yasna.ai automate both the conversation and the analysis, allowing researchers to gather and interpret insights faster, without sacrificing depth.

Being aware of these pitfalls helps you avoid them and keeps your data clean, usable, and valuable.

FAQ

What makes a qualitative survey different from a typical survey?

Traditional surveys usually rely on fixed-response options like rating scales or multiple choice. Qualitative surveys, on the other hand, use open-ended questions to explore personal thoughts, feelings, and stories. Instead of measuring how many, they dig into why.

What kind of questions are asked in qualitative surveys?

These surveys focus on conversational prompts that encourage deeper reflection. For example, “Can you describe a moment when our product frustrated you?” or “What would you improve about your last experience with us?”

Why is quantitative research important ?

Quantitative research delivers the evidence you need to reduce risk and make data-driven decisions, whether you’re pricing a product, evaluating ad performance, or identifying the strongest customer segments. It turns assumptions into proof.

Why do researchers choose qualitative over quantitative methods?

Qualitative methods are ideal when the goal is to gain insight into human behavior, motivations, and emotions. They help uncover nuances that statistics alone can’t capture, especially useful in product development, brand research, or early-stage exploration.

Is it hard to analyze open-ended answers?

Yes, it can be time-consuming to manually read, sort, and interpret qualitative feedback. But modern tools like Yasna.ai solve this problem by using AI to conduct and analyze conversations with consumers, turning complex responses into clear, structured insights fast.

How can qualitative surveys improve business decisions?

By capturing the voice of the customer, these surveys reveal hidden needs and emotional drivers. They help companies move beyond numbers to understand context, leading to smarter product choices, more resonant messaging, and stronger customer relationships.