‘Is There Anything Else You’d Like to Tell Us About Your Experience?’ Orientations Towards Listening to Open-Ended Survey Responses

Abstract

While survey research design tends to prioritise closed questions with predetermined responses, many surveys conclude with an open-ended ‘anything else you would like to tell us?’ question. This question, designed to elicit feedback or create opportunities for respondents to share additional information, offers significant potential for insight into respondents’ experiences. Yet, the extent to which these open-ended data are listened to remains opaque. In this article, we outline and reflect on our approach to a reflexive thematic analysis of responses to an open-ended survey question, to foreground listening. Drawing on responses ( n = 1746) from a national survey of informal carers in Aust..