Surveys are everywhere—whether you’re rating your recent Uber ride, giving feedback on a product, or participating in an academic study. But how do researchers ensure they capture the nuances of your opinions? One of the most powerful tools at their disposal is the Likert scale.
This blog will delve into what Likert scales are, and how they work, and provide concrete Likert scale examples to help you understand and use this tool effectively in your surveys.
You’ll agree when we say getting a sense of survey data is one of the most complex and time-consuming tasks a business can undertake. Why?
Survey data is complex and may involve both textual and numerical information. And this calls for a change in strategy, especially during the analysis phase.
This blog will walk you through how to get started with surveys using many easy-to-follow Likert Scale examples.
You don’t want to miss the rest of the blog if your goal is to improve your survey data storytelling skills.
Definition: Invented by psychologist Rensis Likert in 1932, the Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly used in surveys to measure attitudes, opinions, or perceptions. It typically features a series of statements, where respondents indicate their level of agreement on a linear scale.
A Likert Scale is a one-dimensional chart you can use to collect the attitudes and opinions of your target market.
This psychometric scale can help you understand the views and perspectives of the market towards your brand. The Likert Scale comes in different variants to help your business personalize its communication, among other benefits.
This chart analyzes the qualitative data (opinions and sentiments) by categorically assigning value. In other words, responses are measured based on their disagreement or agreement level.
The Likert Scale is based on the rationale that the strength and intensity of the respondents’ answers are linear. More so, they can be measured on a scale ranging from a complete agreement to a complete disagreement. You can use a wide variety of topics (general and specific questions) to probe respondents about their level of agreement, perceptions, or beliefs toward your brand.
Keep reading to learn how to get started with this survey data visualization using Likert Examples (in the coming sections).
A Likert scale measures attitudes, opinions, or perceptions. It quantifies how strongly respondents agree or disagree with specific statements, allowing researchers to capture the intensity of their feelings or beliefs on a given topic.
This helps in understanding the nuances of people’s viewpoints and behaviors.
Likert scales are impactful because they simplify complex opinions into quantifiable data. They allow for easy measurement of attitudes and perceptions, making it possible to gather nuanced insights while being straightforward for respondents to understand and answer.
This blend of simplicity and depth helps researchers accurately capture and analyze human sentiments.
A Likert scale functions as a tool to measure attitudes, opinions, or perceptions by presenting respondents with a series of statements and asking them to rate their agreement on a predefined scale, typically ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.”
This method allows researchers to quantify subjective data, making it easier to analyze trends, identify patterns, and draw conclusions about the respondents’ views or experiences.
While the 4-point Likert scale is the most commonly used, there are several variations, each with its own benefits and use cases.
Likert scales consist of several key components that contribute to their effectiveness in measuring attitudes and opinions. These components include:
Statements or Questions: Likert scales begin with a series of statements or questions related to the subject under investigation. These items are carefully crafted to capture the range of opinions or attitudes relevant to the study.
Response Options: Respondents are presented with a set of response options for each statement or question. These options typically range from positive to negative sentiments, such as “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Neutral,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly Disagree.”
Scale Range: Likert scales often use a numerical range to quantify responses. While a common scale ranges from 1 to 5 or 1 to 7, the specific range can vary depending on the design of the scale and the desired level of granularity in the responses.
Neutral Option: A neutral or middle option, such as “Neutral” or “Neither Agree nor Disagree,” allows respondents to express a lack of strong opinion on a particular statement.
Instructions: Clear instructions are provided to guide respondents on how to interpret and use the scale. This ensures consistency in responses and helps participants understand the purpose of the survey.
Randomization: In some cases, the order of statements or questions may be randomized to mitigate response bias that could arise from the sequence of items.
Summation or Analysis: After data collection, researchers often assign numerical values to the selected response options and calculate a total or average score for each respondent. This quantitative approach facilitates statistical analysis and comparison of results.
Validity and Reliability: Likert scales should be designed to ensure both validity (measuring what they intend to measure) and reliability (consistency of results). This involves careful wording of statements and testing the scale’s consistency over time.
Before we delve into the top 5 Likert Scale examples, let’s explore the benefits you and your business stand to enjoy.
Whether you’re trying to determine how your employees feel about their work or what your customers think about your products or services, you can trust Likert Visualization.
So what are the benefits of Likert Visualization?
A typical customer satisfaction survey uses an ordinal scale that allows users to rank their opinions.
For example, a 4-point Likert scale asks customers to specify their levels of agreement with a statement, from high to low, with one neutral option in the middle.
Likert Scale responses for customer service are incredibly flexible and can be used to measure a variety of sentiments, such as agreement, frequency, and desirability.
For example, if your goal is to identify how often customers use your online help portal, frequency responses (Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, Frequently) would be helpful.
You can use Likert Scale responses to gauge the sentiments of your employees towards their job tasks.
By leveraging the Likert Scale, you can easily keep tabs on your employees’ level of engagement and sentiment. For example, you can easily find out how aware employees are of career advancement opportunities available.
As a Marketer or event professional, you can easily leverage Likert Scale examples to collect valuable insights into the success (or failure) of events.
You can use a post-event survey to evaluate the overall event experience or probe the probability of attendance at future events.
Likert scales can help companies identify areas for improvement in their products or services. For example, a company might ask customers to rate their satisfaction with a product’s features on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied.
This information can then be used to improve the product and increase customer satisfaction.
Likert scales are often used in market research to gain insights into customers’ opinions and attitudes towards products, services, and brands. For example, a company might ask customers to rate their agreement with statements such as “I would recommend this product to a friend” or “I am likely to purchase this product again” on a scale of 1 to 5.
This information can help companies understand their customer’s preferences and make informed decisions about their marketing strategies.
Likert scales can be used to measure public opinion on various topics, such as political beliefs, social issues, and cultural trends. For example, a researcher might ask participants to rate their agreement with statements such as “I believe in equal rights for all” or “I support the use of renewable energy” on a scale of 1 to 5. This information can help researchers understand public opinion and inform policy decisions.
Here are 10+ Likert scale example questions covering a range of topics:
“The product met my expectations.”
“I feel valued as an employee at this company.”
“The course materials were clear and helpful.”
“I am likely to recommend this brand to others.”
“Please indicate your level of agreement with the statement: ‘The company values employee contributions.'”
“How satisfied are you with the overall performance of our latest product?”
“Rate your overall satisfaction with the course content and delivery.”
“How often do you engage in regular physical exercise?”
“To what extent do you agree with the organization’s flexible work hours policy?”
“Rate the ease of use of our website.”
“Indicate your level of agreement with the statement: ‘Climate change requires urgent attention.'”
“How satisfied are you with your current work-life balance?”
“Rate the effectiveness of the recent conference presentation you attended.”
“To what extent do you prioritize healthy eating habits in your daily life?”
These Likert scale example questions can be adapted for various surveys, research studies, or feedback forms to gauge opinions, attitudes, and behaviors across different domains.
Creating effective Likert scale questions involves several best practices:
Ensure each statement is clear and straightforward. Avoid jargon and complex language.
Provide a balanced range of response options to capture the full spectrum of opinions.
Craft neutral statements that do not imply a “correct” response.
Use consistent language and scale points throughout your survey to avoid confusing respondents.
The Likert Scale should be your go-to survey data visualization chart because it goes beyond the conventional ‘yes/no responses. And, it provides respondents with a high degree of flexibility to express their opinions with levels that best represent them.
What does this mean to you and your business?
Extracting key insights from your survey data should never be time-intensive or even overwhelming. Leverage Likert Scale examples to gain hidden, actionable insights into your data to power your decisions.
So how can you access Likert Charts?
Freemium data visualization tools, such as Excel, lack advanced charts tailor-made specifically for surveys. However, we’re not implying you do away with Excel.
You can supercharge it with easy-to-use third-party apps called add-ons. ChartExpo is a reliable and amazingly easy-to-use add-on you can install in your Excel to access survey charts, such as the Likert Scale.
So if you’re looking for a data visualization tool to create easy-to-interpret charts to charge up your survey results presentation, check no further.
In the coming section, you’ll come across Likert Scale Examples detailing how to install and get started with ChartExpo.
You’re close to the finish line. You don’t want to miss the coming section.
So how can you visualize your survey data using a 4-point Likert Scale? Let’s first understand the scaling in the 4-scale Likert Scale Chart.
Imagine you run a company, and you want to get feedback about your products from your loyal customers. You want to personalize the way they benefit from your core offerings to increase customer lifetime value.
Let’s assume you’ve already commissioned a survey and gathered the data below. Let’s visualize the tabular data below using ChartExpo’s 4-point Likert Scale examples.
Question | Rating | Count |
The virtual models of customized products are realistic | 1 | 324 |
The virtual models of customized products are realistic | 2 | 176 |
The virtual models of customized products are realistic | 3 | 230 |
The virtual models of customized products are realistic | 4 | 270 |
The virtual models of customized products are realistic | 5 | 0 |
The information about customized components is identified | 1 | 138 |
The information about customized components is identified | 2 | 186 |
The information about customized components is identified | 3 | 176 |
The information about customized components is identified | 4 | 230 |
The information about customized components is identified | 5 | 270 |
The variety of customized products is satisfactory | 1 | 0 |
The variety of customized products is satisfactory | 2 | 138 |
The variety of customized products is satisfactory | 3 | 186 |
The variety of customized products is satisfactory | 4 | 176 |
The variety of customized products is satisfactory | 5 | 500 |
Image rotation is useful for viewing the product from different angles | 1 | 5 |
Image rotation is useful for viewing the product from different angles | 2 | 100 |
Image rotation is useful for viewing the product from different angles | 3 | 146 |
Image rotation is useful for viewing the product from different angles | 4 | 116 |
Image rotation is useful for viewing the product from different angles | 5 | 420 |
This section will use a 4-Point Likert Scale to display insights from the table discussed above.
ChartExpo will generate a 5-point Likert Scale by default. To change the chart to a 4-point Likert Scale, follow the instructions below:
Like any tool, Likert scales have their strengths and weaknesses.
The 4-point Likert scale examples come with frequency-centric options, namely never, rarely, often, and every time.
You can customize your chart with agreement-centric options ranging from strongly disagree to agree strongly. Check out a sample question with frequency-centric possibilities below.
“How often do you require customer care assistance?”
A 6-point Likert Scale provides respondents with a broader range of options that best represent their sentiments and opinions.
If you want to include a neutral point in your Likert Scale Chart, you can combine the “slightly agree” and “slightly disagree” options.
Suppose your goal is to gauge satisfaction sentiments.
In that case, these examples can be calibrated to offer the following options: Extremely satisfied, very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, very dissatisfied, and extremely dissatisfied.
Check out a sample survey gauging employees’ sentiments towards a brand using a six-point Likert visualization type.
“The organization invests time and money to keep the employees updated with technology?”
Suppose your goal is to gauge satisfaction sentiments. In that case, 7-point Likert Scale examples can be customized to offer the following options: satisfied and dissatisfied as the extreme points and a neutral option at the midpoint.
Below is a sample survey gauging the sentiments of customers towards a business using a 7-point Likert Scale.
“Indicate your Satisfaction Levels with our customers’ services.”
While Likert scales are powerful tools, it’s important to avoid common pitfalls:
An example of a Likert scale test is a survey question that asks respondents to rate their agreement with statements using a scale, typically ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”
A good Likert scale example is a survey question that provides clear and concise statements, allowing respondents to express their level of agreement or disagreement on a scale, typically ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”
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Likert scales are invaluable tools for capturing nuanced opinions and attitudes in a structured, quantifiable way. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses and following best practices for designing and analyzing Likert scale questions, you can gather meaningful data to inform business, healthcare, education, and beyond decisions.
Whether you’re a researcher, marketer, or educator, mastering the use of Likert scales can significantly enhance your survey efforts. Start incorporating these tools into your surveys today and unlock deeper insights from your data.
To save time, we recommend you try insightful and specialized survey charts, such as the Likert Scale. There are a ton of Likert Scale examples to get you started with survey data visualization in this blog. Yes, you read that right.
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