People love the chance to share their opinions and thoughts. So, if you invite them to share, let them share!

The story

I was filling in a survey yesterday. It asked what issue I thought was most important with a request to “please elaborate as much as you can”.

I had the time, so I wrote a detailed answer and thought I made some good points!

However, when I hit submit, an error message popped up. Apparently, my response had to be less than 200 characters!

Stunned, I tried to copy my thoughts so I could use Word to edit it with a character count tool. They had blocked the ability to cut and paste. This meant I had to guess how much to delete and try ‘submit’ a few times to get it down under 200 characters. It was infuriating.

What was wrong with their communication?

The contradiction itself was frustrating and unnecessary. And the limitation was also poorly managed.

If you ask someone to elaborate as much as they can, it is a pretty clear invitation to write more than a couple of sentences. Especially with an open text box that allows you to write paragraphs!

On the other hand, if you only want short answers with a limit on words or characters, say so! Limiting the number of characters in the text box, so it becomes obvious when the limits are reached, is much clearer, too.

Succinct answers may be easier to read, group and understand, but longer answers can contain a lot more depth. Understanding why someone chooses a certain path can help you improve that path and make that path more appealing to others. In other words, limiting feedback limits what you can learn from the feedback and opinions. This question could only get limited reasons for people’s choice of issue, thereby losing the opportunity to gain more insights. Less insight is limiting the business or organisation