• Home
  • Tools dropdown img
    • Spreadsheet Charts

      • ChartExpo for Google Sheets
      • ChartExpo for Microsoft Excel
    • Power BI Charts

      • Power BI Custom Visuals by ChartExpo
    • Word Cloud

  • Charts dropdown img
    • Chart Category

      • Bar Charts
      • Circle Graphs
      • Column Charts
      • Combo Charts
      • Comparison Charts
      • Line Graphs
      • PPC Charts
      • Sentiment Analysis Charts
      • Survey Charts
    • Chart Type

      • Box and Whisker Plot
      • Clustered Bar Chart
      • Clustered Column Chart
      • Comparison Bar Chart
      • Control Chart
      • CSAT Survey Bar Chart
      • CSAT Survey Chart
      • Dot Plot Chart
      • Double Bar Graph
      • Funnel Chart
      • Gauge Chart
      • Likert Scale Chart
      • Matrix Chart
      • Multi Axis Line Chart
      • Overlapping Bar Chart
      • Pareto Chart
      • Radar Chart
      • Radial Bar Chart
      • Sankey Diagram
      • Scatter Plot Chart
      • Slope Chart
      • Sunburst Chart
      • Tornado Chart
      • Waterfall Chart
      • Word Cloud
    • Google Sheets
      Microsoft Excel
  • Services
  • Pricing
  • Contact us
  • Blog
  • Support dropdown img
      • Gallery
      • Videos
      • Contact us
      • FAQs
      • Resources
    • Please feel free to contact us

      atsupport@chartexpo.com

Categories
All Data Visualizations Data Analytics Surveys
Add-ons/
  • Google Sheets
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Power BI
All Data Visualizations Data Analytics Surveys
Add-ons
  • Google Sheets
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Power BI

We use cookies

This website uses cookies to provide better user experience and user's session management.
By continuing visiting this website you consent the use of these cookies.

Ok

ChartExpo Survey



Home > Blog > Microsoft Excel

Rating Scale Guide: Definition, Examples and Methods

By ChartExpo Content Team

Embarking on the journey of effective data collection and feedback analysis, the spotlight turns to the invaluable insights offered by “Rating Scale Examples”.

rating scale example

When conducting a survey, respondents may need to rate their opinion or degree of satisfaction with a particular product or service. To perform this objectively, you’ve got to use different rating scale queries in your survey.

With rating scale examples, you can easily quantify your audience’s feelings and opinions in terms of specified values in numbers.

A rating scale is one of the proven question types for online and offline surveys. Your audience can use the scale to rate an attribute or feature of your service or product.

Let’s assume you’ve used rating scale examples to gather data for further analysis.

How do you extract answers from the data?

This is where charts with rating scales, such as Likert, come in. A Likert Scale Chart has choices ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ to help you get a bird’s eye view of your audience’s opinions and level of agreement.

Also, it’s straightforward to read and interpret a Likert scale chart, as you will see later.

Table of Contents:

  1. What is a Rating Scale?
  2. Types of Rating Scales
  3. Why to Use a Rating Scale?
  4. Best Rating Scale Examples
  5. Visualizing and Examining Rating Scale Examples Data
  6. Tips for Crafting an Effective Rating Scale with Practical Examples
  7. Benefits of Rating Scale Examples in Your Survey
  8. Drawbacks of Rating Scale Examples in Your Survey
  9. Wrap Up

What is a Rating Scale?

Definition: A Rating Scale is a form of closed-ended survey question you can use to capture responses in numerical form.

For instance, it could be survey questions asking your target audience to rate your service or product.

How would you rate our products or services on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (excellent)?

Rating scale examples are mostly made up of multiple-choice questions to gather in-depth responses for further analysis.

Use a rating scale to associate a qualitative measure with a product’s key aspects. Some of the areas in a rating scale that come in handy include evaluating the performance of:

  • Products or services
  • Employee skills
  • Customer service performance
  • Customer-first strategy, etc.

We can use the rating scale as a Performance Rating Scale and present the credit score rating.

In the coming section, we’ll take you through types of rating scales.

Let’s dive in.

Types of Rating Scales with Examples

We have 4 primary types of rating scales you can use to put together a survey.

Let’s check them out.

  1. Graphic Rating Scale

A graphic rating scale uses a visual representation of the response options. Respondents select a point on the scale that best reflects their opinion.

A common graphic rating scale is the Likert scale.

Here is an example of a graphic rating scale question:

“How satisfied are you with the quality of the food?”

  • Extremely dissatisfied
  • Dissatisfied
  • Neutral
  • Satisfied
  • Extremely satisfied

The response options are displayed as a bar with the numbers 1 to 5. Respondents select the point on the bar that best reflects their opinion.

  1. Numerical Rating Scale

A numerical rating scale employs numbers as replies. Respondents choose the number that best represents their point of view.

Here is a numerical rating scale question example:

“How satisfied are you with the quality of our customer service?”

  1. = Extremely dissatisfied
  2. = Dissatisfied
  3. = Neutral
  4. = Satisfied
  5. = Extremely satisfied

The response options range from 1 to 5. 1 being “Extremely dissatisfied” and 5 being “Extremely satisfied.”

The respondents pick the number best representing their opinion.

  1. Descriptive Rating Scale

In a descriptive rating scale, respondents are provided with an option to elaborate on their responses, which can be particularly useful in Descriptive Analytics to gain deeper insights.

For instance, how would you rate our services?

  1. Excellent
  2. Good
  3. Average
  4. Bad
  5. Worse

We have used the 5-point performance rating scale in the above example.

  1. Comparative Rating Scale

As the name suggests, a comparative rating scale provides your target audience with an option to answer a survey question by comparing one attribute against another.

Why to Use a Rating Scale?

Here are some reasons why incorporating a rating scale:

  • Easy to Understand

Rating scales are easy to understand and interpret. This makes them an ideal choice for collecting feedback from customers.

Furthermore, they consist of questions with answers that customers can choose from. You can pose the questions differently to customize the scale to your needs.

  • Time Efficient

Rating scales are immensely helpful for eliciting opinions from big crowds. The respondents assign a score to a statement or question.

It takes minimal response time, making it a time-efficient feedback collection method.

  • Validity

Validity is the degree to which a rating scale accurately measures the respective metric.

Rating scales allow respondents to communicate their thoughts and feelings more precisely than a simple yes/no answer. This gives you more insight into what people are feeling and thinking.

In the coming section, we’ll provide rating scale examples to get you started as quickly as possible.

Top 6 Rating Scale Examples

Here are different rating scale examples:

Numeric Rating Scale

  • On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with the recent updates to our software?

Semantic Differential Scale

  • How would you describe your experience with our customer service?
    • ‘Unhelpful’, ‘Helpful’

Multiple-Choice Rating Scale

  • Which option best describes your experience with our delivery service?
    • Excellent
    • Good
    • Fair
    • Poor

Comparative Rating Scale

  • How does our pricing compare to our competitors?
    • Much Lower
    • Lower
    • Similar
    • Higher
    • Much Higher

Frequency Rating Scale

  • How often do you use our mobile app?
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • Monthly
    • Rarely
    • Never

Behavioral Rating Scale

  • How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?
    • Definitely Will
    • Probably Will
    • Might or Might Not
    • Probably Won’t
    • Definitely Won’t

In the ensuing section, we’ll show you how to visualize and examine rating scale data.

You don’t want to miss this.

How to Analyze Rating Scale Examples Data?

Excel is a spreadsheet application you can use to organize, store, and visualize data using charts and graphs.

You’re unlikely to find advanced charts in Excel with rating scales, such as the Likert Scale Chart. We’re not advocating you leave this tool. Install a particular third-party add-in in your spreadsheet application to create charts with rating scales.

The application is called ChartExpo.

What is ChartExpo?

ChartExpo is an add-in you can easily install in your spreadsheet application to access charts with rating scales.

ChartExpo is inexpensive. You’ll only spend $10 every month. Besides, you’re free to cancel your subscription anytime.

Also, you don’t need coding skills to create rating scale charts for your stories.

Let’s learn how to install ChartExpo.

  1. Open your Excel application.
  2. Open the worksheet and click on the “Insert” menu.
  3. You’ll see the “My Apps”.
  4. In the office Add-ins window, click on “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
  5. Click on the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Example

The Likert Scale Chart is used for survey feedback analysis to measure people’s opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. This allows researchers to easily visualize and understand the results of their survey by quantifying intangible feelings and attitudes.

Let’s analyze the rating scale examples data using the Likert Scale Chart.

Questions Scales Responses
How well does our product meet your needs? 1 130
How well does our product meet your needs? 2 136
How well does our product meet your needs? 3 128
How well does our product meet your needs? 4 968
How well does our product meet your needs? 5 638
How satisfied are you with our team in resolving your issue? 1 186
How satisfied are you with our team in resolving your issue? 2 278
How satisfied are you with our team in resolving your issue? 3 483
How satisfied are you with our team in resolving your issue? 4 539
How satisfied are you with our team in resolving your issue? 5 514
How satisfied are you with your in-store experience? 1 148
How satisfied are you with your in-store experience? 2 130
How satisfied are you with your in-store experience? 3 193
How satisfied are you with your in-store experience? 4 665
How satisfied are you with your in-store experience? 5 864
How satisfied are you with product packing? 1 145
How satisfied are you with product packing? 2 240
How satisfied are you with product packing? 3 104
How satisfied are you with product packing? 4 667
How satisfied are you with product packing? 5 844
  • To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
  • To use ChartExpo after installation, select My Apps from the INSERT menu.
insert chartexpo in excel
  • Select ChartExpo from My Apps and choose Insert.
open chartexpo in excel
  • Once ChartExpo is loaded. Click on the Likert Scale Chart from the list of charts.
search likert scale chart for rating scale example
  • Click “Create Chart From Selection” after selecting the data from the sheet. The Likert scale has this arrangement:
    • 1 = Extremely unsatisfied
    • 2 = Unsatisfied
    • 3 = Neutral
    • 4 = Satisfied
    • 5 = Extremely satisfied
create likert scale chart for rating scale example
  • The Likert Scale Chart will look as below.
edit likert scale chart for rating scale example
  • If you want to have the title of the chart, click on Edit Chart, as shown in the above image.
  • To change the title of the chart, click on the pencil icon that is available next to the Chart Header.
  • It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1 and enable the Show option. Give the appropriate title of your chart and click on the Apply button.
  • For saving changes click on Save Changes. This will persist the changes.
save likert scale chart for rating scale example
  • Check out the final chart below.
final rating scale example

Insights

  • 80% of customers indicated that the product met their requirements and the other 14% of respondents thought that the product did not meet their requirements.
  • 53% of respondents indicated that they were satisfied with the way the support team handled their issues and 23% indicated that they were not satisfied with the way the support team handled their issues.
  • 76% of respondents have good in-store experience and 14% indicated they did not have good in-store experience.
  • Overall:
    • 71% of respondents have good experience with the store and product.
    • Out of 36% amazing experience with store and product.
    • 18% are dissatisfied with the store and product.
    • The Grey area represents neutral which means they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, which is 11%.

Tips for Crafting an Effective Rating Scale with Practical Examples

In this section, we’ll cover the best practices that survey gurus use to create a goal-driven survey.

Probably the critical part of a rating scale survey is creating questions that accurately measure:

  • Opinions
  • Experiences
  • Behaviors

You’re likely to gather distorted and unreliable data if you have a shaky foundation of ambiguous or biased questions.

We recommend you keep many elements in mind when drafting survey questions.

Consider the wording of your rating scale, as it closely relates to the data you’re collecting.

Secondly, be mindful of your target respondents and how to best engage them.

Crafting a rating scale is an art, and requires elements of psychology, writing skills, and marketing expertise.

Gathering accurate responses involves writing good questions and organizing them to form a goal-driven survey.

Creating rating scale example questions is a multistage process that requires attention to multiple details. Furthermore, this process can be complicated because a survey can be applied in multiple areas of your business.

Different rating scale surveys come with varying degrees of detail. More so, questions can be asked in different ways. Also, questions asked earlier in a survey may influence how your audience responds to other questions.

To enhance your survey’s effectiveness, consider conducting pilot tests or focus groups during the early stages of developing rating scale examples. This proactive approach ensures your survey instrument aligns seamlessly with the objectives of your research or data collection effort.

Why?

To better understand how your target audience will perceive or understand your questionnaire. Pretesting a survey is critical in optimizing the process to increase participation and completion rates.

We’ve put together more tips you can use to create goal-focused product survey questions.

  • Conciseness

Crafting concise and easily understandable rating scale examples is crucial. In other words, steer clear of double negatives or ambiguous wording to ensure clarity and precision in the questions posed to respondents. For instance, avoid asking:

“Do you agree our new product line is not unhelpful?”

These question types may mislead your target respondents. Your language should also be appropriate to improve readability.

Craft questions with an average seventh-grade reading level to ensure everyone can understand. Issues such as ambiguity and jargon can confuse or alienate your audience.

  • Use Objective Questions

We recommend you avoid putting an opinion or something that reflects your sentiments in your online survey questionnaires.

Look at the example below.

  • “We believe our new product is remarkable.”
  • How remarkable do you think our product is?

This question seems to pass an opinion you want your target audience to agree with.

  • How do you know if respondents feel your product is remarkable?

Such rating scale examples will distort the resulting insights.

Create neutral and objective questions.

  • Use Balanced Sets of Questions

We recommend you use questions that are balanced and neutral.

Remember, people need a balanced questionnaire to provide honest and objective responses.

Look at the examples below.

  • Very happy
  • Slightly happy
  • Happy

How balanced are these rating scale example questions?

Notice there’s no opportunity for respondents to express their disappointments using words such as angry and sad.

Goal-focused questions use an objective tone.

Notice the difference after adding negative choices for balance.

  1. Very disappointed
  2. A little bit disappointed
  3. Disappointment
  4. Neutral
  5. Happy
  6. A little bit happy
  7. Very happy
  • Avoid Asking for Two Responses Using a Single Question

Each rating scale example question should give room for one answer.

Anything more than this can confuse your respondents. Confusing respondents is unethical and may distort your overall findings.

Why?

Your target audience may choose an answer that doesn’t reflect their true feelings.

Check out an example of a double-barreled question below.

“How would you rate our new course and our main trainer?

What’s the problem with the question above?

The new course and the trainer are two distinct themes. Squeezing two varying themes in the same question can push your audience to either address one or skip the question.

We recommend you break these question types into two for comprehensive and in-depth responses.

For instance:

  • “How would you rate our new course?”
  • “How would you rate our main trainer?”

This approach can help you uncover critical areas you’re failing.

  • Use Closed-Ended Rating Scale

Ask more closed-ended questions in your survey.

Why?

To gather analyzable data, use closed-ended questions.

This is because a rating scale generates quantitative data you can analyze using charts and graphs, such as a Likert Scale Chart.

Besides, the resulting answers are always objective and conclusive.

Conversely, open-ended questions generate qualitative responses. This data type is frustrating and requires more effort and time to analyze compared to closed-ended questions.

Experiments show that open-ended questions have a lower completion rate.

So, if your goal is to save time and energy, consider using close-ended questions.

  • Translate Your Rating Scale

We recommend you ensure your rating scale is in a language your target audience can understand.

For example, if you engage respondents of Hispanic heritage, use translated questions to clarify everything. Also, engage Hispanics during the pretesting to iron out the ambiguity in your rating scale.

So, what are the benefits of rating scale examples in your survey?

Benefits of Rating Scale Examples in Your Survey

Check out the benefits of a rating scale below.

  • Reliable and Objective

Other data collection tools, such as interviews, are often prone to manipulation and distortion.

For instance, respondents may not want to share their true feelings with a stranger. Besides, social pressure to conform can easily distort the final data.

How?

Experiments have shown that we tend to agree with a more dominant person in a room.

Yes, even if we know the answer is wrong.

Survey rating scale examples can help you overcome this obstacle. Your respondents will fill out the surveys privately, without peer pressure.

The responses gathered will be more honest and reliable. In other words, they will be true representations of the actual sentiments of your target market.

  • Rating Scale has more depth than Other Data Collection Strategies

A survey rating scale can help you to do more than collect information about past customers.

To uncover a potential customer base, you can use rating scale examples in other scopes, such as market research as well as IELTS band score.

How can you do this?

Well-crafted rating scale can help you ask qualifying questions that narrow the audience to hot leads.

For instance, you can target people with a high disposable income by using questions that probe income brackets.

  • You Can Use a Rating Scale Over a Longer Period

One of the key merits of a rating scale is that you can use it to question your audience over a protracted time.

Besides, there are freemium survey creation tools, such as Google Forms and Microsoft Forms, for creating rating scale example questions and gathering data.

The longer you gather data, the more you’ll have for analysis. More data means a higher degree of reliability of the resulting insights.

Drawbacks of Rating Scale Examples in Your Survey

While convenient and commonly used, rating scales possess certain limitations for data collection and analysis:

  • Limited Precision

Rating scales often provide a limited level of precision in capturing nuanced opinions or attitudes. Respondents might find it challenging to express subtle differences between their sentiments, leading to a loss of detailed information.

  • Interpretation Variability

The interpretation of scale points can vary among respondents. Variations in individual perspectives and experiences can lead to different interpretations of the same rating on a scale. This subjectivity can introduce inconsistency in the collected data.

  • Central Tendency Bias

People taking surveys might choose “safe” answers in the middle, instead of saying how they feel. This can make the data misleading, as it doesn’t show the full picture of opinions or experiences.

  • Limited Contextual Information

Rating scales often lack context, making it challenging to understand the reasons behind a particular rating. Without additional qualitative data, it may be difficult to uncover the root causes of certain ratings.

  • Cultural and Linguistic Variations

The cultural background and language proficiency of respondents can influence their understanding of rating scale items. This introduces potential bias, especially in surveys with a diverse participant pool.

Rating Scale FAQs:

What is a rating scale?

A rating scale is a form of closed-ended survey question you can use to capture responses in numerical form.

For instance, on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (excellent), how would you rate our products or services?

Rating scale examples are mostly made up of multiple-choice questions to gather in-depth responses.

What is the purpose of the rating scale?

One of the key merits of rating scales is that you can use them to question your audience over a protracted time.

Besides, there are freemium survey creation tools, such as Google Forms and Microsoft Forms, that make everything easier in creating surveys.

Wrap Up

When carrying out a survey exercise, your respondents may need to rate their knowledge or degree of satisfaction with a particular product or service.

To perform this objectively, you’ve got to use different rating scale examples in the survey.

Let’s assume you’ve used rating scale examples to gather data for further analysis.

How do you extract answers from the data?

This is where charts with rating scales, such as Likert Scale Chart, come in.

Microsoft Excel lacks charts with rating scales, such as a Likert Scale Chart.

So, what’s the solution?

We recommend you install an add-in, such as ChartExpo, to access the Likert Scale Chart and other rating scale example charts.

ChartExpo is an Excel add-in loaded with rating scale visualizations, such as the Likert Scale Chart.

Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access ready-made graphs for visualizing rating scale responses.

How much did you enjoy this article?

ExcelAd2
Start Free Trial!
123838

Related articles

next previous
Microsoft Excel8 min read

Excel Task Tracker Template for Smarter Task Insights

Task tracker template in Excel organizes tasks, tracks deadlines, and boosts efficiency. Learn its benefits, and explore expert tips to simplify task management.

Microsoft Excel10 min read

Invoice Tracker Template in Excel for Better Insights

An invoice tracker Excel template helps track invoices, due dates, and payments. Learn how to use this template for better financial management.

Microsoft Excel12 min read

Key Performance Indicators in Healthcare for Better Insights

Key Performance Indicators in healthcare track patient care and efficiency. Learn about these KPIs, top examples, and how to use them to improve outcomes.

Microsoft Excel10 min read

BMI Calculation Formula in Excel for Better Fitness Insights

The BMI calculation formula in Excel helps track and analyze body mass index. Explore step-by-step instructions and tips to simplify BMI tracking in Excel.

Microsoft Excel29 min read

How to Create a Tornado Chart in Excel? A Complete Guide

Click to learn how to plot a Tornado Chart in Excel using easy-to-follow steps. Also, we’ll address the following question: what is a Tornado Diagram?

ChartExpo logo

Turn Data into Visual
Stories

CHARTEXPO

  • Home
  • Gallery
  • Videos
  • Services
  • Pricing
  • Contact us
  • FAQs
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Sitemap

TOOLS

  • ChartExpo for Google Sheets
  • ChartExpo for Microsoft Excel
  • Power BI Custom Visuals by ChartExpo
  • Word Cloud

CATEGORIES

  • Bar Charts
  • Circle Graphs
  • Column Charts
  • Combo Charts
  • Comparison Charts
  • Line Graphs
  • PPC Charts
  • Sentiment Analysis Charts
  • Survey Charts

TOP CHARTS

  • Sankey Diagram
  • Likert Scale Chart
  • Comparison Bar Chart
  • Pareto Chart
  • Funnel Chart
  • Gauge Chart
  • Radar Chart
  • Radial Bar Chart
  • Sunburst Chart
  • see more
  • Scatter Plot Chart
  • CSAT Survey Bar Chart
  • CSAT Survey Chart
  • Dot Plot Chart
  • Double Bar Graph
  • Matrix Chart
  • Multi Axis Line Chart
  • Overlapping Bar Chart
  • Control Chart
  • Slope Chart
  • Clustered Bar Chart
  • Clustered Column Chart
  • Box and Whisker Plot
  • Tornado Chart
  • Waterfall Chart
  • Word Cloud
  • see less

RESOURCES

  • Blog
  • Resources
  • YouTube
SIGN UP FOR UPDATES

We wouldn't dream of spamming you or selling your info.

© 2025 ChartExpo, all rights reserved.