Best questions for customer survey about net promoter score

Here are the best questions for a customer survey about net promoter score, plus practical tips to help you create them. With Specific, you can build an AI-powered, conversational survey in seconds—no hassle, just actionable insights.

Best open-ended questions for customer survey about net promoter score

Open-ended questions shine when you want to uncover the real stories behind customer sentiment—not just tick a box. They unlock detail, context, and authentic language, and are perfect for surfacing pains or delights that might surprise you. Open-ended prompts are especially powerful after key moments (like a product update) or for exploring how customers think and feel in their own words. Here are our top picks:

1. What is the main reason for your score?

2. How could we improve your experience with us?

3. What has been the most memorable part of your interaction with our company?

4. Which feature do you find most valuable, and why?

5. If you could change one thing about our service, what would it be?

6. Can you describe a time we exceeded your expectations?

7. Is there something that almost prevented you from recommending us?

8. How does our product compare to competitors you've tried?

9. What would make you more likely to recommend us to others?

10. Are there any issues or frustrations you've encountered that we should know about?

Short, clear, and relevant questions like these encourage detailed replies. Research shows that keeping surveys concise and focused leads to a 20% higher completion rate when under 5 minutes, compared to longer formats[1].

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for customer survey about net promoter score

Single-select multiple-choice questions work well when you’re looking to quantify trends or make it easy for customers to give quick feedback. Sometimes, people find it easier to pick a short answer rather than type out a complex response. They’re great for starting a conversation—you can always dig deeper with a follow-up based on their choice. Here are three practical examples:

Question: What is the main reason you recommend us?

• Great product quality

• Customer service

• Easy-to-use features

• Good value for price

• Other

Question: Which area needs the most improvement?

• Product features

• Pricing

• Support

• User experience

• Other

Question: How likely are you to continue using our service next year?

• Very likely

• Somewhat likely

• Unsure

• Somewhat unlikely

• Very unlikely

When to follow up with "why?" If someone picks an option but the underlying motivation isn’t clear, a follow-up "Why did you feel that way?" works wonders. For example, if a customer says they need better support, you can immediately ask, "What could we have done differently to support you better?" This digs deeper, revealing solutions and not just problems.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always offer an "Other" option when not all possibilities are listed. Sometimes, a customer’s real feedback just doesn’t fit a preset. If “Other” is selected, a follow-up can capture those unexpected insights—often the gold nuggets that improve products fastest.

NPS question: The core of a customer net promoter score survey

You can’t talk about customer NPS surveys without including the classic NPS question. NPS (net promoter score) is a trusted, standardized metric that shows how likely customers are to refer you—a strong proxy for loyalty and future growth. The main question is:

• “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”

Organizations with a high NPS (above 72, according to SurveyMonkey benchmarks) outperform their peers; those below zero may face loyalty challenges[2]. By benchmarking your score, you gain a clear signal for growth. If you want to instantly add this NPS question with tailored follow-ups, try it now in Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

Open-ended questions are only half the picture—intelligent follow-up is how you transform feedback into real insight. Automated probing (like AI follow-up questions in Specific) lets you instantly clarify answers, fill gaps, and uncover details you’d otherwise miss. Instead of leaving everything to a later manual email, the platform responds in real time, making every conversation richer and more natural. You’ll spot root causes and actionable ideas without chasing respondents for days.

• Customer: "It’s expensive."

• AI follow-up: "Can you tell us which part of our pricing feels too high, or what value you expected at this price?"

• Customer: "Good, but support could be better."

• AI follow-up: "Can you share a specific situation when our support didn’t meet your expectations?"

How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2-3 short, focused follow-ups are enough. Always allow customers to skip if they feel done. In Specific, you can set limits and customize logic so the survey never feels like an interrogation—just a real conversation.

This makes it a conversational survey: The back-and-forth turns your survey into a two-way chat, so you collect authentic, real-world stories instead of surface-level answers.

Easy AI-driven analysis: Thanks to AI survey response analysis, all those rich responses are actually easy to understand. The platform summarizes themes, extracts quotes, and lets you chat with your own data, so you see exactly what matters—no matter how much text you collect.

Conversational AI follow-up is a new frontier. The best way to understand its power is to generate a survey and experience it yourself.

How to prompt ChatGPT for customer net promoter score survey questions

If you want to create a tailored customer NPS survey using AI, a strong prompt is your starting point. Try this:

Simple, direct prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for customer survey about net promoter score.

For even better results, always give the AI more detail—about your business, your goals, and the context:

Contextual prompt:

Act as a customer research specialist. I manage a SaaS product for small businesses. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a customer survey about net promoter score, focusing on why users would or wouldn’t recommend us, and which improvements would have the most impact.

If you need structure, ask the AI to look at your list and group questions into themes:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Once you see the categories, you can prompt it further:

Generate 10 questions for the “product features” and “customer support experience” categories.

With the right prompt, AI becomes a true research partner for any survey.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is not your typical form—it’s a chat-based experience where the AI adapts to each response, follows up naturally, and keeps the respondent engaged. This approach collects deeper, more nuanced answers while making participation feel much easier and friendlier. Unlike old-school survey builders (where you fill out static boxes), an AI survey generator creates, edits, and launches dynamic conversations tailored to your needs in minutes.

Why use AI for customer surveys? You get more honest, detailed responses—without the friction of forms. AI-powered tools like Specific offer the industry’s top-class conversational survey experience, making gathering (and analyzing) feedback smoother for both you and your customers. The result? Higher completion rates, higher data quality, and a process your team actually enjoys.

Looking for a step-by-step guide? Check out our article on how to easily create a survey for customers about net promoter score.

See this net promoter score survey example now

Try a conversational survey today to get richer insights and a better response rate. With our AI-powered approach, you’ll uncover actionable feedback, real stories, and a seamless experience for your customers—start now to see the difference in minutes!