Best questions for canceled subscribers survey about billing and refund experience

Here are some of the best questions for a canceled subscribers survey about billing and refund experience, plus tips to help you craft effective questions that truly dig into what matters. Specific can help you quickly generate or build a ready-to-use survey in seconds—no manual heavy lifting required.

The best open-ended questions for canceled subscribers surveys

When it comes to understanding why someone canceled, open-ended questions are gold. They let people share their unfiltered experiences, expectations, and frustrations—insights a checkbox just can’t deliver. These questions work best when you want deep context, stories, or potential new reasons you hadn’t thought of.

It’s also worth noting that shorter surveys mean higher completion rates; surveys under five questions can approach a 40% response rate, while longer ones drop closer to 20% [1]. So, pick your open-ended questions carefully for top engagement.

1. Can you describe any issues you faced with our billing process?

2. What was your overall impression of the refund experience?

3. Was there anything confusing or unclear about the charges or invoices you received?

4. If you requested a refund, how would you describe the communication with our team?

5. Were there unexpected fees or charges that contributed to your decision to cancel?

6. How did the timing of the refund or billing resolution affect your satisfaction?

7. Is there anything we could have done differently to resolve your billing or refund concerns?

8. What suggestions do you have for improving the billing or refund process?

9. What was your primary reason for canceling, related specifically to billing or refunds?

10. Would you consider resubscribing if your concerns around billing or refunds were addressed, and if so, what would you want to see changed?

The best single-select multiple-choice questions

Sometimes, you need to quantify feedback or want to gently start a conversation, especially if someone’s in a hurry. Multiple-choice questions make it easy for canceled subscribers to respond quickly—and data gets structured right from the start. This can also take away the mental barrier for those who don’t feel like typing a full response. Later, you can follow up deeply with those who pick something interesting!

Question: What aspect of billing led to your cancellation?

• Unexpected charges

• Confusing invoices

• Difficulty managing payment methods

• Lack of billing transparency

• Other

Question: How satisfied were you with the refund process?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How long did it take to resolve your billing or refund issue?

• Less than a day

• 1-3 days

• 4-7 days

• More than a week

• Issue never resolved

When to follow up with “why?” If you’re getting a response that’s a red flag—or just want to understand what “confusing invoices” or “very dissatisfied” actually means—ask why. For example, if a respondent picks “unexpected charges,” a direct followup like, “Can you tell us more about the unexpected charges you encountered?” gives you the story behind the number.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? “Other” captures the surprises you didn’t plan for and creates a path for honest, unsolicited feedback. Following up on “Other” and asking people to explain can reveal themes and pain points you never knew existed.

NPS: Should you use this question with canceled subscribers?

NPS—or Net Promoter Score—typically asks how likely someone is to recommend your service to others. For canceled subscribers, it’s an eye-opener: you learn how much the billing and refund experience alone impacted their loyalty or perception of your brand. If someone gives a low score, it’s a golden opportunity for a targeted followup that could win them back or fix a broken process.

If you want to try this, it’s easy to generate a tailored NPS survey for canceled subscribers in just a click. This single question often gets very high engagement, and the follow-up (“What’s the main reason for your score?”) is perfect for pinpointing issues or bright spots that influence churn.

The power of follow-up questions

Single answers often tell only half the story. That’s why follow-up questions are so crucial—this is where the best insights emerge. We wrote more on this in our article about automated follow-up questions, but in short: AI can drive the conversation like a real expert interviewer, gently nudging for more context, real examples, and clarifications as needed. This saves enormous time, especially compared to back-and-forth email exchanges or manually chasing down unclear answers.

• Canceled Subscriber: “The refund took too long.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you tell us how long the refund process took, and what you expected instead?”

How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2–3 targeted follow-ups are enough to get a meaningful answer. Specific lets you control this with an easy setting—so you can move to the next main question once you’ve got what you need, or dig deeper if something isn’t clear.

This makes it a conversational survey: Follow-ups make the respondent feel like they’re actually having a dialogue, not just filling in a bland form. That’s the heart of a conversational survey.

AI survey response analysis, unstructured data, natural language: Even if you collect tons of open text, analyzing responses is a breeze with AI. You can summarize, extract insights, and chat about findings—so you get the “why” behind the numbers, not just the numbers.

Automated follow-ups are a new game-changer in survey tech. Try generating a survey with them and discover how natural and revealing your subscriber interviews can become.

How to prompt ChatGPT (or any GPT) for billing/refund questions

Sometimes you want to craft great survey questions with AI—here’s how. Start simple and build detail with every prompt you give. For example, kick off with:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for canceled subscribers survey about billing and refund experience.

You’ll always get better results if you give more context. Try:

We’re a SaaS company looking to improve our billing and refund experience after seeing subscriber churn. Our goal is actionable feedback to reduce cancellations. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for canceled subscribers.

Want to organize your findings? Try:

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

From here, pick a category you want to explore—maybe “Communication Issues” or “Unexpected Charges”—and go deep:

Generate 10 questions for the category “Refund Communication Experience”.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys look and feel like chats. Instead of a static survey where you scroll through a page of fields, you interact naturally, question by question. The difference is clear when you compare traditional surveys to an AI-powered conversational survey builder like Specific’s AI survey maker.

Why use AI for canceled subscribers surveys? Response rates are higher when surveys are short, relevant, and respond dynamically to people’s answers. For example, in-app or web pop-up surveys—like those powered by conversational AI—often get 20–30% response rates, while email typically gets only 15–25%, and longer surveys see even less [1]. Making it easy to answer makes participation more likely, and rich follow-ups help you understand the “why” behind each answer.

Want to try it? Specific offers a seamless, best-in-class user experience—from survey creation to analysis. You can learn how to create an AI-powered survey for billing/refund feedback, send it to canceled subscribers, and instantly start learning what actually drives churn—and what will win them back.

See this billing and refund experience survey example now

Uncover real insights from canceled subscribers and spot opportunities for improvement instantly. Act now and experience the benefits of AI-driven conversational surveys—efficient, personal, and effortless from start to analysis.