Best questions for citizen survey about digital government services

Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about digital government services, plus our favorite tips for making them more insightful. If you want to build your own survey in seconds, use Specific’s AI-powered generator and get started right away.

The best open-ended questions for citizen survey about digital government services

Open-ended questions let people share what matters most in their own words—a surefire way to discover pain points, suggestions, and stories you may never have considered. They help when you want to understand the full user experience or dig into unexpected feedback. Engagement is much higher with conversational, adaptive surveys—AI-powered approaches now see completion rates as high as 70–90%, compared to just 10–30% with old-school forms. [1]

1. What government digital service do you use most often, and why?

2. Describe an experience—positive or negative—you’ve had with an online government service.

3. What’s one thing that would make digital government services easier for you?

4. Which government online service did you find hardest to use, and what made it difficult?

5. Tell us about a time when digital government services saved you time or frustration.

6. What features or information do you wish these services had?

7. How do you handle it if you can’t complete something digitally—what do you do next?

8. Are there any government tasks you prefer to do in person, and if so, why?

9. If you could change one thing about digital government services, what would it be?

10. What advice would you give for improving digital government experiences in your country?

The best single-select multiple-choice questions for citizen survey about digital government services

Whenever we need to quantify or quickly gauge sentiment, single-select multiple-choice questions are the way to go. They work especially well at the start of a conversational survey, making it easier for respondents to jump in—no need to craft a complex answer right away. These are also handy if you want to segment citizens by need, experience, or digital habits, and can prompt more targeted follow-up.

Question: How would you describe your overall satisfaction with digital government services you’ve used?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Which type of government service did you use most recently online?

• Tax filing

• Health services

• License or permit renewal

• Social assistance application

• Other

Question: Why do you typically choose to use digital government services?

• Convenience

• Faster processing

• Required by government

• Cost savings

• Other

When to followup with "why?" When a response might mean different things for different people, or to probe negative/positive answers. For example, if a citizen selects "Dissatisfied," always ask: “Why did you feel dissatisfied with that service?” That’s where real insight comes from.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include 'Other' if you suspect your choices don’t exhaust the options. With Specific’s conversational surveys, follow-up questions help you uncover new use cases or issues that hadn’t crossed your mind—the best way to spot blind spots in the digital experience.

NPS survey question: should you use it for digital government services?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question—"On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this government service to others?"—isn’t just for companies. It’s a proven, digestible way to measure public sentiment and citizen satisfaction for digital government services too. Especially given the high usage rates across countries like the UAE (where 75% of residents used at least one digital service monthly and gave satisfaction marks of 4.29 or higher out of 5) [2], NPS offers a universal metric you can track over time, benchmark, and segment by demographic. Try the NPS survey generator for digital government services if you want to roll it out in minutes.

The power of follow-up questions

Intelligent follow-ups are a game-changer. Our article on automated follow-up questions explains how they clarify, dig deeper, and uncover detail missed by static question lists. With Specific, AI-powered interviews ask exactly the right follow-up in real time—just as a human would—creating a natural, conversational flow and capturing full context in the moment. That means richer feedback, higher completion rates, and no need to chase for clarification by email later. It’s one key reason AI surveys saw 70–90% completion rates—even for longer surveys. [1]

• Citizen: "It was hard to pay my parking fine online."

• AI follow-up: "What specifically made the payment process difficult for you?"

How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 follow-ups per topic are enough to get a clear understanding, while keeping the survey quick. With Specific, you can set limits so that once you’ve got what you need, the conversation moves on—avoiding fatigue or redundancy.

This makes it a conversational survey, which feels less like a test and more like talking to a helpful expert. Respondents open up as conversations progress, so you get candor—not just quick-click answers.

AI survey analysis, unstructured feedback, deep insights. Thanks to AI, analyzing all these open answers is now a breeze—read our guide on how to analyze responses from citizen surveys using AI to see what’s possible. Even with lots of free-text, you get themes, summaries, and search—no manual spreadsheet crunching required!

Automated follow-ups are a new concept. We suggest generating a survey yourself and experiencing the difference—just ask Specific to build a conversational survey for digital citizen feedback and see how it flows.

How to prompt ChatGPT (or GPT-4) to generate great questions for citizen survey about digital government services

Building surveys with AI works best when you give the bot proper context. Here’s how to prompt it to craft better, more relevant questions.

To start, try something direct:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about digital government services.

But the more context you share, the better. For example:

I’m designing a survey for citizens who use digital government services in the UAE. My goal is to identify which online services are hardest to use, and gather suggestions for improvement. Can you suggest open-ended questions that will help achieve this?

Next, ask the AI to help organize your questions with:

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

Then, zero in on areas that matter most:

Generate 10 questions for categories ‘usability issues’ and ‘ideas for improvement.’

What is a conversational survey (and why AI changes everything)

A conversational survey turns data collection into a chat-like dialog, adaptively exploring each respondent’s answers. With AI, every survey is personalized and context-aware—AI interviews can dig deeper, clarify ambiguity, and spark a genuine conversation rather than just “collecting data.”

That’s why AI surveys are changing the game. Traditional approaches—static forms or email links—don’t adapt in real time. Respondents drop off, and answer quality suffers. Recent research shows this vividly: AI-driven surveys now achieve **70–90% completion rates** versus **10–30% for traditional surveys**. [1] It’s all about the engaging, human-like experience.

Why use AI for citizen surveys? Because people expect more from their online experiences—so should we. AI survey examples, especially conversational and adaptive ones, meet citizens where they are, using language and follow-ups that feel intuitive. That equals more (and better) feedback, every time.

With Specific, you get a best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys, making feedback collection easy and engaging for both creators and citizens. If you’re unsure where to begin, check our step-by-step guide on how to create a citizen survey for digital government services.

See this digital government services survey example now

Want to see how it works? Dive in and experience the impact of a conversational, AI-powered survey for digital government services—get richer citizen feedback and smarter insights instantly. Try creating your own and see real results in just minutes.