Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about fire and emergency medical services, plus smart tips on crafting them to get insights that actually help. With Specific, you can build a high-quality survey like this in seconds—even if you’re new to surveys.
Best open-ended questions for citizens about fire and emergency medical services
Open-ended questions help you capture the “why” and “how,” not just the “what.” Use them to go beyond satisfaction ratings and truly understand people’s experiences, expectations, and frustrations. They’re especially powerful when you want authentic, nuanced answers that surface what matters most to your community.
What do you think fire and emergency medical services in your area do well?
Please describe any personal experiences you’ve had with fire or EMS teams.
What would you most like to see improved in your local fire and EMS services?
How confident do you feel about response times if you were to call 911 for help?
Do you have any concerns about the availability of emergency services in your neighborhood?
What suggestions do you have to make fire and EMS more responsive to community needs?
How could communication between emergency services and citizens be improved?
Describe anything that would help you feel safer regarding fire risks or medical emergencies at home.
If you could give one piece of advice to your local fire department or EMS, what would it be?
What’s one story or example that stands out to you—positive or negative—about fire or EMS in your city?
When your aim is to understand sentiment, perceptions, or root causes, open-ended questions are invaluable. For instance, we know that citizen satisfaction with EMS remains high (94.8% of transported patients and 96.3% of non-transported patients rate services positively), but open feedback reveals the “why” behind those numbers and surfaces what could be even better [1].
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for fire and EMS surveys
When you need to quantify opinions or make it easy for citizens to respond quickly, use single-select multiple-choice questions. They’re perfect for getting a pulse on overall satisfaction, priorities, or perceptions—especially as icebreakers or when you want to spot patterns in larger groups. It’s also easier for respondents to pick from clear options than to type long answers, especially on mobile.
Question: How satisfied are you with fire and EMS response times in your area?
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neutral
Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: In your opinion, which area should receive the most focus for improvement?
Reducing response times
Community education/outreach
Increasing staff/resources
Improving communication with citizens
Other
Question: Did you know that response times can directly impact survival rates during medical emergencies?
Yes, I’m aware
No, I didn’t know
Not sure
When to follow up with “why?” Use follow-ups when a multiple-choice answer is vague or reveals a pain point (“Somewhat dissatisfied” is just a start!). For example, if a citizen picks “dissatisfied” with response times, ask “Can you share what made you feel that way?” This is where deeper insights emerge, letting you address real needs. Pairing quantifiable questions with AI-powered follow-ups is what makes surveys richer in context, not just charts.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always include “Other” when your options can’t cover all possibilities, or when citizens may have unique needs or perspectives. This allows space for unexpected feedback—AI follow-ups on “Other” often lead to eye-opening suggestions you never considered.
Using smart structure like this also lets you spot trends rapidly and prioritize the right areas, whether that’s addressing perceptions of slow response times (which research shows can affect survival by up to 12% for every minute’s delay in defibrillation [2]) or improving communication with citizens.
NPS question for fire and EMS citizen surveys
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the simplest and most effective ways to gauge overall loyalty or sentiment toward fire and emergency medical services. It asks how likely a citizen is to recommend these services to friends or family—on a scale of 0 to 10—and instantly reveals whether people are promoters, passives, or detractors. For community agencies, a high NPS signals strong trust and satisfaction, while lower scores highlight where to invest energy. If your goal is a quick, actionable pulse, NPS is a fantastic fit.
Want a ready-to-go template for this? Just use Specific’s NPS survey builder for citizens about fire and EMS.
The power of follow-up questions
If you want to move beyond surface-level answers, it’s all about follow-up questions. Open-ended responses can be vague or incomplete—unless you ask for clarification. That’s why automated AI follow-up questions are a game changer, and why we built them right into the workflow at Specific (learn more about automated follow-ups).
Citizen: “It took too long for the ambulance to arrive.”
AI follow-up: “How long did you wait, and how did it affect your experience?”
Citizen: “I’m not sure the fire department communicates enough.”
AI follow-up: “What kind of information or updates would you find most helpful?”
How many follow-ups to ask? Based on best practices, two to three targeted follow-ups are usually enough to clarify and deepen a respondent’s answer. With Specific, you can set limits or let the AI stop asking once it gets a clear and relevant response—no risk of annoying your citizens or wasting anyone’s time.
This makes it a conversational survey—the experience feels more like a real chat than a dry web form, making it friendlier and more natural for everyone involved.
Easy survey response analysis: Worried about sifting through long text replies? With AI response analysis (see how to analyze survey responses), you can instantly get summarized insights, spot recurring themes, and even chat with the data to answer your follow-up questions—no data science degree required.
These AI-automated follow-ups aren’t just a tech upgrade—they help every citizen feel heard, while saving researchers hours of manual email follow-ups. Try generating a survey yourself and see the difference AI-driven follow-ups make to your conversations.
How to compose a prompt for ChatGPT or other GPTs to get great survey questions
If you’d like to use AI like ChatGPT to craft your own citizen survey about fire and EMS, it’s all about writing clear prompts. Start simple:
Try this first:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about fire and emergency medical services.
But the more context AI gets, the better your output. Add your audience (“urban citizens”), your goal (“improve response times based on citizen needs”), or current pain points. A richer prompt looks like:
I am designing a survey for residents in a city with diverse neighborhoods. The goal is to understand how citizens experience and perceive fire and emergency medical services, including response times, communication, and resource allocation. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that will help surface actionable community feedback.
Once you have your draft questions, guide AI to organize them for clarity. Try:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, zoom in on what matters most for your agency with a targeted prompt like:
Generate 10 questions for the category “resource allocation and priorities in fire and emergency services.”
Iterate as needed—Specific’s AI-powered survey editor lets you chat to refine, reorder, or rephrase every question, so your survey stays focused and sharp.
What is a conversational survey?
Think of a conversational survey as a dynamic chat, not a static list of boxes. Instead of “take this survey” fatigue, citizens get a tailored, context-rich experience where questions feel relevant and follow-ups actually make sense. The result? Higher engagement, better data, and more actionable insights.
How does this compare to the old way? Here’s a quick look:
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Forms with static questions | Dynamic, chat-like flow |
With AI survey generators like Specific, you get surveys that adapt to each citizen’s answers—solving the big problem of incomplete or generic survey data. If you want detailed, actionable, and even empathetic insight, AI-powered survey creation is a must-have.
Why use AI for citizen surveys? Because gathering meaningful feedback on fire and EMS demands more than just numbers—it requires stories, real examples, and lived experience. AI-driven surveys don’t just automate—they converse, unlocking deeper truths your agency might otherwise miss (and making the experience much better for everyone involved).
If you’re curious how to set up a conversational survey for citizens, read our guide on how to create a citizen survey about fire and emergency medical services.
Specific leads the pack in conversational surveys, blending intelligent follow-ups, instant AI-powered analysis, and a chat-driven UX that keeps both survey creators and citizens engaged and coming back for more.
See this fire and emergency medical services survey example now
Unlock genuine citizen feedback—and smart, actionable insights—with an AI-powered, conversational survey. Get detailed responses, smart follow-up questions, and fast analysis: see what a modern survey can really do and create your own in minutes using Specific.