Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about park maintenance, and also tips on how to create them. If you want to build your own survey in seconds, you can generate a citizen survey about park maintenance with Specific.
10 best open-ended questions for citizen survey about park maintenance
Open-ended questions give citizens the space to describe personal experiences, concerns, or suggestions in their own words. They work best when you want deep, nuanced insights, but keep in mind that open-ended questions can lead to higher nonresponse rates—Pew Research found such questions could average an 18% nonresponse rate, with some over 50% [1]. Still, they’re powerful for uncovering issues closed questions might miss, as shown when 81% of survey participants highlighted overlooked problems in open-enders [2]. Here’s our list of the best open-ended prompts for park maintenance:
How would you describe the current condition of the park’s facilities and green spaces?
What specific areas in the park require the most maintenance or improvement?
Have you noticed any safety concerns in the park? Please explain.
How do park maintenance activities affect your overall park experience?
Can you share a recent experience—positive or negative—that stood out during your park visit?
Are there amenities or features you wish the park offered or maintained better?
Which times of day or year do you see the most maintenance issues?
How responsive do you think the city is to reports or complaints about park conditions?
What improvements would most encourage you (or your family) to use the park more often?
Is there anything else you want to share about your experiences in the park or with its upkeep?
Mixing these open-ended questions throughout your survey will draw out true stories and actionable specifics that simple ratings miss. Combining open and closed-ended questions increases a survey’s predictive power by 27% [3].
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for citizen survey about park maintenance
Single-select multiple-choice questions are best when you want data you can quickly quantify. They help you spot patterns and make it easy for citizens to answer—even if they’re not sure how to explain their thoughts. Sometimes, offering a few short options is less intimidating than expecting a detailed reply, and you can always dig deeper with follow-up questions.
Question: How satisfied are you with the cleanliness of the park?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: How often do you visit this park?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Rarely
Never
Question: Which aspect of park maintenance needs the most improvement in your opinion?
Trash collection
Restroom facilities
Playground equipment
Landscaping
Pathways and trails
Other
When to follow up with “why?” After a citizen selects an option, following up with “Why did you choose that?” uncovers motivations or stories behind their choice. For example, if someone selects “Playground equipment,” ask, “What problems have you noticed with the playground equipment?” This typically results in much richer feedback, tapping into the same kind of detailed answers seen in open-ended formats.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Including “Other” as an option empowers respondents to mention unique concerns that weren’t anticipated—sometimes these reveal blind spots or upcoming issues. Following up when someone picks “Other” often leads to unexpected, actionable insights that standardized options might miss.
NPS-style question for park maintenance citizen surveys
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question asks, “How likely are you to recommend this park to friends or family?” on a 0-10 scale. This simple metric is powerful—it helps city planners understand overall satisfaction and loyalty, and pairs perfectly with follow-ups that drill into the “why” behind the scores. For park maintenance, using NPS lets you benchmark improvement over time and compare with similar facilities. If you want to experiment, generate an NPS-driven citizen survey about park maintenance instantly with Specific.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions turn a simple questionnaire into a true conversation, leading to more complete and insightful answers. Research supports this: follow-ups result in longer responses and a wider range of topics, helping organizers capture the full context of what citizens care about [4]. Feature like automated follow-ups in surveys can quickly clarify unclear responses and ensure nothing important slips through.
Specific uses AI to ask smart, hyper-relevant follow-ups in real time—just like a human expert, but much faster and more consistent. This means richer insights without endless email back-and-forth, and surveys that feel less like paperwork and more like a genuine dialogue. Here’s what can happen if you skip the follow-ups:
Citizen: “There’s always trash in the park.”
AI follow-up: “Which areas have you noticed the most trash? Can you give an example of when it was a problem?”
This second step might tease out that overflow bins near picnic tables are the root cause—a specific, actionable takeaway.
How many follow-ups to ask? In most cases, 2-3 targeted follow-up questions are enough. It’s smart to let respondents skip to the next section if they tire or if you’ve already gathered the detail you needed; with Specific, this setting is easy to enable.
This makes it a conversational survey: Questions and follow-ups flow naturally, so citizens feel heard—turning surveys into real conversations.
Easy AI analysis, too: Even with more open-ended replies, AI survey response analysis makes it simple to summarize and uncover key themes across responses. So don’t worry if you wind up with a lot of unstructured data; AI will help you turn it into sharp, usable insights without the manual labor.
Try generating a survey and experience these automated, intelligent follow-ups—they’re a game changer for anyone used to old-school, static forms!
How to write better prompts for AI-generated citizen survey questions about park maintenance
If you’re using ChatGPT, Specific, or another AI tool, starting with a clear prompt is key. Here’s the simplest starting point:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about park maintenance.
But you’ll get better results if you’re more specific—share context about your goals, audience, or what you hope to improve:
I work for the city parks department and want to understand how citizens perceive park maintenance, including cleanliness, amenities, and staff responsiveness. Could you generate 10 open-ended survey questions that help uncover what matters most to park users and where we should focus improvements?
After gathering questions, ask the AI to organize them by topic, making your survey more cohesive:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Next, pick the topics most relevant for your current needs, and deepen your survey like this:
Generate 10 questions for categories like “Facility maintenance” and “Safety concerns.”
What is a conversational survey—and why use AI for citizen park maintenance surveys?
Conversational surveys feel like a real chat—each answer can spark a follow-up, just as a skilled interviewer would do. This approach stands out from manual survey creation, where everything’s scripted, static, and the respondent might just click boxes. With an AI survey generator, you describe your needs, and the tool builds the perfect mix of open, closed, and follow-up questions that suit your specific park maintenance goals.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys (e.g., Specific) |
|---|---|
Static questions, every respondent gets the same ones | Dynamic, context-aware follow-ups that adapt to answers |
Difficult to create long or complex surveys quickly | Survey building feels like chatting—AI does the heavy lifting |
Limited ability to dig deeper or clarify unclear responses | AI prompts additional questions, enabling richer data collection |
Manual data review and analysis | Automatic AI analysis, summaries, and theme extraction |
Why use AI for citizen surveys? AI survey tools save you hours—on survey design, distribution, and analysis. They make it easy to run “conversational surveys” that keep people engaged much longer, and multiple studies show this approach leads to more informative and clear responses [5]. Specific delivers this experience with unmatched ease, making your feedback process both smooth for you and enjoyable for survey takers.
Curious how this works in practice? If you want step-by-step guidance, check out our guide to creating citizen park maintenance surveys using AI.
See this park maintenance survey example now
Get instant inspiration and see how a conversational AI survey can reveal real citizen needs—start collecting better park maintenance feedback with less effort, and drive actionable improvements today.