Best questions for citizen survey about transparency and communication

Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about transparency and communication, plus tips on how to design them for richer insights. If you want to build a citizen survey in seconds, you can generate one with Specific that’s tailored and ready to share.

Best open-ended questions for citizen survey about transparency and communication

Open-ended questions dig beneath surface-level answers, giving citizens space to express concerns or suggestions in their own words. These are best when you want to tap into real opinions, capture nuance, or uncover issues you may not have anticipated.

Recent research highlights why listening closely matters: only 41% of people in OECD countries feel they can influence local decisions that affect their community[2]. Broad, qualitative input from open-ended questions helps bridge this gap by revealing what citizens actually think and need.

Here are ten powerful open-ended questions designed specifically for citizen surveys on transparency and communication:

1. What information about local government decisions would you like to see communicated more openly?

2. How do you currently receive updates from public officials, and how could this process be improved?

3. Can you describe a situation when you felt the government was transparent? Or not transparent?

4. What would make you trust your local government’s decisions more?

5. What challenges have you faced when trying to get information from public bodies?

6. In your view, what is missing from current public communications about policy or budgets?

7. How could government agencies better respond to citizen inquiries or feedback?

8. Share an example of when government communication was helpful or clear for you.

9. What topics should be discussed more openly in your community?

10. If you could give one piece of advice to improve transparency, what would it be?

Open-ended questions like these not only uncover pain points and opportunities, but also help citizens feel heard—a critical first step to rebuilding trust where it's lacking.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for citizen survey about transparency and communication

Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want fast, comparable data. If you need to quantify opinions or spot quick trends, these can’t be beat. It’s easier for respondents to pick from a few concise options, and their choices can spark deeper follow-up conversations for more clarity.

Question: How satisfied are you with the transparency of your local government’s decisions?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Not satisfied

• Not sure

Question: Which channel do you use most to get updates from local government?

• Official website

• Social media

• Community meetings

• Email/newsletters

• Other

Question: Do you feel you can easily access information about how public funds are spent?

• Yes

• No

• Not sure

When to follow up with “why?” Always add a follow-up “why?” if a response could be interpreted in different ways. For example, if a citizen selects “Not satisfied” with government transparency, a quick “Can you tell us more about that?” uncovers underlying problems—and real opportunities to improve.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? “Other” is a must when your list might not be exhaustive. This lets citizens give answers you didn’t think of and, with a smart follow-up, you can discover new channels, pain points, or ideas you wouldn’t have captured otherwise.

NPS question for citizen survey about transparency and communication

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is usually framed around loyalty to brands, but we’ve found it’s a strong pulse check for how citizens feel about transparency or engagement efforts. The classic NPS asks, “How likely are you to recommend [service/organization] to a friend?” For a citizen transparency survey, you can rephrase it to fit the civic context, like:

“How likely are you to recommend participating in local government initiatives to your friends or family, based on your experience with transparency and communication?” (0–10 scale)

NPS is powerful because it gives you an instant benchmark—and then, by asking “why,” you can go deep on the reasons behind the score. You can try this style of NPS question right in Specific’s survey generator.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions transform generic, incomplete answers into full stories. Our platform’s automated follow-up question feature means each response receives an on-the-fly, context-aware probe—just like a smart interviewer.

Here’s why that matters: without follow-ups, too many replies are ambiguous, leaving you with more questions than answers. For example:

• Citizen: “I don’t feel informed about council budgets.”

• AI follow-up: “Could you share which topics or details you’d like to know more about?”

This keeps the conversation moving and lets you gather the details that really matter.

How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2–3 targeted follow-up questions per response are enough. It’s important to enable settings that allow the AI to stop asking once enough detail has been collected, rather than pushing for more than the respondent wants to share. Specific lets you fine-tune this for each survey.

This makes it a conversational survey: with real-time, dynamic follow-ups, the survey feels like a chat—making citizens more comfortable, more likely to open up, and less likely to drop out.

AI survey response analysis: Even with loads of unstructured feedback, it’s easy to analyze citizen survey responses with AI. You’ll spot emerging issues, pain points, and opportunities fast—rather than sifting through hundreds of written replies yourself.

These new AI-powered follow-up questions are a big leap forward in feedback collection. Give it a try, generate a survey now, and experience a smarter way to conduct citizen surveys.

How to write prompts for ChatGPT and other GPTs to generate great citizen survey questions

If you want to draft your own survey questions with AI (like ChatGPT), you’ll get better results if you’re specific—pun intended. Start simple, then add more context.

Prompt 1 (basic):

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about transparency and communication.

AI works best with more background. Explain who you are, your goal, and what you want to learn:

I am a city official preparing a survey to understand citizens’ concerns about transparency and communication between residents and local government. Please focus questions on specific experiences, trust, and suggestions for improvement.

Prompt 2 (categorize):

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

Prompt 3 (drill down):

Generate 10 questions for categories “Public trust in government communication” and “Citizen access to information.”

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is an interactive, chat-like experience that adapts to each respondent—far more personal than a static web form. With AI driving the flow, you get richer, more nuanced answers, and the respondent feels like they’re talking to a real person, not filling out paperwork.

This makes a huge difference for transparency and communication surveys, where you’re often dealing with sensitive topics or trust issues. When someone feels their unique voice is heard, they’ll share honestly and in more detail—producing data you can really act on.

Let’s compare:

Why use AI for citizen surveys? Because trust and transparency issues are often complex—sometimes citizens are dissatisfied but won’t say why, or problems aren’t on your radar until people bring them up. An AI survey example uses smart follow-ups and instant summaries to surface what matters, fast. Whether you’re collecting local government feedback or tracking attitudes over time, you get more honest, detailed data to inform your next move.

Specific is built for this. Our platform sets the gold standard for conversational surveys, making the feedback loop easy, comfortable, and effective—both for survey creators and for citizens. Every detail—from AI survey builder, to editing via chat, to how responses are distilled—frees you up to focus on impact, not admin. If you want more tips, check out our guide to creating citizen surveys on transparency and communication.

See this transparency and communication survey example now

Test a citizen survey in action—see how easy it is to gather honest, actionable feedback on transparency and communication. Get richer insights, ask smarter follow-ups, and build trust with your community, all in one smooth, conversational experience.