Here are some of the best questions for a civil servant survey about citizen satisfaction with public services, along with tips on how to create them. We use Specific to help you build conversational surveys in seconds, maximizing insights and respondent engagement.
Top open-ended questions for civil servant survey about citizen satisfaction with public services
Open-ended questions let people share their honest, unfiltered experiences—providing context that numbers alone just can’t capture. They shine when you want to understand motivations, pain points, or hear stories in citizens’ own words. Here are our ten favorites for this kind of survey:
What aspects of our public services have had the greatest positive impact on you this year?
Can you describe a recent experience with a public service that stood out to you?
What would you most like to see improved in our current public services?
How easy or difficult was it for you to access the public services you needed?
What challenges did you face when interacting with government services?
What specific changes would make public services work better for you or your community?
How has the speed of service delivery met/not met your expectations? Please elaborate.
Can you share one suggestion that would make using digital public services easier?
What does a “good experience” with public services mean to you?
If you could change one thing about your recent public service experience, what would it be?
Open-ended questions like these are key for understanding why statistics are trending—like the recent decline in satisfaction with services seen in the UK, where satisfaction with GPs fell from 90% in 1998 to just 40% in 2024. They allow you to dig into the “why” behind those numbers and identify actionable insights. [1]
Single-select multiple-choice questions for civil servant survey about citizen satisfaction with public services
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you want to quantify opinions, track metrics over time, or make it easy for respondents to begin the conversation. Starting with a quick tap is often less intimidating than filling out text fields, especially for first-time respondents or those in a hurry. Here are three great examples:
Question: Overall, how satisfied are you with the quality of public services you received in the past year?
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neutral
Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: Which public service channel did you use most recently?
In-person at government office
Phone
Online/digital portal
Postal mail
Other
Question: How satisfied were you with the speed of service delivery?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
When to followup with "why?" Especially when a respondent picks a negative or neutral answer, following up with “why?” opens the door for richer feedback. For example, if someone chooses “Dissatisfied” for speed of delivery, ask: “What made the process slow for you?” This can help discover if technology, staffing, or communication gaps are at fault.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add “Other” when you suspect respondents might have a different experience or use a service/channel not pre-listed. Following up on “Other” responses often uncovers hidden pain points or emerging trends that otherwise go undetected.
NPS-style question: why it matters for civil servant surveys about citizen satisfaction
Net Promoter Score (NPS) asks how likely a respondent is to recommend a service to others, on a 0-10 scale. While it’s often used in business, it’s surprisingly powerful in public sector feedback because it cuts to the core: “Would you actively advocate for these services?” This simple measure helps civil servants compare their standing against benchmarks or between departments—especially since global satisfaction varies widely (e.g., 66% satisfied on average across OECD countries, with over 80% in some nations) [2].
To create an NPS survey tailored for citizens, check out the automatic NPS survey builder for civil servant feedback.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions turn surveys into meaningful conversations. Specific’s automatic follow-up feature uses AI to ask smart probing questions, adjusting in real time based on each answer. This means you capture full context with less back-and-forth, enabling you to gain richer insights—without emailing respondents for clarifications after the fact. The natural, conversational flow is what sets these new surveys apart.
Civil servant: “It was slow.”
AI follow-up: “Can you tell us which part of the process felt the slowest or what caused the delay for you?”
How many followups to ask? In most cases, 2–3 followups are plenty to get the detail you need, but it’s smart to let respondents skip further probing once their answer is clear. Specific gives you simple settings for this—maximizing feedback quality without wearing people out.
This makes it a conversational survey—not just a form, but an interactive, engaging way of collecting citizen satisfaction insights.
AI analysis of answers now makes it easy to make sense of all this rich qualitative data—read more about analyzing survey responses with AI. Even long text replies are summarized and categorized by GPT-powered tools, so you can act fast.
These followup questions are new—try using Specific’s survey generator and see the difference for yourself.
How to compose prompts for ChatGPT or other GPTs: civil servant surveys about citizen satisfaction
ChatGPT and similar AIs create better questions when you give them clear instructions, context, and goals. Start simple:
Use this prompt to get started quickly:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for civil servant survey about citizen satisfaction with public services.
But the AI gets much smarter when you add background. For example, tell it who you are, what you want to achieve, and real challenges you’re facing:
I am a city official running a citizen satisfaction survey. Our city is focusing on digital transformation and wants to know which service improvements will have the greatest impact for families, youth, and older adults. Please suggest 10 open-ended and 5 multiple-choice questions to help identify blind spots and success stories.
Once you have a draft, ask the AI to organize your questions into categories:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Pick categories you want to double down on—for example, “digital experience” or “speed of service”—and prompt again:
Generate 10 questions about digital experience and speed of service for my civil servant survey on citizen satisfaction with public services.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey mimics a natural dialogue—questions, clarifications, and context in a back-and-forth rhythm. It’s a world apart from static web forms or cold phone scripts. With an AI survey generator, you get:
Questions tuned to each respondent’s answers
Automated, context-aware followups
Less risk of ambiguous or incomplete feedback
Higher engagement thanks to chat-like UX
Manual Surveys | AI-generated (Conversational) Surveys |
|---|---|
Static, same for everyone Feels impersonal | Dynamic questions and clarifications Feels like a real conversation |
Why use AI for civil servant surveys? With global satisfaction for public services at 66% (and much higher in digitally advanced countries[2]), modern survey tools must dig deeper to find untapped needs and spot what works. AI instantly adapts, ensuring no answer is lost in translation and follow-ups are fast, personal, and scalable—even in big projects or repeated pulses.
Specific stands out by offering a best-in-class conversational survey experience—smooth for creators and genuinely pleasant for people giving feedback. If you want guidance on setup, check out our article on how to create a civil servant survey about citizen satisfaction.
See this citizen satisfaction with public services survey example now
Ready for real, actionable insights? Generate your own survey in seconds—with smarter follow-ups, automated AI analysis, and the smoothest conversational feedback flow available.