Best questions for clinical trial participants survey about compensation satisfaction

Here are some of the best questions for a clinical trial participants survey about compensation satisfaction, plus tips to craft them effectively. If you want to build this in moments, you can generate your own survey with Specific’s AI survey builder.

Best open-ended questions for a compensation satisfaction survey

Open-ended questions are powerful in clinical trial participant surveys—especially when you want richer detail, authentic stories, and unexpected insights about compensation satisfaction. Use them when you want to reveal not just what participants think, but why and how compensation impacts their experience. Here are the questions we recommend:

1. What are your overall impressions of the compensation you received for participating in this clinical trial?

2. Can you describe any challenges you experienced related to receiving your compensation?

3. How did the compensation you received influence your decision to participate in this trial?

4. Were there aspects of the compensation process that you especially appreciated or disliked?

5. How would you compare this trial’s compensation to your experiences in other research studies (if any)?

6. Was there anything confusing or unclear about how payment was explained or delivered?

7. What additional support or information could have made the compensation process better for you?

8. How satisfied were you with the timing and method of payment for this study?

9. Can you share a story or specific example about your experience with trial compensation?

10. If you could change anything about how compensation was handled, what would you suggest?

Open-ended responses add vital depth. In fact, studies show most participants feel clinical trial experiences are rewarding—97% would recommend joining a study to others [3]—and detailed feedback helps us understand what truly motivates satisfaction, whether it’s money, support, or access to healthcare professionals [4].

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for compensation satisfaction

Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you seek quick quantification or want to ease participants into sharing feedback. They’re ideal for measuring overall trends and can kick off deeper conversations when paired with followups.

Question: How satisfied are you with the amount of compensation you received for this clinical trial?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Was the payment schedule (timing and frequency) what you expected?

• Better than expected

• As expected

• Worse than expected

Question: What was your primary reason for participating in this clinical trial?

• Compensation

• Access to healthcare/professionals

• Learning about my condition

• Helping scientific research

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" Use follow-ups when a response needs more context—for example, when someone selects “Neutral” or “Very dissatisfied.” A smart, timely “Why did you feel this way about the compensation?” uncovers the story behind their choice. This gets to the root of what influences satisfaction or disappointment—and can surface themes you hadn’t considered.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? When surveying clinical trial participants, it’s crucial to offer “Other” since their motivations or experiences may not fit your predefined options. Asking a follow-up like “Can you tell us more about your primary reason?” can lead you to insights that structured answers would never reveal.

NPS-style question for compensation satisfaction

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question measures advocacy—a strong indicator of satisfaction with compensation. For clinical trial participants, ask: “On a scale from 0 (Not at all likely) to 10 (Extremely likely), how likely are you to recommend participating in this clinical trial to a friend or family member, based on your compensation experience?” With 91% of participants saying they would recommend trial participation [2], the NPS captures this sentiment simply and powerfully.

If you want a ready-to-go NPS survey, the Specific AI survey builder creates it instantly for you.

The power of follow-up questions

Open-ended and even choice-based questions are just the starting point—follow-up questions are where true insight emerges. Automated AI-driven followups, like those in Specific, turn every survey into a real conversation. The AI agent picks up on ambiguity, probes gently, and draws out details in real time. This means richer, more contextual feedback, and far less manual chasing for clarifications.

• Clinical trial participant: "The payment took a while."

• AI follow-up: "How long did it take to receive your payment, and how did that affect your overall satisfaction?"

How many followups to ask? We find that 2–3 followups is typically enough to gather depth without fatiguing participants. With Specific, you control this—a setting lets you skip to the next question once you have the info you need.

This makes it a conversational survey: Each back-and-forth feels natural, like a friendly interview, not a form. Participants are more likely to share honest, spontaneous feedback when the exchange flows.

Easy AI analysis, even with lots of free text: With built-in AI survey response analysis, it’s simple to sift through open-text replies and have the AI summarize key themes. No time lost grappling with spreadsheets or endless transcripts.

Give Specific’s AI followup questions a try—seeing them in action is the best way to appreciate how they transform feedback collection. You can generate a survey with intelligent followups in just a minute.

Prompting ChatGPT to write compensation satisfaction survey questions

If you’re brainstorming survey ideas with ChatGPT or similar AI, your results will improve if you give it clear, specific context. Start simple:

Ask for quantity and topic:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Clinical Trial Participants survey about Compensation Satisfaction.

But giving more context works better. For example, explain your role, the study setup, and your core concerns. Like this:

I’m a researcher planning a compensation satisfaction survey for participants of a six-month diabetes clinical trial in Europe, aiming to explore how payment methods, timing, and communication about compensation influenced their experience. Suggest 10 open-ended questions, including prompts for both financial and non-financial motivators.

Once you have your initial questions, ask AI to organize them:

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

Identify the most relevant categories (e.g., “Payment Process,” “Motivations,” “Satisfaction Drivers”) and dig deeper:

Generate 10 questions for categories Payment Process and Motivations.

This approach delivers tailored, thoughtful questions and often surfaces angles you hadn’t considered—all while saving hours on manual drafting.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys—especially AI-generated ones—look and feel different from old-school forms. Where traditional manual surveys deliver static, one-size-fits-all questions, conversational surveys respond to how people answer, adapt on the fly, and probe for detail just like a live interviewer would.

Why use AI for clinical trial participant surveys? AI-driven survey generators—like Specific’s AI survey maker—let you create, edit, and even analyze surveys conversationally. The experience is smoother for participants too; they’re more willing to share honestly when it feels like a friendly chat rather than a test. The built-in AI survey editor lets you adjust tone, question wording, and followup depth instantly—just say what you want and the AI updates your survey.

If you want a more step-by-step process, see our guide to creating a clinical trial compensation satisfaction survey with AI.

With Specific, you get best-in-class conversational surveys for both survey creators and respondents. Feedback flows in, insights come out, all with far less friction. Try an AI survey example to see how different the process feels.

See this compensation satisfaction survey example now

Ready to experience the benefits of conversational feedback? See a compensation satisfaction survey in action and uncover deep, actionable insights from clinical trial participants more effortlessly than ever.