Best questions for clinical trial participants survey about trial experience satisfaction

Here are some of the best questions for a clinical trial participants survey about trial experience satisfaction, along with tips to design them effectively. If you want to build this survey in seconds, you can generate it instantly with Specific—just tell the AI what you need.

Best open-ended questions to ask clinical trial participants

Open-ended questions let participants express their full experience and surface unanticipated feedback. Use these when you want authentic, unfiltered responses or plan to follow up and dig deeper into what matters to each participant. Here’s our go-to list for trial experience satisfaction surveys:

1. Can you describe your overall experience participating in this clinical trial?

2. What aspects of the trial did you find most helpful or supportive?

3. Were there any moments or challenges during the trial that stood out to you? Please elaborate.

4. How did you feel about the communication and information provided by the research team?

5. What motivated you to participate, and did the experience align with your expectations?

6. Were there any aspects of the process (appointments, tests, follow-ups) that could be improved?

7. How did participating in this trial impact your daily routine or lifestyle?

8. What, if anything, would have helped you feel more comfortable or informed during the trial?

9. Can you share any suggestions for improving future clinical trial experiences for participants?

10. Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your experience that we haven’t asked?

Open-ended questions are powerful for qualitative insights, revealing not only what participants think, but why—and surfacing ideas you might have never considered. With Specific, you can combine these with dynamic AI-powered follow-ups to deepen every answer.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for clinical trial participant satisfaction

Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you need to quantify key aspects of satisfaction or enable quick responses. They’re ideal for a pulse check, benchmarking, or as conversation starters—often making it easier for participants to engage, especially if they’re unsure how to start. Here are three you can use:

Question: How satisfied were you overall with your experience in this clinical trial?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How clear was the information provided to you before and during the trial?

• Very clear

• Somewhat clear

• Neutral

• Somewhat unclear

• Very unclear

Question: What was the most challenging aspect of participating in this trial?

• Scheduling and appointments

• Understanding instructions

• Communication with staff

• Side effects or discomfort

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" Don’t miss the “why”—a structured choice gives you quick data, but always prompt deeper when something stands out. For example, if a participant selects “Dissatisfied,” follow up by asking, “Why did you feel dissatisfied?” This transforms data points into actionable insight.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include "Other" in questions probing for challenges, pain points, or experiences. Participants often have unique stories or feedback you wouldn’t anticipate. Follow up by asking them to describe—these responses can uncover unexpected themes and improvement opportunities.

Use NPS to benchmark clinical trial participant satisfaction

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple metric that asks, “How likely are you to recommend participating in this clinical trial to a friend or family member?” It’s a valuable way to benchmark overall satisfaction and spot trends over time. Since clinical trial participants already show above-average engagement—response rates in specialized clinical trial surveys can reach 41%, compared to just 17% for standard hospital surveys [3]—an NPS-style question can unlock even stronger signals for your satisfaction tracking. You can easily launch an NPS survey for clinical trial participants with Specific’s generator and adapt follow-ups based on each score.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are the secret sauce in conversational surveys. Instead of collecting static answers, you let participants explain, clarify, and expand. That’s where you find actionable nuggets. Specific’s automated AI followup questions feature leverages real-time context to generate expert-level prompts—mirroring how a thoughtful interviewer would probe deeper.

That’s how you get from “just enough” to rich, practical insight without endless back-and-forth emails or missed context.

• Participant: “Communication was sometimes unclear.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share a specific moment when you found the communication unclear, and what would have made it better?”

How many followups to ask? Typically, 2-3 followups are enough to gather context but not overwhelm the respondent. You should allow the survey to skip to the next main question once you’re satisfied you have the information—Specific has settings for this flexibility.

This makes it a conversational survey: It feels like a real conversation—not a cold form. That’s why conversational surveys see significantly higher completion rates (AI-powered surveys reach completion rates of 70-90%, compared to just 10-30% for traditional formats [1]).

Easy to analyze responses: Don’t worry about all the unstructured text. Today, AI-driven tools like Specific’s AI survey response analysis make it simple to summarize, segment, and pull out main themes—even across open-ended, follow-up-rich responses [2].

Automated follow-up questions are a new concept, and it’s worth experiencing them yourself—generate a survey and see how much richer your insights become.

How to prompt AI to generate clinical trial participant survey questions

You can use prompts to work with ChatGPT or any GPT-based tool and develop an excellent set of questions for your clinical trial participant satisfaction survey. Start simple:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for clinical trial participants survey about trial experience satisfaction.

To get even better results, add context: describe your organization, your goals, and any unique constraints or wishes.

We are a research team running Phase II oncology trials. Our participants cover a wide age range and some have prior experience with clinical research. Suggest 10 in-depth open-ended questions that capture both emotional and practical aspects of their trial experience, focused on satisfaction.

Once you have a list, an AI survey builder can help you organize and refine:

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

Finally, pick categories to explore further, and instruct AI:

Generate 10 questions about communication and support during the trial.

Iterate using this prompt-and-refine cycle for the sharpest possible survey, or let Specific auto-generate a custom clinical trial participant survey using AI in seconds.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a chat, not a form. The respondent answers a question, and—if more detail or clarification is useful—the AI gently guides the conversation forward. Instead of jumping from question to question, participants feel heard and understood. This isn’t just more pleasant: it consistently leads to richer feedback, more honest responses, and a higher sense of engagement.

Here’s how conversational AI survey generation compares to manual survey creation:

Why use AI for clinical trial participant surveys? Feedback from clinical trial participants is nuanced and often unstructured. AI survey generators adapt to each answer and context, surface deeper insights, and let you analyze everything rapidly—so you never miss a theme or pain point. Plus, AI-powered tools like Specific simply make the process, from survey creation to analysis, seamless for everyone involved.

Want step-by-step help? Our guide to creating a clinical trial participants survey covers the entire process, from brainstorming questions to analyzing results.

Specific delivers the best user experience in conversational AI surveys—making the feedback process smoother, more engaging, and more actionable for both you and your respondents.

See this trial experience satisfaction survey example now

Try creating a clinical trial participant satisfaction survey and discover the power of conversational surveys for deeper, actionable insights.