Best questions for event attendee survey about likelihood to recommend

Here are some of the best questions for an event attendee survey about likelihood to recommend, plus tips on how to make your survey truly insightful. With Specific, you can build a tailored conversational survey in seconds—ready to collect richer feedback. Try to generate one instantly and see how easy it is.

Best open-ended questions for an event attendee survey about likelihood to recommend

Open-ended questions are your key to discovering the “why” behind attendee opinions. They’re perfect for uncovering unexpected insights and capturing detailed perspectives, especially when you want qualitative feedback or go deeper than simple scores. Here are our 10 favorites for this scenario:

1. If you were to recommend this event to a colleague or friend, how would you describe your experience?

2. What made the event stand out to you?

3. What could we improve to make you more likely to recommend this event?

4. Were there any moments during the event that exceeded your expectations?

5. If something held you back from recommending this event, what was it?

6. What’s the main reason you would (or wouldn’t) suggest this event to peers?

7. Tell us about anything that surprised you—positively or negatively—during the event.

8. If you could change one thing about the event, what would it be?

9. How did this event compare to others you’ve attended recently?

10. Is there anything you wish we’d asked you about your experience?

Open-ended questions like these are particularly effective when analyzing with AI tools. To really unlock value, consider using smart follow-ups—which you can automate with Specific—to clarify and probe for specifics. The best part: you’ll often discover new angles that structured questions would miss.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for event attendee survey about likelihood to recommend

Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal for capturing quick, quantifiable feedback. They work best when you’re measuring trends at scale or want to lower the barrier for response—it’s easier for event attendees to pick a choice than to spend time writing out thoughts, especially just after an event.

Question: How likely are you to recommend this event to a friend or colleague?

• Very likely

• Somewhat likely

• Not likely

Question: What was the biggest factor influencing your likelihood to recommend?

• Content quality

• Networking opportunities

• Event organization

• Other

Question: Would you attend another event by this organizer based on this experience?

• Yes, definitely

• Maybe, depending on topic

• No

When to follow up with “why?” Always consider asking a follow-up “why?” after a multiple-choice question, especially if the answer is less positive or ambiguous. For instance, if an attendee says they’re “somewhat likely” to recommend, a quick follow-up—“What’s holding you back from recommending us more strongly?”—can surface actionable insights that the initial choice alone can’t reveal.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Include an “Other” option when your choices may not capture the full range of attendee experiences. Following up on “Other” can unveil issues or highlights you never anticipated, making your survey more inclusive and insightful.

Should you use an NPS-style question for event attendee surveys?

NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a tried-and-true measure of likelihood to recommend—universally understood and benchmarked across industries. It works by asking, “How likely are you to recommend this event?” on a 0–10 scale, with an open-ended follow-up for deeper reasoning.

This is especially valuable in event attendee surveys because you gain a clear, comparable metric and a qualitative understanding in one go. NPS also helps you benchmark against industry standards or track improvements over multiple events. If you want to add an NPS survey tailored for event recommendations, try our NPS survey builder for event attendees.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where surveys become conversations. They’re not just about data collection—they’re about context and clarity. If you’re still using static forms or email surveys and struggling with clarity, you know the pain. Automated follow-ups (like those offered by Specific—it’s explained in our deep dive on automatic AI follow-up questions) boost your survey’s effectiveness and response rates.

• Event Attendee: “Content was okay.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share what specifically could have made the content more valuable for you?”

This way, answers become actionable. Without follow-up, you risk vague replies that don’t drive improvements. According to studies, using multiple retention and follow-up methods can lift response rates by over 70%, and waiting 7–10 days after an event is optimal timing for follow-ups. [2][3]

How many follow-ups to ask? Most of the time, two to three follow-up questions are enough to reach clarity, especially if you let people skip ahead once the info you need is collected. (Specific can manage this for you.)

This makes it a conversational survey. Instead of a stiff form, respondents feel like they’re having a natural, relevant conversation—leading to richer answers and more honest feedback.

AI survey response analysis is simple: even if you gather a mountain of qualitative data, AI-powered tools (see our feature on AI survey response analysis) can synthesize responses and surface key trends so you’re never buried in raw text.

Try building an AI-powered survey and see how conversational follow-ups change your feedback overnight.

Prompting GPT: How to generate great event attendee survey questions

If you’re using ChatGPT (or the survey builder in Specific’s AI survey generator) to create your survey, your prompts matter. For a quick start, use:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Event Attendee survey about Likelihood To Recommend.

If you want more tailored questions, include extra context about the attendees, event type, or your goals in the prompt, like this:

Create 10 open-ended questions that explore why first-time conference attendees would or wouldn’t recommend our annual SaaS industry summit to their peers. Focus on networking, content, and on-site logistics.

For organization, follow with:

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

Pick your preferred categories, then drill down:

Generate 10 questions for categories ‘networking’ and ‘event logistics’.

This approach turns GPT or any AI assistant into your on-demand research designer.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys are designed to feel like a chat, not a form. They use branching logic and smart follow-up questions to adapt in real time—making giving feedback feel effortless for attendees. This dramatically improves data quality, completion rates, and even your own experience designing the survey.

Let’s compare:

Why use AI for event attendee surveys? Because it’s fast, personal, and produces better insights. With an AI survey builder like Specific, you get open-ended, thoughtful replies (thanks to smart AI follow-ups) that you can analyze instantly—no more sifting through endless text responses alone. If you want to understand how to easily create a conversational survey for event attendees, our step-by-step guide has you covered.

In short, Specific leads the way in conversational surveys: your event attendees have a smooth, mobile-friendly and engaging experience, while you get deep, actionable feedback from day one.

See this likelihood to recommend survey example now

Ready to craft smarter, conversational surveys for your next event? See how effortless it is to gain actionable insights and make your feedback process stand out.