Here are some of the best questions for an ex-cult member survey about contact with former group, plus tips on how to craft them effectively. You can use Specific to generate a targeted conversational survey in seconds.
Best open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about contact with former group
Open-ended questions let ex-cult members share their experiences and feelings freely, capturing nuance and context. These questions are ideal when you want deep, personal insights—especially important for sensitive topics like group contact after leaving. They can reveal details closed questions might miss, which is why these make a huge difference in understanding complex journeys.
Can you describe your current relationship with members of your former group?
What motivates you to keep in contact (or not) with people from your previous group?
How has communication with former group members changed since you left?
What emotions do you experience when interacting with people from your former group?
Are there any specific challenges you face during these contacts?
Has anyone from your former group reached out to you unexpectedly? If so, how did you respond?
What, if any, positive experiences have resulted from staying in touch with former group members?
How do you manage boundaries with individuals still involved in your former group?
In what ways has your perspective on these interactions evolved since you left the group?
If you could change anything about your contact with your former group, what would it be and why?
Research shows that conversational AI surveys like these achieve far higher engagement than traditional forms, partly because open-ended prompts encourage authentic sharing. AI-powered surveys achieve completion rates between 70% and 90%, a striking improvement over the 10% to 30% seen with old-school surveys. [1]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for ex-cult member survey about contact with former group
Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you need quick quantitative data or want to gently start a conversation. Sometimes, ex-cult members might find it easier to respond to clear options rather than compose lengthy answers, especially at the start of a survey. These structured questions can also surface patterns and help you decide where to dig deeper with follow-ups.
Question: How often do you communicate with members of your former group?
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Always
Question: What is your primary reason for staying in contact with people from your former group?
Friendship
Family ties
Curiosity
Support
Other
Question: How would you describe the tone of your interactions with former group members?
Supportive
Neutral
Negative
Uncomfortable
No contact
When to followup with "why?" If a response feels surface-level or binary (“I rarely communicate”), a “why?” prompt can reveal motivations or barriers. For example, if someone selects “Never,” a follow-up like: “What are the main reasons for avoiding contact with your former group?” often uncovers critical insights about wellbeing, risk, or healing.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? The “Other” option ensures you don’t box respondents in. When people choose “Other,” AI follow-up questions can clarify and surface less common motivations, giving a voice to outliers or unexpected patterns that standard options might miss.
NPS-style question for ex-cult member survey about contact with former group
NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks, “How likely are you to recommend [experience] to others?”—perfect for gauging sentiment. For ex-cult member surveys, the NPS can be framed as: “How likely would you be to recommend staying in contact with your former group to someone else who has just left?” This question is direct, measurable, and instantly recognizable in reports. You can try an NPS survey for ex-cult members quickly with Specific.
AI adapts the follow-up for each rating: if someone scores low, it prompts for reasons or warnings; if high, it asks what makes contact valuable. That’s how you get actionable detail, not just a number.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-ups are the secret weapon for any meaningful survey. With automated follow-up questions, the survey doesn’t just skim the surface—it digs for insight, adapting in real time to each ex-cult member’s unique story. Specific’s AI asks smart clarifiers based on previous replies and the situation, so you emerge with context you simply couldn’t get from static forms. This real-time probing boosts both completion and quality, which translates into higher data integrity overall. AI-driven surveys can reduce abandonment rates to 15–25%—a dramatic drop from the 40% to 55% common with traditional forms. [2]
Ex-cult member: “I talk to one person sometimes.”
AI follow-up: “What makes you feel comfortable keeping in touch with that person, even if you don’t contact others?”
How many followups to ask? We suggest asking two to three follow-ups per question to balance depth with fatigue. With Specific, you decide when to stop probing further or let the respondent skip ahead when enough has been learned.
This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a cold form, the process feels like a real chat—making it more engaging and less intimidating for those sharing tough memories.
AI survey analysis: Even when surveys yield a lot of unstructured replies, AI makes it a breeze to analyze responses (see our guide on AI survey response analysis). Summaries, themes, and sentiment pop right out—so you can spot core issues and needs at a glance. AI processes feedback about 60% faster than manual methods, and achieves up to 95% sentiment accuracy. [3]
Automated followups are a new unlock—give it a try by building a survey and see how natural and insightful the process becomes.
How to compose a prompt for GPT to create great questions
If you want GPT to brainstorm for you, start simple. Try pasting this prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about contact with former group.
But context always helps AI. If you add background about your goal, audience, or sensitivities, the questions get even sharper. For example, add:
I’m working with a nonprofit supporting ex-cult members. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions for a survey about their experiences maintaining (or avoiding) contact with people from their former group. Aim for empathy and focus on emotional and practical impacts.
After gathering your questions, prompt GPT to categorize them for structure:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Finally, pick the most interesting category and go deep:
Generate 10 questions for categories like “Emotional Impact of Contact” or “Boundary Management.”
This approach, combined with Specific’s AI survey editor, lets you turn ideas into a nuanced survey in minutes.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey transforms rigid forms into natural, chat-like interviews. Instead of checkboxes and blank fields, you interact with an AI that adapts to each answer, probing gently where needed and moving forward when it gets what it needs. This creates a flow that feels less like an exam and more like a supportive conversation. Using an AI survey generator shifts the creation process from manual drudgery to a guided dialogue: you simply say who the survey is for and what you want to learn, and the AI handles the heavy lifting—drafting, refining, and branching questions as needed.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Driven Conversational Survey |
Builds from scratch, often time-consuming | AI generates, improves, and personalizes instantly |
Rigid, hard to edit or branch questions | Easy to tweak by chatting with AI; dynamic follow-ups |
Often feels impersonal to respondents | Feels like a real conversation, boosting engagement |
Slow feedback analysis | AI-powered response analysis and insights on demand |
Why use AI for ex-cult member surveys? For such a sensitive audience, empathy and personalization are vital. AI adapts tone to context, never asking inappropriate questions, and gently clarifies ambiguous replies. This yields more trust, higher response rates, and less emotional burden for everyone involved. We’ve seen AI-powered surveys cut completion time and boost participation dramatically. [1] With conversational survey creation guides and templates, Specific offers a best-in-class user experience—making the process smooth and engaging for both the survey creator and ex-cult member respondent.
Whether you're designing new feedback touchpoints or trying to break out of the old survey form rut, this approach is a leap forward.
See this contact with former group survey example now
Explore how easy it is to spark real conversations and extract meaningful insights—create your own ex-cult member conversational survey today. Capture honest feedback, reduce survey fatigue, and get results you can truly act on, all in a seamless user-friendly experience.