Here are some of the best questions for an ex-cult member survey about family reconnection, along with actionable tips on crafting them. If you want to build such a survey in seconds, you can use Specific’s AI survey generator—it makes the process fast, accurate, and insightful.
Best open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about family reconnection
Open-ended questions are unbeatable for exploring personal stories and deep emotions—especially in sensitive topics like family reconnection. They invite detailed, thoughtful answers, which are essential when we want genuine insight, not yes/no responses. Open-ended questions help us move past assumptions and let ex-cult members share their unique journeys in their own words.
How would you describe your current relationship with your family?
What have been the most significant challenges in reconnecting with your family since leaving the group?
Can you share a turning point that shaped your reconnection (or distance) with family members?
What role has trust played in your attempts to rebuild family relationships?
How do you think your experiences as a former cult member influence your family's perspective of you?
What support or actions helped you most in reconnecting—or made it more difficult?
Are there things you wish your family understood about your experience?
What advice would you give others trying to reconnect with loved ones after leaving a closed community?
How have your family interactions changed over time, if at all?
What are your hopes for your relationship with your family moving forward?
Open-ended questions are especially powerful at the start of a survey or when uncovering context that closed questions miss. They are essential for building empathy and surfacing actionable insights.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for ex-cult member survey about family reconnection
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when we want to quantify trends or gently ease respondents into the conversation. They’re less intimidating than essay boxes but open the door for rich follow-ups. Multiple-choice can set the stage, reveal patterns, and help focus deeper conversations—many people feel more comfortable picking from concise options, especially if the topic is overwhelming.
Question: How would you describe your current family contact?
We’re in regular contact
We’re in occasional contact
No contact
Reconnecting in progress
Other
Question: Which area is most challenging in your reconnection process?
Trust and honesty
Communication
Past trauma
Family acceptance
Setting boundaries
Other
Question: Since leaving the group, have any family members reached out proactively?
Yes, several have
Yes, but few
No, I reached out first
No, not at all
When to follow up with "why?" Use a follow-up “why?” after a multiple-choice to unlock the story behind the answer. For example, if someone selects “no contact,” a follow-up like “Could you share what led to this situation?” helps you understand their reality and context, delivering insights you’d never get from a checkbox alone.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add "Other" for situations you didn’t foresee. Sometimes ex-cult members’ experiences don’t fit neatly in your categories. Follow-up questions after an “Other” response can surface perspectives or issues you hadn’t anticipated—these outliers are often the most enlightening.
NPS-style question for ex-cult member survey about family reconnection
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a brilliant fit—even for deeply personal topics like family reconnection—because it benchmarks overall sentiment in a simple, quantifiable way. You can ask: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how optimistic are you about your family relationships going forward?” The follow-ups for high, medium, and low scorers reveal underlying drivers and blockers.
You can quickly generate an NPS-based family reconnection survey here, using Specific's streamlined workflow to adapt the follow-ups to your needs.
The power of follow-up questions
Open-ended questions uncover depth, but automated follow-up questions are what truly make a survey conversational and insightful. If you’re still using traditional forms, you’ll miss out on clarifying nuances—leading to misinterpretations, vague answers, and missed opportunities. Learn more about automated AI follow-up questions and why they matter.
Ex-cult member: “We talk sometimes, but not like we used to.”
AI follow-up: “What’s holding you back from having the relationship you want?”
Without the follow-up, you’re left unsure what “not like we used to” means. The follow-up unpacks emotional blockers, surface-level issues, or practical barriers—vital for designing support and resources.
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2–3 well-designed follow-ups are plenty. Specific allows you to configure this: once you’ve gathered essential detail, you can skip to the next question, keeping the conversation comfortable and respectful.
This makes it a conversational survey—the entire feedback process feels like a natural, empathetic chat, not a cold interrogation.
AI survey response analysis is a breeze. Even if you collect pages of unstructured stories, platforms like Specific let you analyze all the responses using AI to summarize, find patterns, and even let you chat with the data itself.
Curious? These AI follow-ups are a breakthrough—try generating a survey and experience the difference first-hand.
How to compose a prompt for ChatGPT or other AI to generate great survey questions
Start with a basic prompt like this, then add context for richer results:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about family reconnection.
More context always means better output from AI. Try: “I’m building a conversational survey for ex-cult members about family reconnection. The goal is to understand emotional challenges and practical needs. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that can spark deep stories, avoid jargon, and allow space for difficult emotions.”
I’m building a conversational survey for ex-cult members about family reconnection. The goal is to understand emotional challenges and practical needs. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that can spark deep stories, avoid jargon, and allow space for difficult emotions.
For structure, ask the AI to group questions by theme:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Once you see your categories, pick the ones that matter most, like “trust rebuilding” or “ongoing support” and ask:
Generate 10 questions for categories trust rebuilding and ongoing support.
This iterative process is what makes AI survey tools so powerful—they’re your expert brainstorming partner, on demand.
What is a conversational survey?
Traditional surveys are rigid forms—you fill out boxes and send them off. Conversational surveys, powered by AI, feel like chatting with a thoughtful human who listens and digs deeper in real time. Here’s the difference:
Manual survey | AI-generated conversational survey |
|---|---|
Static, one-size-fits-all questions | Dynamically adapts questions and follow-ups to the respondent’s story |
Low engagement, high drop-off rates | Smooth chat flow—higher completion and richer responses |
Difficult manual analysis | AI-powered analysis and insights in seconds |
Long setup time, manual edits | Create and edit surveys instantly using conversational AI editor |
Integrating AI into survey creation and analysis delivers real wins: AI-powered survey completion rates are dramatically higher—70–90% vs. 10–30% for traditional surveys, thanks to smarter flow and conversational cues. You get better data, faster, and with less bias or ambiguity. [1][2][3]
Why use AI for ex-cult member surveys? Because these are deeply personal topics where tone, empathy, and context matter. AI survey examples can ask tailored follow-ups, adjust gracefully, and make respondents feel heard, not interrogated. Every conversation is unique—AI honors that complexity.
The best-in-class user experience matters. Specific’s approach to conversational surveys makes participation easy and analysis instant—ideal for emotionally charged topics like family reconnection. If you want to learn how to launch a survey like this, check out our how-to guide on creating surveys for ex-cult members about family reconnection.
See this family reconnection survey example now
Ready for richer, more human insights? See this AI-powered conversational survey in action and experience how Specific makes feedback effortless, meaningful, and personal.