Here are some of the best questions for an ex-cult member survey about financial stability, along with tips on structuring them for deeper insight. We can help you build such a survey in seconds using Specific's AI survey generator.
Best open-ended questions for ex-cult member surveys about financial stability
Open-ended questions let people share their unique stories. They’re perfect when context matters, and you want insights in respondents’ own words instead of ticking boxes. These work best early in a survey or when exploring complex, sensitive topics—for example, understanding the deep financial impacts of cult life. According to research, former cult members often lose between $500 and over $10,000 a year to group demands, leaving many without a financial safety net upon leaving. [1]
Can you describe how your financial situation changed after leaving the group?
What were the most significant financial challenges you faced immediately after departing?
How did the group influence your spending or saving habits?
What kind of financial support (if any) did you have available upon leaving?
How has your approach to money management evolved since leaving?
Were there unexpected expenses or debts related to your involvement with the group?
What resources, if any, helped you stabilize your finances post-group?
How has financial instability affected your broader recovery or reintegration?
If you could give advice to others leaving similar groups, what would you share about handling finances?
Is there anything we haven’t asked about financial impacts that’s important for us to understand?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for ex-cult member surveys about financial stability
Single-select multiple-choice questions make it easy to quantify responses and spot trends—helpful when you want clear, comparable data, or to kick off a deeper conversation. Many ex-members (about 60%) report finding it hard to secure employment or achieve financial independence after leaving, so structured choices make it easy to catch a snapshot first, then dig deeper when needed. [2]
Question: After leaving the group, how would you describe your current financial stability?
Stable and secure
Somewhat stable, but with challenges
Unstable or struggling
Prefer not to say
Question: Which financial challenges have you most commonly faced since leaving?
No savings or depleted savings
Difficulty finding/keeping a job
Outstanding debts from group involvement
Other
Question: Did you receive any financial advice or support when transitioning out of the group?
Yes, from friends/family
Yes, from professionals/support organizations
No, not at all
Prefer not to say
When to followup with "why?" It’s key to ask "why?" when a choice alone doesn’t explain the reasoning behind it. For example, if someone picks “Unstable or struggling” for financial stability, follow up: “Can you tell me about the biggest factors contributing to these struggles?” This opens the door for richer, actionable insights.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding "Other" lets people surface challenges or details you haven’t imagined. As a follow-up, the survey can prompt, “You chose ‘Other’—could you describe what you meant?” This can uncover unique hardships that might otherwise be missed.
NPS question for ex-cult member surveys about financial stability
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a simple yet powerful way to gauge overall sentiment. For ex-cult surveys about financial stability, you might ask, “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our support resources to someone else leaving a similar group?” This provides a clear signal on whether your support is making a difference, and identifies both advocates and those who need more help. See what a ready-to-use NPS survey for ex-cult members looks like in Specific.
The power of follow-up questions
Great follow-up questions turn surveys from basic forms into real, insightful conversations. Specific’s AI-powered follow-up questions dig deeper based on each unique answer, surfacing truths that static surveys miss. This dynamic probing saves teams from endless email back-and-forth and makes respondents feel truly heard.
Ex-cult member: “I had trouble getting a job after leaving.”
AI follow-up: “What do you think made finding employment difficult after your departure?”
How many followups to ask? In practice, two to three follow-ups are usually enough. If someone provides a full answer early, Specific can be set to smoothly move on to the next question—no repetitive grilling.
This makes it a conversational survey: Following up naturally keeps respondents engaged, so answering feels more like chatting with a thoughtful human than filling out a cold, impersonal form.
AI analysis of responses: The beauty is, you don’t have to dread sorting through long-form answers. With tools like AI survey response analysis, you can analyze all your qualitative data and get powerful summaries—fast, even with lots of open text to sift through.
Curious how automated followups work in the real world? Try generating a survey and see the conversation for yourself.
Prompt examples for getting great ex-cult member survey questions with AI
Want to get creative or brainstorm with AI? Here’s how to prompt ChatGPT (or other AI tools) for survey question ideas. Start simple:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Ex-Cult Member survey about Financial Stability.
For better results, always add more background. For example:
I’m building a survey to understand the financial journeys of ex-cult members transitioning to independence. My goal is to offer resources and support. What are the most insightful open-ended questions to ask?
Then, categorize for clarity:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Once you have categories (like “Employment,” “Saving Habits,” “Support Systems”) choose one to go deeper:
Generate 10 questions for categories Support Systems and Saving Habits.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is like an interactive chat—questions adapt to each response, with gentle followups to get the full story. Unlike traditional forms, it feels natural and human, making it ideal for sensitive audiences like ex-cult members tackling financial recovery. Traditional survey creation is manual, slow, and often leads to incomplete answers. AI survey generators like Specific change all that. You just describe your needs, and the AI generates questions, smart follow-ups, and even analyzes the responses—all in minutes.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated (Conversational) Survey |
|---|---|
Time-consuming to write and edit | Instant creation from plain-text prompts |
No dynamic follow-ups | Real-time AI probing for depth |
Hard to analyze free-text answers | Automatic summaries and chat-based analysis |
One-size-fits-all, feels impersonal | Personalized, empathetic, feels like a real conversation |
Why use AI for ex-cult member surveys? Many survey platforms stop at basic forms, but ex-cult members face complex, nuanced challenges—especially financially. With AI survey examples and makers like Specific, you get tailored, conversational surveys that build trust and draw out more honest, useful feedback. The result is both higher response quality and easier, richer analysis.
Want to see how easy it is? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to create a survey for ex-cult members about financial stability—with practical tips and examples.
Specific delivers a best-in-class conversational survey experience—seamless for creators, and natural for respondents. That’s why we’re trusted as a topical authority in AI survey design.
See this financial stability survey example now
Capture honest, nuanced feedback with a conversational survey designed for ex-cult member voices—see how easy it is to generate, customize and analyze your own survey. Gain the insights you need with support and features tailored for sensitive recovery journeys.