Best questions for inactive users survey about barriers to returning

Here are some of the best questions for an inactive users survey about barriers to returning, plus practical tips for crafting a truly insightful survey. With Specific, you can generate these surveys in seconds using conversational AI—no scripting or technical expertise needed.

Best open-ended questions for inactive users survey about barriers to returning

Open-ended questions are gold for discovering the real reasons why people left and what’s holding them back. These questions let users share specific pain points, context, and suggestions in their own words—instead of limiting responses to narrow choices. They’re especially valuable when you want to uncover issues you haven't thought about or when user behaviors are complex.

Here are 10 powerful open-ended questions to ask inactive users about their barriers to returning:

1. What made you decide to stop using our product/service?

2. Was there a particular experience or event that caused you to leave?

3. Are there specific features you felt were missing or didn’t work as expected?

4. What challenges or frustrations did you encounter before becoming inactive?

5. If you could change one thing about our product or service, what would it be?

6. Did your needs or priorities change since you last used our product? If so, how?

7. Is there something another product or service offers that you wish we did?

8. How would you describe your overall experience with our support or customer team, if you interacted with them?

9. What could we do to encourage you to return and give us another try?

10. Are there any other comments or suggestions you’d like to share to help us improve?

Open-ended questions help us get a nuanced, honest look at what’s truly happening. Keep in mind, though: response rates for online surveys can fluctuate, especially among younger users—nonresponse can reach up to 60% for ages 18–29. [2]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for inactive users survey about barriers to returning

Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you want to quantify results quickly or kick off a deeper conversation. They’re less mentally taxing for respondents, making it more likely they’ll finish your survey, and they can reveal which potential barriers are most common at a glance.

Question: What was the main reason you stopped using our product/service?

• Too expensive

• Lack of features I need

• Found a better alternative

• Technical issues

• Changed personal or business needs

• Other

Question: What best describes your current feelings about returning?

• I plan to return soon

• I’m considering it, but unsure

• I have no plans to return

Question: Which of the following would make you most likely to come back?

• Lower pricing/offers

• New features

• Improved support

• Better user experience

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" After a respondent chooses an answer—like "Too expensive" or "Technical issues"—asking “Why?” as a follow-up uncovers context and specifics. For example: if a user selects “Found a better alternative,” a good follow-up would be: “Which alternative did you choose, and what made it better for your needs?” The data shows that these follow-up strategies can boost engagement, sometimes increasing survey response rates by up to 50% when used with reminders. [4]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include "Other" when you can’t be certain all possibilities are covered. This allows users to share reasons you haven’t foreseen. Follow-up questions when “Other” is selected can reveal critical, previously unknown insights.

NPS question: does it make sense for inactive users?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question reveals how inactive users perceive your brand, even if they’re not current fans. By asking “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” on a scale from 0–10—and then following up based on their score—you tap into loyalty, pain points, and exactly what would turn a detractor into a promoter. This method works well for re-engagement efforts and helps benchmark sentiment across churned and active users.

Want to spin up a ready-made NPS-based survey for inactive users? Try this NPS survey generator for Inactive Users about their barriers to returning.

The power of follow-up questions

What sets conversational surveys apart is their ability to dig deeper by asking automated follow-up questions in real time. Instead of hitting “submit” on a form, users get prompts based on their actual responses, much like a smart human interviewer. We’ve found that follow-ups produce richer context, clear up ambiguous feedback, and drastically reduce the back-and-forth that would usually happen over email—or is simply lost when respondents drop off.

For more on why and how follow-ups matter, see our guide to AI follow-up questions or explore our feature set for AI survey generation.

• Inactive User: “The interface was confusing.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you tell us which parts of the interface were most confusing or hard to use?”

• Inactive User: “I just didn’t use it enough.”

• AI follow-up: “Was there anything about your experience that made it harder to use our product regularly?”

How many follow-ups to ask? Generally, 2–3 smart follow-ups are enough. With Specific’s survey builder, you can enable a setting that lets the AI stop asking once you’ve gathered what you need. This keeps the experience focused, while still allowing deep dives where it matters.

This makes it a conversational survey: The back-and-forth transforms surveys into a real conversation, which encourages honest sharing and better completion rates.

AI response analysis, easy insights: Even with all these open-ended answers, it’s now simple to analyze responses using AI. Let the AI summarize long texts, surface top themes, or answer specific follow-up questions you have about the data.

These follow-up-powered conversational surveys are a new take on feedback collection. Try generating an AI survey for inactive users to experience it firsthand.

Prompt building for ChatGPT and AI survey tools

If you like experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT to brainstorm survey questions, start with focused prompts. Give the AI clear context and goals for best results.

Begin with a straightforward prompt, like:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for inactive users survey about barriers to returning.

AI works better with background info, so add more context:

Our company runs a SaaS platform. Many users have become inactive over the last six months. We want to understand why they left and what might bring them back. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that help us uncover these barriers in a friendly, approachable way.

Next, ask for categorization to make your survey more structured:

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

Once you see the categories, zoom in:

Generate 10 questions for the category "Feature Gaps and Usability Challenges".

Prompt quality shapes survey quality. Add details about your product, the user persona, or the action you want users to take—AI will generate more relevant, targeted questions.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is designed to feel like a human-to-human chat, not a static questionnaire. Instead of a silent form, the AI interviewer responds in real time, asks clarifying questions, and adapts based on what the respondent says. This method dramatically improves engagement—especially with audiences who might otherwise ignore traditional surveys. According to research, face-to-face surveys score the highest response rates (around 57%), but conversational digital surveys are closing that gap by making feedback as effortless as texting a friend. [1]

Manual survey creation often means lots of copy-paste, logic settings, and limited ability to react to real-world language. AI survey generation, on the other hand, offloads the heavy lifting—generating smart, relevant questions and follow-ups based on your description and the respondent’s context. With AI survey builders like Specific, you can launch a personalized, conversational survey in the time it’d take to set up just one question the old way.

Why use AI for inactive users surveys? Re-engaging past customers is tough, especially when every respondent sees dozens of surveys daily. AI-driven conversational surveys stand out—they’re mobile-optimized, context-aware, and smart enough to adapt to every answer. Plus, with features like automated follow-ups and advanced AI-powered response analysis, your team can extract actionable insight much faster than before.

Want a step-by-step overview? Read how to create a survey for inactive users about barriers to returning with Specific.

The real magic: Specific’s AI-driven user experience delivers a frictionless, conversational flow, making surveys feel smooth and engaging for both creators and respondents. No other survey builder matches this level of intelligence, flexibility, and ease of use.

See this barriers to returning survey example now

Start uncovering what’s really holding back your inactive users—see how conversational AI surveys can reveal the critical barriers to returning and turn ambiguous silence into feedback you can use. Don’t miss the chance to get real insights fast!