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Best questions for inactive users survey about competitor switching reasons

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Adam Sabla

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Aug 23, 2025

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Here are some of the best questions for an inactive users survey about competitor switching reasons, along with quick tips for creating surveys that uncover what really matters. You can build your own with Specific in seconds to dig deep and get real answers.

Best open-ended questions for inactive users: switching reasons

Open-ended questions unlock detail and nuance—perfect when you want to understand unique perspectives and get to the "why" behind switching. They're invaluable for qualitative insights where you don't want to box users into a set of assumptions.

Here are 10 of our favorite open-ended questions to ask inactive users about competitor switching:

  1. Can you share what specific factors led you to switch to another product or service?

  2. Was there a particular moment or experience that convinced you to try a competitor?

  3. What did you find most appealing about the competitor you switched to?

  4. Were there any features or services missing from our product that you needed?

  5. How did your experience with our customer support compare to the competitor’s?

  6. If you could change one thing about our product to win you back, what would it be?

  7. Did pricing play a role in your decision to leave? If so, how?

  8. Did you encounter any frustrations or pain points before deciding to switch?

  9. Have you recommended your new provider to others? Why or why not?

  10. Is there anything we could have done to retain you as a user?

Open-ended feedback leads to answers that aren't limited by assumptions and can reveal issues you didn't even know existed. Considering that about 74% of customers switch to competitors due to poor experiences, with nearly half leaving after just one or two bad interactions,[3] asking these types of questions can help pinpoint where the journey breaks down and how to improve retention before it's too late.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for switching surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions help you quickly quantify common reasons for churn and make the survey easier for users to complete, especially if you want to spot the most frequent issues at a glance. Sometimes, starting with a list of choices gives respondents a nudge and lowers effort—making it simple to start the conversation and follow up with a why.

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

  • Found a better price elsewhere

  • Found better quality elsewhere

  • Better service agreement with competitor

  • Preferred features at competitor

  • Other

Question: Which of the following best describes what influenced your decision to switch?

  • Poor customer experience

  • Lack of features I needed

  • Unhelpful support

  • Pricing issues

  • Other

Question: How satisfied were you with our product before you switched?

  • Very satisfied

  • Somewhat satisfied

  • Neutral

  • Somewhat dissatisfied

  • Very dissatisfied

When to follow up with "why?" The magic happens when you ask for the reasoning behind a choice. For example, if a user selects "Pricing issues", a follow-up like "Can you tell us what specifically about our pricing didn't work for you?" opens the door to actionable feedback. These why-based follow-ups bring out details that a checkbox alone can never capture.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include “Other” to catch anything you haven’t anticipated—unusual or emerging switching reasons are gold for innovation. Follow-up questions here can surface completely new insights or trends.

NPS question: getting a benchmark from inactive users

Net Promoter Score (NPS) asks users how likely they are to recommend your product on a scale from 0 to 10. For inactive or churned users, this can be a wake-up call, revealing how much damage switching has done to your reputation—even if they've left, their answer gives you a baseline to monitor over time. If you want to try this format, you can generate an NPS survey for inactive users about competitor switching reasons instantly.

Using NPS in this context can clarify whether the switch was a one-off event or triggered deep dissatisfaction. You can also analyze themes in detractor follow-ups, helping to prioritize fixes that can win people back.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where good surveys become great. With AI-powered dynamic follow-ups (see our automatic AI follow-up questions explainer), you don’t just collect responses—you get full stories in context. This means fewer vague answers and much richer insight per response. Specific’s AI asks tailored, smart follow-ups live, using the respondent’s reply as a springboard—just like a skilled interviewer.

  • Inactive User: "I found a better deal somewhere else."

  • AI follow-up: "Can you tell us which competitor offered the better deal and what made their offer more attractive?"

Without a follow-up, you’d have no idea if “deal” means lower price, bigger package, or hidden perks. AI follow-ups clarify and go deeper, even for ambiguous answers—and with average nonresponse rates around 40%,[1] maximizing every response’s value is critical.

How many followups to ask? Generally, two or three are enough. You want to probe for specifics without tiring the user. With Specific, you can set this limit or let users skip once you have what you need.

This makes it a conversational survey: AI-powered follow-up turns a simple script into a natural back-and-forth, raising engagement and making surveys feel more like authentic, human conversations.

Easy analysis with AI: When you have rich, unstructured responses, analyzing everything is a breeze with AI survey response analysis; just chat with the data and surface key trends instantly, saving hours of manual review.

Try generating your own Competitor Switching Reasons survey and experience how smart follow-ups drive richer responses—you might uncover things you never thought to ask.

How to prompt ChatGPT for great switching survey questions

If you’re designing survey questions with ChatGPT (or any GPT-based AI), be specific with your instruction. Start simple:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Inactive Users survey about Competitor Switching Reasons.

But remember: the more context you give, the better the AI’s questions will fit your goals. For example:

I’m a SaaS product manager wanting to survey inactive users who have switched to competitors in the last 6 months. My goal is to pinpoint pricing, feature, or service gaps that influenced their switch. Suggest 10 open-ended survey questions that focus on detailed experiences.

Next, refine your questions:

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

Then, pick categories you want to explore—for example, “Customer Experience” or “Pricing”—and prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories Customer Experience and Pricing.

This approach, layered with context, leads to deeper, more actionable surveys that get to the core of switching behavior—much like you get by chatting with the Specific AI survey generator.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is just what it sounds like: instead of static forms, users interact in a chat-like flow that adapts to their responses in real time. This style keeps things personal, encourages frankness, and feels more like talking to a person than ticking boxes.

Traditional survey creation is slow and inflexible—manual forms eat up time and often lead to low engagement. With AI survey generation, you feed a simple prompt to an expert system, and it produces a tailored set of questions that intelligently adapt per response.

Manual Surveys

AI-Generated Surveys (Specific)

Rigid, one-size-fits-all

Dynamic, adapts to each user

Hard to script follow-ups

Automatic, expert follow-ups in context

Difficult and slow to analyze

Instant AI-powered analysis

Why use AI for inactive users surveys? AI-generated surveys are proven to be more engaging and less biased, especially for sensitive reasons like switching to a competitor. You can surface actionable pain points, even when response rates are lower (as is often the case with inactive users).

Looking for an AI survey example? Check out our detailed guide on how to create an inactive users survey about competitor switching reasons—it breaks down every step from prompt to launch.

With Specific, you get the best user experience in conversational surveys: engaging for respondents, easy for creators, and laser-focused on real, in-context insights.

See this Competitor Switching Reasons survey example now

Experience a next-level survey that uncovers true switching motivations—discover insights fast and make your next retention move with confidence.

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Sources

  1. World Metrics. Survey Nonresponse Statistics and Trends.

  2. Wikipedia. Customer Switching Patterns and Reasons (Nielsen global survey data)

  3. CX Scoop. 74% of Customers Switch to Competitors Due to Poor Experiences

Adam Sabla - Image Avatar

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.