Here are some of the best questions for an inactive users survey about reactivation incentives, plus tips for crafting impactful surveys. You can build and launch advanced AI-led surveys like this with Specific in just seconds.
The best open-ended questions for inactive user reactivation surveys
Open-ended questions give us true insight by uncovering motivations and blockers in respondents' own words. These are especially valuable when we want to dig into reasons behind user inactivity or test new reactivation incentives before scaling them up. When our main goal is depth—not just quick stats—these explorations are invaluable.
Here are 10 open-ended questions ideal for an inactive users survey focused on reactivation incentives:
What is the main reason you stopped using our product?
Were there any particular features or functions that no longer met your needs?
How could we improve our service to encourage you to return?
If we offered you a special incentive, what kind would actually motivate you to come back?
Can you describe a specific situation where our product no longer fit into your workflow or daily routine?
Is there something another company or product offered that we didn't?
What hesitations or concerns would you have about using our product again?
If you could change just one thing about us, what would it be?
Which type of reactivation offer (discounts, free features, bonus content, etc.) would be most meaningful to you, and why?
Anything else you'd like us to know about your experience or what could win you back?
Pro tip: Since re-engaging existing customers is at least 5 times more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, using open-ended questions gives you a huge ROI by surfacing improvement areas you might otherwise miss. [1]
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for an inactive user reactivation survey
Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when we need to quantify opinions or quickly identify patterns across a large group of inactive users. They’re perfect for breaking the ice: sometimes it’s easier for someone to choose from clear options than to craft their own words—plus, it’s a great setup for deeper follow-up questions.
Question: What would interest you most as a reactivation offer?
Discount on next purchase
Access to new premium features
Exclusive content or rewards
Personalized support session
Other
Question: What prevented you from using our product more frequently before?
Lack of time
Didn’t find enough value
Technical issues
Moved to a competitor
Other
Question: How do you usually respond to reactivation emails from companies?
I often consider the offer and sometimes return
I rarely open them
I ignore most offers
Other
When to follow up with "why?" We recommend using a follow-up “why” whenever you want to find the root cause behind a selected answer. For example, if a user chooses “Didn’t find enough value,” a follow-up like, “Can you share more on what felt missing or not valuable enough?” helps get specific, actionable feedback—leading to far better insights. Contextual probing like this is what makes a survey conversational, not static.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Sometimes people have unique reasons that pre-set options miss. Letting respondents pick “Other” and explain creates space for unexpected insights, which can be gold for understanding edge cases or new trends. Automated follow-ups can dig deeper into why someone picked “Other,” revealing what your list didn’t cover.
NPS-type question for inactive user reactivation surveys
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a proven way to measure sentiment and loyalty—asking, “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” In an inactive user scenario, this serves as a health check for both previous experience and openness to return. It spots not just the likelihood of reactivation, but user sentiment—vital for prioritizing follow-up outreach.
After an NPS question, we can tailor follow-ups to dig into why a user answered as they did, presenting us with actionable retention opportunities. Specific makes it easy to launch an NPS survey for inactive users with reactivation in mind—with built-in logic for smart, relevant follow-ups.
According to industry data, companies that run data-driven reactivation and NPS campaigns often achieve reactivation rates above 30% within six months. [4]
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions truly unlock hidden insights, transforming basic responses into actionable intelligence. With automated follow-up questions, we let the AI clarify, dig deeper, or contextualize a respondent’s answer right in the flow—no time-consuming back-and-forth emails.
Here’s what happens if you don’t ask smart follow-ups:
Inactive user: “I stopped using it because it didn’t work for me.”
AI follow-up: “Could you share what specific aspect didn’t work? Was it a feature, performance issue, or something else?”
That next question, in real time, gets you data you can actually use—revealing the difference between a fixable bug and a feature gap.
How many followups to ask? In our experience, 2-3 targeted follow-ups per open-ended question are enough to surface real insights. Specific allows you to set this—so the AI collects just enough detail, and respondents can move on once you’ve got what you need.
This makes it a conversational survey: Each follow-up transforms the experience from form-filling to dialogue, keeping people engaged and showing they’re truly heard.
AI-powered response analysis: Even with loads of open-ended responses, AI makes analyzing survey results easy. It summarizes, categorizes, and pulls out trends—so you act on high-volume feedback in a flash, not days.
These dynamic follow-ups represent a new standard in survey design—try generating a survey with AI-powered follow-ups and see how quickly you get deeper, richer data.
How to prompt ChatGPT (or any GPT) to generate great inactive user reactivation questions
If you want to draft your own questions, start with a simple prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for inactive users survey about reactivation incentives.
The key to better AI results is context. Give it details about your product, audience, and what you hope to learn. For example:
Our SaaS productivity tool faces a drop in weekly active users. We’re planning a reactivation campaign—what open-ended questions should we ask to uncover barriers, ideal incentives, and hesitations, in language accessible to non-technical users?
Once you have initial questions, structure further prompts for refinement. Try:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
This helps you organize the survey logically. Next, for deeper dives into key themes, prompt:
Generate 10 questions for categories like "Motivation blockers" and "Responding to incentive types".
The more you iterate with clarity and context, the stronger your survey will be.
What makes a conversational survey different?
Conversational surveys break away from the bland and rigid world of traditional forms. Powered by AI, they engage users in real time, feel like a natural chat, and adapt dynamically—collecting richer, more actionable insights. With Specific, the AI survey builder handles everything: crafting questions, probing deeper, and even analyzing responses in context.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Survey (Specific) |
|---|---|
Manual drafting, lots of back and forth | Prompt AI once, get tailored questions instantly |
Static, no follow-ups unless pre-scripted | Dynamic AI-powered follow-ups in real time |
Slow, often high drop-off | Feels like a conversation, keeps users engaged |
Manual analysis, hard to scale | AI summarizes and extracts insights for you |
Why use AI for inactive user surveys? You save hours in design and analysis, while collecting deeper feedback—the AI tailors follow-ups, adapts to what users say, and analyzes text at scale. Especially with topics like reactivation incentives—where the reasons for inactivity are nuanced—an AI survey example can uncover precisely what it takes to win users back.
Specific delivers best-in-class user experience: conversational surveys that make giving (and getting) feedback smooth, smart, and even enjoyable. Curious about process? Check this step-by-step guide to creating a reactivation survey or see how the AI survey editor lets you refine your survey via natural language chat.
See this reactivation incentives survey example now
Your next discovery about why users left and what will win them back is a survey away—see conversational, AI-powered surveys in action and uncover reactivation insights no static form can reach.