Here are some of the best questions for an inactive users survey about usability issues, plus practical tips for building your own. If you want to generate an effective survey with smart AI follow-ups in seconds, you can build it here with Specific.
The best open-ended questions for inactive users: usability issues
Open-ended questions give inactive users the space to share details you’d never learn from multiple choice. They work best when you want honest stories or to surface usability problems you hadn’t considered. They’re especially valuable because user testing can identify up to 85% of usability problems, proving how important real feedback is for improving user experience. [2]
What made you stop using our product?
Was there a specific moment where using our app or website became frustrating?
Can you describe any features or tasks that felt confusing or hard to use?
Were there any technical issues (like errors or crashes) that affected your experience?
Is there anything about our design or layout that made it difficult to get things done?
Did you have trouble finding the information or tools you needed?
Have you found another product that solves your needs better? What do you like about it?
If you could change one thing about the user experience, what would it be?
How was your experience using our product on a mobile device?
What would motivate you to give our product another try?
These types of questions dig into pain points, help reduce high nonresponse rates (which average around 33% in surveys [1]), and often reveal issues you’d never predicted.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for inactive users
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you want quick, quantifiable insights or an easy way for users to start the conversation. Sometimes, it’s just simpler for someone to select from a few options rather than recall specifics. Once you have their answer, you can dig deeper with follow-up questions.
Question: What was the biggest reason you stopped using our product?
I found the product hard to navigate
I experienced frequent technical issues (errors, crashes)
I couldn’t find the features I needed
The product didn’t work well on my device
Other
Question: How did you mainly use our product?
On desktop
On mobile
Both equally
Question: How would you rate the overall ease of use?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
When to follow up with "why?" Any time a user picks an option that could mean different things to different people (“I found the product hard to navigate”), following up with “Why?” or “Can you give an example?” helps clarify the specifics and unlock actionable insights. For example, if someone selects “The product didn’t work well on my device,” a smart follow-up could be: “Can you tell us what device or browser you used and what happened?”
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including an “Other” option allows users to highlight issues not covered by your list. Asking for details as a follow-up turns surprises into gold—sometimes you’ll discover usability issues you didn’t even know existed.
NPS in usability surveys for inactive users
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a classic question used to gauge overall user loyalty and satisfaction. For inactive users, it’s a chance to see not just what drove them away, but how likely they’d be to recommend your product if usability issues were fixed. This big-picture view can help you prioritize improvements by showing just how much user experience impacts long-term retention.
You can instantly generate an NPS usability survey for inactive users on Specific and tailor the follow-up based on their score and feedback.
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-up questions are the secret weapon of a great AI survey. With open-ended questions, sometimes you’ll get responses like “It was confusing” or “Didn’t work on my phone.” Without follow-ups, you’re left guessing—but with AI-powered follow-up questions, like the ones Specific generates automatically, you gather crystal-clear context and rich detail, just like a top research interviewer would.
Inactive user: “It just didn’t work well.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share more about what didn’t work? Was there a feature or task that was especially problematic?”
How many followups to ask? Two or three targeted follow-up questions are usually enough to uncover the story behind the answer. You can even let respondents skip to the next question if they’ve already given you what you need. Specific lets you control the follow-up depth for each survey.
This makes it a conversational survey: The result is a natural, back-and-forth conversation—so feedback feels like a chat, not an interrogation.
AI response analysis is simple: Instead of wrestling with piles of text, you can analyze survey responses using AI for powerful, instant summaries and themes—even when you’re collecting open feedback at scale.
These automated, intelligent followups are game-changing. Try generating a survey with follow-up logic to see the difference in quality and depth for yourself.
How to prompt ChatGPT to write great questions for inactive user surveys
If you prefer brainstorming survey questions with ChatGPT or another GPT-based tool, here are some prompt examples to get thoughtful results:
Start simple to get a list:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for inactive users survey about usability issues.
But remember: The more detail you give, the smarter and more relevant the questions will be. Add context about your product, user type, and goals. For example:
Our SaaS app helps small business owners track expenses. Many users become inactive after a month. Suggest 10 open-ended usability questions to find out why they stop using it, and how the onboarding experience could be improved.
Then, to organize your brainstorming session:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Finally, focus your deep dive:
Generate 10 questions for categories related to mobile issues and user navigation.
This kind of guided prompting helps you drill into exactly the areas where usability problems hurt retention and user experience the most.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey feels like a chat with someone smart—not just ticking boxes on a form. You ask a question; the user replies. Then, the AI follows up, probes, and clarifies—producing far richer, clearer answers.
Manual vs. AI-generated surveys
Manual Survey Creation | AI Survey Generation |
|---|---|
Write each question by hand | Describe your goal and let AI suggest questions |
No smart follow-ups | AI generates real-time follow-up questions to dig deeper |
Fixed, rigid order and tone | Natural conversational flow, with customizable tone and skip logic |
Painful to analyze text responses at scale | Instant summary and theme extraction with GPT-powered AI |
With AI survey builders like Specific, you get the power of an expert interviewer and research analyst built right into the survey. This lets you focus on what matters: getting actionable insights, fast.
Why use AI for inactive user surveys? AI survey generators save time, create more effective surveys, and ensure every feedback conversation adapts to each respondent’s answers. This is crucial when 88% of users abandon an app due to technical glitches or crashes [3], and usability is key to retention. Surveys that adapt in real time catch these issues before you lose users for good.
Want the step-by-step? Take a look at our detailed guide on how to create a survey for inactive users about usability issues—it’s packed with tips for setup, targeting, and analysis.
Specific’s conversational survey builder offers the best user experience for both creators and respondents. It makes the feedback process smooth, natural, and genuinely engaging.
See this usability issues survey example now
Don’t miss your chance to uncover the real blockers to product retention—see how conversational AI surveys deliver deeper insights from inactive users and make your research workflow effortless and effective.