Best questions for patient survey about referral process experience

Here are some of the best questions for a patient survey about the referral process experience, plus tips on how to craft a great one. If you want to build your own AI-powered, conversational survey, Specific lets you generate a survey in seconds for this exact use case.

The best open-ended questions for patient surveys about referral process experience

Open-ended questions help you capture the “why” behind a patient’s experience, surfacing detail that closed questions simply miss. They build emotional context, bring out real scenarios, and open up unexpected insights—especially valuable when you’re seeking genuine patient stories or pain points.

Here are 10 of our favorite open-ended questions for patient surveys about the referral process experience:

1. Can you describe your overall experience with the referral process?

2. What aspects of the referral process worked well for you?

3. What challenges (if any) did you face during your referral?

4. How clearly did your healthcare provider explain the referral process and next steps?

5. If you received updates about your referral, how helpful were they?

6. Were there any moments where you felt confused or uncertain about what to do next?

7. How did you feel about the communication between your providers (referring and receiving)?

8. What would you improve in the referral process to make it easier for future patients?

9. Did you experience any delays? If so, what impact did these have on you?

10. Is there anything else you want to share about your referral experience?

Open-ended questions really shine when patients describe communication—since studies show that positive communication during referral makes patients 44 times more likely to be satisfied with the process [2]. Capturing detail here leads directly to actionable improvements.

The best single-select multiple-choice questions for patient referral process experience

Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want to quantify responses and spot trends fast. They create an easy entry point—patients just pick an answer—and you get structured data you can compare over time. These are also great to kickstart a conversation: once a patient picks an answer, you can dig deeper with targeted follow-ups.

Question: How satisfied were you with the overall referral process?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How easy was it to follow the steps in the referral process?

• Very easy

• Somewhat easy

• Neutral

• Somewhat difficult

• Very difficult

Question: Which aspect of the referral process, if any, was challenging for you?

• Understanding next steps

• Scheduling appointments

• Communication between providers

• Waiting times

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" When a patient selects an option that indicates dissatisfaction or difficulty, always follow up with "Can you tell us more about why you chose that?" Their response brings clarity that averages and charts alone can't provide.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Add "Other" to catch experiences outside your expected list. Follow-up questions here often uncover new issues or innovations you hadn't considered, giving real depth to your patient insights.

The value here is clear: structured multiple-choice questions make it easy for patients to respond quickly, while the right follow-ups drill down into the "why" behind their choices—especially critical when you see only 73.5% of patients reporting satisfaction with referral services [1]. Knowing what’s behind the 26.5% gap is where improvement begins.

NPS: Should you include it in a patient referral process survey?

NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a proven way to gauge overall patient loyalty and satisfaction after an experience. It asks one key question: "How likely are you to recommend our referral process to a friend or family member?" Patients answer on a scale of 0–10—then you can follow up based on their score: digging into why they became a promoter (9–10), what’s missing for passives (7–8), and what detractors (0–6) need fixed. For referral process experience, NPS is a great temperature check for systemic improvement, especially when combined with qualitative feedback.

If you want to create an NPS survey tailored for patient referral experience, try this ready-to-go builder: NPS survey for patient referral process experience.

It’s worth noting that patients who feel well-informed and see consistent communication throughout the referral process are more likely to recommend your service—80% of eReferral patients said they felt more informed through the process than with traditional methods [8]. Capturing this through NPS not only quantifies sentiment but also highlights the power of clear communication in patient journeys.

The power of follow-up questions

To get richer insights from your surveys, nothing beats smart follow-up questions. Instead of stopping at surface-level polling, automated AI follow-ups let you ask deeper questions in the moment—transforming incomplete replies into meaningful, actionable stories. Specific uses AI to quickly craft these in real time, reading the context and tailoring each follow-up, just like an expert researcher would.

• Patient: "It was hard to schedule my specialist visit."

• AI follow-up: "Can you tell me more about what made scheduling difficult for you? Was it the instructions, timelines, or something else?"

How many follow-ups to ask? In our experience, 2–3 targeted follow-ups are ideal. Go further only if clarity still isn’t there. With Specific, you can set exactly how deep you want to dig, or let respondents skip ahead when they've already shared what you need.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a checklist, you get a natural back-and-forth—just like an in-person interview, but automated and scalable.

AI-powered analysis: Even with pages of unstructured feedback, you can analyze all survey responses with AI in minutes. Never get overwhelmed by open-text data again—AI highlights themes for you.

This feature is a game changer. If you haven’t experienced automated follow-ups yet, try generating a conversational survey and see the insights you collect.

How to compose a prompt for AI (ChatGPT or other GPTs) to generate questions for a patient referral process experience survey

Prompts tell your AI exactly what you need. Start simple, then layer in more detail for better results. Here’s how:

To get started, try:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for patient survey about referral process experience.

The AI gets much better if you add specifics—who you are, the patient demographic, your survey goal, or areas of the referral you care most about. For example:

We run a primary care clinic and want to understand where our referral process is confusing or frustrating for patients, including issues with communication, delay, and understanding next steps. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions specifically for this scenario.

Once you’ve collected your questions, organize them for clarity:

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

Next, you can dive deeper with prompts for specific categories:

Generate 10 detailed survey questions about scheduling and appointment follow-up in the referral process.

A little prompt engineering goes a long way—especially when using tools like Specific’s AI survey generator that let you guide the AI with your goals and scenario.

What’s a conversational survey, and why is it different?

Conversational surveys are a fresh take on feedback—they mimic a natural chat, responding to context and encouraging the patient to open up. With Specific, each conversation adapts as it goes, probing where needed and skipping ahead when a respondent makes their point clear. No more flat lists of questions—it’s dynamic, just like a human interviewer.

Why use AI for patient surveys? AI survey generators bring an expert to your team: no need to research best practices or survey logic. Tools like Specific craft the right questions and follow-ups, adapt to responses in real time, and handle everything from creation to analysis. An AI survey example shows just how fast and effective modern surveys can be.

You’re never locked in. With the AI survey editor, you can just chat your way to the perfect set of questions at any time. It’s flexible, interactive, and always learning from the best research out there.

If you want a step-by-step guide, check our how-to article on creating patient surveys for the referral process experience, covering best practices from question selection to automated delivery.

We’ve seen that when patients feel the experience is “for them,” engagement and accuracy go up. With Specific’s focus on user experience, both survey creators and patients enjoy a conversational survey process that simply works.

See this referral process experience survey example now

Try out a conversational survey on the referral process experience and see firsthand how easy it is to gather richer insights, identify challenges fast, and improve patient satisfaction. Create your patient survey today and discover the difference AI-driven feedback can make—saving you time and surfacing action-ready detail with just a few clicks.