Best questions for saas customer survey about feature adoption

Here are some of the best questions for a SaaS customer survey about feature adoption, plus proven tips for designing them. You can build your survey and start collecting data in seconds with Specific’s AI survey generator.

The best open-ended questions for feature adoption surveys

Open-ended questions give us honest, unfiltered insights—vital when we want to understand how and why users actually adopt (or ignore) product features. They’re best for surfacing pain points, motivations, and ideas we might never consider from a set list. Especially in SaaS, we want full context behind the data.

Here are 10 strong open-ended questions for SaaS customer surveys targeting feature adoption:

1. Which features have you used most frequently in the past month and why?

2. Can you describe a time when a particular feature helped you achieve your goals?

3. Are there any product features you found confusing or difficult to use? Please explain.

4. What was your first impression the last time you tried a new feature?

5. Is there a feature you wish had been explained better or introduced differently?

6. What, if anything, prevents you from using certain features more often?

7. How do you typically discover new features in the product?

8. Have you experienced any challenges or obstacles when adopting recently released features?

9. If you could improve one feature, which would it be and how?

10. Are there features you avoid using? If so, tell us why.

Used in combination, these prompt both positive stories and constructive criticism. Studies show adoption rates can be as low as 16.5% (median) for core features across SaaS companies, with even top performers often under 30%—so it pays to dig deep for more insight. [1]

The best single-select multiple-choice questions for feature adoption

Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you want to measure or quantify how users feel, especially if you’re aiming for quick responses or want to see trends over time. They’re essential for keeping in-app surveys short, since completion rates drop fast after just a few questions: keeping surveys to 1–2 questions maximizes participation. [2]

Here are 3 strong multiple-choice question examples, each followed by typical answer choices:

Question: How frequently do you use our newest feature?

• Daily

• Weekly

• Occasionally

• Never

Question: How easy was it to start using this feature for the first time?

• Very easy

• Somewhat easy

• Neutral

• Somewhat difficult

• Very difficult

Question: What was your primary motivation for trying this feature?

• It solved a specific problem

• Curiosity

• Recommendation

• Other

When to follow up with “why?” The best moments to ask “why?” are when you see a surprising or extreme choice—like ‘Never’ or ‘Very difficult’. For example, if someone selects ‘Never’ on usage frequency, we immediately follow up: “Can you tell us what’s stopping you from trying this feature?” This unearths real barriers to adoption and clarifies the story behind their answer.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always offer ‘Other’ if you suspect your options might not cover every user’s experience. It shows you’re open to new perspectives and encourages people to tell you what’s unique about their use case. With Specific’s automated follow-ups, answers under ‘Other’ can trigger a deep-dive conversation, revealing trends you’d otherwise miss.

Why ask an NPS question about feature adoption?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for product-wide sentiment; it can reveal whether users feel invested enough in your latest features to recommend your SaaS to friends or colleagues. This can be a powerful predictor of future adoption—especially since in-app surveys have response rates around 25%, giving you a clear signal from engaged users. [2]

We usually ask: “On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend [feature] to a colleague?” The beauty of a feature-level NPS is that it pinpoints advocacy or dissatisfaction early, helping us prioritize what to fix, iterate on, or celebrate. Try instantly generating an NPS survey about feature adoption to capture this data.

The power of follow-up questions

Asking great questions is only the first step—probing deeper with contextual follow-ups separates a bland survey from a goldmine of actionable insight. Automated follow-up questions, like those powered by AI in Specific, let you immediately clarify, challenge, or expand on a respondent’s answers. These AI-generated follow-ups don’t just save us hours of back-and-forth (no more email chains); they transform the survey into a real conversation.

• SaaS Customer: “I never use the reporting dashboard.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share what stops you from using the dashboard? Is there a specific challenge or missing value?”

How many follow-ups to ask? We’ve found 2–3 follow-ups is usually the sweet spot for depth without overwhelming people. With Specific, you can fine-tune this—stop after one reply or keep going until the full picture is clear. The AI adapts, so you get what you need without manual intervention.

This makes it a conversational survey, so feedback feels natural for everyone—no more rigid forms, just a smooth, two-way discovery process.

Easy analysis, even with unstructured text: AI-powered tools like Specific’s survey response analysis and AI for qualitative data mean you can instantly summarize responses, detect recurring themes, and even chat with your data to pull out what matters.

Automated follow-ups are a new standard—once you try generating a survey and see the live, dynamic conversation unfold, you won’t want to go back.

Prompting ChatGPT to generate even better survey questions

If you’d rather brainstorm your SaaS customer survey questions on your own, crafting the right prompts for an AI like ChatGPT can save serious time. Here’s how we approach it:

First, be direct:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for SaaS customer survey about feature adoption.

Give context for richer results. More detail helps AI tailor the questions to your users and goals:

We provide an analytics SaaS to mid-sized e-commerce teams. Our goal is to understand what stops people from using key features, so we can drive engagement and reduce churn. Suggest 10 expert-level open-ended questions to uncover feature adoption barriers.

Organize further:

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

Go deeper into areas that matter most:

Generate 10 questions for categories like “Motivation for first use” and “Barriers to regular adoption”.

We use a similar workflow in Specific’s AI survey builder—with instant expert suggestions and optimization for respondent experience.

What is a conversational survey (and why use AI survey generators)?

A conversational survey is exactly what it sounds like—a feedback experience that feels more like a dialogue than filling out a cold form. The key advantage? It mirrors real conversation: questions adapt, follow-ups react in real time, and the flow feels personal. With Specific, every question and follow-up can be customized by AI, making it easy to dig into context as if you had an expert researcher chatting with every respondent.

How does this differ from manual surveys?

Why use AI for SaaS customer surveys? AI lets us generate surveys optimized for completion, engagement, and clarity without lengthy setup or testing. Plus, with live follow-ups, we get higher-quality insights from every respondent, fast. If you want see how simple it is, check our guide on how to create a feature adoption survey the smart way.

With Specific, you get best-in-class UX—every conversation is smooth for customers and a goldmine for your team. No wonder top-performing SaaS teams are shifting from forms to conversational survey flows and AI survey examples like these.

See this Feature Adoption survey example now

Make every response count—see how quickly you can shape, launch, and analyze a smarter feature adoption survey for your SaaS customers with Specific’s expert-built conversational approach.