Here are some of the best questions for a SaaS customer survey about uptime, plus practical tips on how to create them. With Specific, you can instantly build surveys like this—fast, smart, and designed for richer insights.
What are the best open-ended questions for SaaS customer survey about uptime?
Open-ended questions help you dig deeper into your SaaS customers’ experiences, delivering qualitative insights you can’t get from checkboxes. They’re best used when you want specific stories, unmet needs, or customer language—especially around complex topics like uptime. However, open-ended questions can lead to higher nonresponse rates, with research showing an average nonresponse of 18%. Still, their value for qualitative exploration is hard to beat, especially when paired with conversational AI that encourages participation and clarifies answers in real time. [2]
Can you describe a recent experience where our platform’s uptime affected your work (positively or negatively)?
What does reliable uptime mean for your day-to-day operations?
Have you ever experienced downtime? Can you walk us through what happened and how it impacted you?
What systems or features are most critical for you to always have available?
How do you communicate about downtime issues within your team or company?
What, if anything, would help you better manage your work during periods of downtime?
Are there any warning signs you noticed before experiencing an outage?
What is one thing you wish we improved about uptime or downtime communication?
How have other vendors handled uptime or downtime better or worse, in your view?
What’s the first thing you do when you notice the service is down?
What are the best single-select multiple-choice questions for SaaS customer survey about uptime?
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you need to quantify user sentiment, identify patterns, or quickly guide the conversation. They’re quick to answer, minimizing cognitive load for SaaS customers and improving response rates—sometimes as high as 80% in B2B SaaS with thoughtful survey design. [1] You can use them to segment responses or as jumping-off points for open-ended follow-ups.
Question: In the past three months, how often have you noticed downtime or outages?
Never
Once or twice
Monthly
Weekly
Other
Question: How satisfied are you with the current uptime performance?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: How do outages usually impact your work?
No impact
Minor inconvenience
Delays critical work
Significantly disrupts business
Other
When to followup with "why?" You should follow up with a "why" question whenever a choice hints at dissatisfaction, surprise, or unique insights. For example, if a customer selects "Delays critical work," immediately ask, “Why does the downtime delay your critical tasks?” or “Could you share an example?” It’s an easy way to open up the conversation and get to actionable feedback.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include an “Other” option when predefined answers might not reflect your customer’s reality. This lets people share unique circumstances, and you can use a follow-up (“Can you describe your situation in your own words?”) to uncover unexpected needs or pain points.
NPS question for SaaS customer survey about uptime
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a benchmark for loyalty and satisfaction. Including the classic NPS question—“How likely are you to recommend our service to a friend or colleague?”—specifically in the context of uptime, helps you see whether uptime issues (or reliability) shape overall sentiment. It’s simple, globally recognized, and can trigger insightful follow-ups for promoters, passives, and detractors. For fast setup, check the NPS survey for SaaS customers about uptime template.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are where the best insights happen. With automated AI follow-up questions, you turn every initial response into a deeper, richer conversation. This gives you context—what’s really happening, why it matters, and what comes next. AI-powered conversational surveys significantly boost response quality by probing in real time, resulting in more nuanced and informative data. [4]
SaaS customer: “Downtime disrupted my workflow.”
AI follow-up: “Could you share more about which parts of your workflow were disrupted and how you managed the situation?”
How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 probing follow-ups are enough to capture key details. You don’t want to overwhelm anyone, but you do want clarity. With Specific, you can set a limit—and the AI will gracefully skip ahead once it has what it needs.
This makes it a conversational survey: your user never feels like they’re facing a faceless form. It’s a dialogue, not an interrogation—which boosts engagement and completion rates.
AI survey response analysis, open-ended feedback, qualitative data: Don’t let the mountain of text scare you. With AI analysis (see the guide to analyzing survey responses), you can quickly surface patterns and actionable insights from open-ended input.
Seeing it in action beats theory. Try generating a survey in Specific to see how automated follow-ups make every conversation smarter.
How to write prompts for ChatGPT (or other GPTs) to create great SaaS customer survey questions about uptime
If you want fresh ideas straight from AI, prompt it like this:
To get started, use:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for SaaS customer survey about uptime.
But context is everything! The more details you give (your role, goals, how you plan to use the data), the higher quality the results. Example:
I’m a product manager at a SaaS company wanting to understand how our platform’s uptime affects SMB users. We need actionable insights to improve reliability and communication. Please generate 10 thoughtful, customer-centric open-ended questions.
Once you have a list, prompt ChatGPT to organize and refine:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Pick your most revealing categories, then prompt:
Generate 10 questions for categories like “Impact of downtime” and “Communication preferences”.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is more than a digital questionnaire—it’s an interactive, chat-like experience where your SaaS customers feel heard and understood. Instead of static forms, you get a responsive flow that adapts to your users’ answers, probing for detail and quickly clarifying any vague points. It’s a method built for mobile, modern work, and quick engagement.
AI survey generation, by contrast, delivers a streamlined workflow. You describe what you want and an expert-level survey is ready in seconds—complete with the right balance of open- and closed-ended questions, tailored to your audience. Manual survey creation involves brainstorming, copy-pasting, cleanup, and testing; AI does this in a fraction of the time, with prompt-based editing (see the AI survey editor feature for more).
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Survey |
---|---|
Brainstorm questions from scratch | Prompt and instantly generate |
Manually balance question types | AI optimizes structure and tone |
No automated follow-ups | Probing and clarifying in real time |
Static data collection | Conversational, engaging experience |
Why use AI for SaaS customer surveys? AI survey tools lift the burden from your team—no more writer’s block or repetitive drafting. You get fast, research-backed surveys with the built-in smarts for better data, all in a chat that feels natural and mobile-friendly. Check our detailed guide to creating SaaS customer uptime surveys for more tactics and examples.
With Specific, you’re not just sending out a survey; you’re launching a conversation. Our best-in-class conversational survey design makes giving and getting feedback smooth, natural, and compelling for everyone involved.
See this uptime survey example now
Get practical, actionable insights from your SaaS customers about uptime—see how using conversational surveys backed by AI reveals what truly matters. Try it today and boost your feedback process with richer data and happier customers.