Here are some of the best questions for a student survey about payments, plus tips on creating them. If you want to build an AI-powered conversational survey in seconds, you can generate your own with Specific.
Best open-ended questions for a student survey about payments
Open-ended questions work when you want students to express opinions in their own words, giving context and details you’d never get from a simple yes/no. This type of question helps you uncover pain points, highlight situations you haven’t thought to ask about directly, or validate new ideas. Let’s get practical with 10 prompts we find super effective:
What is the biggest challenge you face when making payments for school-related expenses?
Describe your typical experience paying for course materials or tuition.
How do you feel about the payment options currently offered by your institution?
Can you share a recent payment process that felt confusing or difficult?
What payment methods would you like to see added in the future?
Which aspects of the payment process could be improved, and how?
If you ever missed a payment deadline, what caused the delay?
How do payment deadlines impact your ability to manage your finances?
What could the school do to make payments easier for you?
Is there anything else you wish the administration knew about your payment experience?
Using open-ended questions helps you spot emerging trends and hear authentic stories—which can be a goldmine when you dig deeper with smart follow-ups. According to McKinsey, 78% of organizations are now using AI in business functions, including feedback analysis, for richer, context-driven insights.[1]
Top single-select multiple-choice questions for a student payment survey
Single-select multiple-choice questions are key when you need to quantify student preferences or make it easier to pick from known options. These questions work well at the beginning, lowering friction, and can quickly surface themes you can explore further with open-ended follow-ups.
Here are three examples we often recommend:
Question: Which payment method do you use most often for school-related expenses?
Bank transfer
Credit/debit card
Cash
Mobile payment app (e.g., Apple Pay, Google Pay)
Other
Question: How satisfied are you with the current payment experience?
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neutral
Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: Have you ever experienced a failed or delayed payment when paying school fees?
Yes, often
Yes, occasionally
No, never
When to follow up with "why?" Use a follow-up "why?" when you want context, especially after a positive or negative answer. For example, if a student selects “Very dissatisfied” with payment experience, following up with "Can you share the main reason for your dissatisfaction?" helps turn a single-choice stat into actionable feedback.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always offer "Other" if your list might miss unique edge cases. Letting students explain what’s missing in their words can reveal unexpected payment methods or obstacles and guide your next round of research. Automated followups can help you dive in and clarify what "Other" actually means, surfacing trends you may not have anticipated.
NPS survey question for student payments
Net Promoter Score (NPS) asks students how likely they are to recommend your payment process to a friend or peer, on a scale from 0 to 10. NPS works here because it provides a consistent benchmark, and with the right follow-up, you can instantly surface the "why" behind each score. If you want a ready-to-use template, try our NPS survey for students about payments.
Using standardized questions like NPS and mixing in qualitative, follow-up queries gives a big-picture view with actionable detail. This approach mirrors what we see as best-in-class among organizations adopting AI for real-time feedback cycles.[1]
The power of follow-up questions
Dynamic follow-up questions make your survey conversational and your data far richer. Check out our article on automated AI follow-up questions for a deep dive. When you enable AI-powered follow-ups, every answer can become a jumping-off point for personalized, in-context probing—especially valuable for a student survey about payments.
Specific’s AI asks follow-ups in real time, like an expert interviewer, to dig deeper based on exactly what a student says. This eliminates back-and-forth emails, providing full context instantly, and leads to clearer, more actionable data. Thanks to this, the whole conversation feels natural, and students are more likely to open up. Here’s a quick example of how missing follow-ups can lead to unclear results:
Student: "The payment system is annoying."
AI follow-up: "Can you describe what makes the payment system annoying for you?"
How many follow-ups to ask? In our experience, 2–3 follow-ups are plenty. The right survey tool lets you set a cap and will automatically jump to the next question after collecting the insights you need. We built this setting directly into Specific for optimal flow and respondent comfort.
This makes it a conversational survey. Each answer and follow-up become a flowing chat—not a dry form. The result: higher engagement and better feedback (more on AI conversational survey generators).
AI-powered analysis, even for open text. Analyzing tons of unstructured feedback doesn’t have to be a nightmare. With tools like Specific, AI survey response analysis makes it easy to identify patterns, summarize main pain points, and turn rich stories into simple next steps. See our guide to analyzing student survey responses with AI.
Want to experience this workflow? Generate a survey and watch AI follow-ups in action. It’s a new way to dig for insights that really matter.
Prompt ideas for using ChatGPT to create surveys about payments
If you’re using ChatGPT or any GPT-powered tool, a clear prompt makes all the difference. Give the AI a real scenario and goal. Here’s a practical starting point:
Start by requesting broad questions:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a student survey about payments.
But you’ll get stronger results if you include more detail about your audience, the problem you’re solving, and the outcome you want. For example:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a student survey about payments. The audience is university students aged 18–24. The goal is to identify which payment methods are easiest, which are most confusing, and to find any hidden blockers that prevent on-time payments. Output questions that encourage honest, specific details.
You might keep refining. Have the AI organize your questions:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Once you see those categories, pick the most relevant (like "Digital payments" or "Barriers to on-time payment") and ask:
Generate 10 questions for categories Digital payments and Barriers to on-time payment, focusing on student experience and suggestions for improvement.
This method helps you iterate on survey content and keeps things student-centered.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey turns rigid forms into dynamic interviews, asking questions as if you were chatting with someone in person. This approach, powered by AI tools like Specific, automatically follows up on responses, clarifies answers, and personalizes the experience. It’s a game-changer for student feedback, where tone and genuine interest really matter.
Let’s break down how AI-generated surveys differ from manual surveys—and why it matters:
Manual Surveys | AI-generated Surveys (Conversational) |
|---|---|
Tedious creation, slow iteration | Speed—full survey generated in seconds |
No automatic follow-ups | AI asks personalized follow-ups live |
Harder to adapt to unique responses | Flexible, can probe for clarification |
Manual analysis of every answer | AI summarizes insights instantly |
Lower engagement, form fatigue | Feels like chat—higher participation |
Why use AI for student surveys? AI survey tools like Specific are built for deep listening—following up in context, summarizing feedback, and helping you iterate fast. That’s why 65% of organizations are now using generative AI in at least one business function, nearly double over last year.[2]
Want to see how to make your own? Here’s our step-by-step guide on how to create a student survey about payments in a matter of minutes—even if you have no previous research experience.
Specific delivers the best user experience for conversational surveys, making the feedback loop smooth, natural, and actually fun for students and creators alike.
See this payments survey example now
Jumpstart your student payment feedback with a conversational AI survey—ask the right questions, get deeper insights, and analyze results effortlessly with Specific’s smart, interactive experience. Don’t wait to transform how you gather student feedback.