Free resident survey builder

Free AI Resident Satisfaction Survey Generator

Describe your property or senior-living community and the decisions you need to make. Makeform turns that brief into a resident satisfaction survey covering the home, shared amenities, maintenance, communication, safety perceptions, activities, dining, and staff interactions, with rating scales and open comments organized for useful follow-up.

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  • Unlimited free forms and responses
  • Editable questions and rating scales
  • Anonymous or identified responses
  • Built for housing and senior living
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Sample prompts for the survey builder

Choose the community closest to yours, refine the prompt, or send it to the Makeform builder. Each structure is an example you can adapt before publishing.

Prompt ready

Audience

Residents in a managed apartment community

Format

Annual survey with matrix ratings and comments

Prompt size

553 chars

Brief qualitySends to builder

Example survey structure

Annual survey with matrix ratings and comments

Prompt exampleEditable in builder

How satisfied are you with your home and common areas?

Rating matrixFirst ask
2

How was your most recent maintenance experience?

Multiple choice
3

Which three improvements matter most?

Checkboxes
4

What should the property team improve first?

Long answer
5

Building and length of residency

Dropdown

Suggested routing tags

Suggested

Housing and maintenance

Amenities and programs

Staff follow-up

Keep one consistent five-point satisfaction scale across service areas, then add a separate importance question. That distinction reveals what residents dislike and what deserves attention first.

Step 1

Measure

consistent ratings across the resident journey

Step 2

Explain

comments reveal why a score is high or low

Step 3

Prioritize

importance and themes guide the next action

Step 4

Follow up

consent-based contact closes urgent feedback loops

Feedback you can act on

Turn a broad satisfaction score into a property plan.

An overall rating tells you the mood of the community. A structured survey connects that mood to specific parts of resident life, separates unused services from poor experiences, and gives staff a clear place to start.

Comparable service-area scores

Use the same labeled scale for housing, maintenance, amenities, communication, and staff. Managers can compare themes without mistaking a four-point question for a five-point one or mixing satisfaction with frequency.

Relevant paths for each resident

Conditional questions can show dining details to residents who use dining and maintenance follow-ups to people who filed a request. Everyone else skips questions they cannot answer, reducing noise in the results.

Context behind low ratings

A focused comment prompt after a dissatisfied response captures the location, service, and experience behind the score. Optional contact permission lets the team respond without making anonymity impossible.

Designed around the community

One survey pattern, different resident experiences.

The subjects residents can judge depend on where and how they live. Begin with the closest setting, then rename services, response options, and location fields to match your operation.

Multifamily and apartment housing

Measure unit condition, common areas, parking, packages, leasing-office communication, maintenance, value, and neighborhood experience. Segment by building or move-in year without forcing residents to identify themselves.

Senior living communities

Use readable wording and separate questions for housing, housekeeping, dining, programs, transportation, responsiveness, respect, and belonging. Include not used choices so unavailable experience is not recorded as dissatisfaction.

Student and campus housing

Ask about rooms, Wi-Fi, laundry, study areas, noise, safety perceptions, community programming, and residence staff. Branch maintenance users into a compact service-recovery section.

Recurring portfolio pulse checks

Run a stable core quarterly across properties, then rotate one topical module. Trend the core items over time while gathering timely detail on renovations, new amenities, communications, or seasonal services.

Survey workflow

Build a resident survey people can finish and teams can use.

Start with the decisions the results must support, keep the measurement consistent, and design a follow-up path before the first invitation goes out.

Explore form features
01

Describe residents, services, and decisions

Tell Makeform the housing type, amenities, service teams, survey cadence, and what leaders will decide from the results. Name real services such as dining, transportation, package rooms, or resident activities instead of asking vague questions about facilities.

02

Edit scales, branches, and privacy choices

Keep scale direction and labels consistent, add not applicable choices, and preview conditional paths. Decide whether the survey is anonymous, confidential within the team, or identified, then explain that choice plainly in the introduction.

03

Share through resident-friendly channels

Send a direct link by email or text, embed the survey in a resident portal, and provide a QR code on printed notices. State the estimated completion time, deadline, purpose, and how the team intends to share what it learns.

04

Review themes and close the loop

Compare service-area ratings, filter only by segments large enough to interpret responsibly, and code open comments into themes. Route contact requests separately, publish a short findings summary, and connect each chosen priority to an owner and update date.

Annual survey vs pulse vs request form

Choose the feedback format that matches the decision.

Resident satisfaction is not the same as a maintenance ticket or an always-open suggestion box. Each method answers a different question; a thoughtful program uses them together without asking one form to do every job.

Format
What it captures
Best use
Format
Annual resident satisfaction survey
What it capturesA broad, consistent view of housing, amenities, staff, services, value, and overall experience, plus priorities and comments.
Best usePlanning budgets, comparing service areas, setting annual operating priorities, and establishing a baseline.
FormatQuarterly pulse survey
What it capturesA short recurring read on overall satisfaction, recent change, a handful of core services, and one timely topic.
Best useSpotting movement between annual surveys and checking the response to a recent change or improvement.
FormatMaintenance or service request form
What it capturesA specific problem, location, urgency, access details, attachments, and the contact information needed to resolve it.
Best useOperational action on an individual issue; do not make residents wait for a survey cycle to report a repair.

Field guide

What a resident satisfaction survey should include.

A useful instrument follows the resident journey: the home itself, the shared environment, service encounters, relationships, priorities, and an appropriate follow-up route. These six sections create enough detail to act without turning the survey into an inspection checklist.

Housing and environment

Begin with the places residents experience every day.

Separate the condition of the home from shared spaces. A resident may be happy with an apartment but frustrated by elevators, corridors, lighting, grounds, parking, laundry, or noise. Specific rows make the result assignable to the right operational team.

  • Comfort, condition, cleanliness, and suitability of the resident's home.
  • Cleanliness and upkeep of entrances, corridors, grounds, and shared rooms.
  • Access, lighting, parking, noise, signage, and safety perceptions as locally relevant.

Maintenance and service

Measure the whole request experience, not only speed.

Ask whether the resident used maintenance during a defined period before showing detailed questions. For users, distinguish ease of requesting help, acknowledgment, communication, staff conduct, quality of work, and whether the issue stayed resolved. This identifies the actual break in the process.

  • A screening question with a clear time period, such as the past six months.
  • Ease of request, response time, progress updates, workmanship, and resolution.
  • An open prompt for unresolved concerns plus a separate request for staff contact.

Amenities and programs

Keep use, quality, and importance distinct.

Someone who never uses the gym cannot rate its cleanliness fairly. First ask which amenities or programs the resident uses, allow a not used response, and then measure satisfaction. A separate priority question shows whether an underused service needs improvement, different hours, or clearer communication.

  • Usage or awareness before detailed ratings for each amenity or program.
  • Quality, availability, accessibility, scheduling, and upkeep where applicable.
  • Top choices for improvement, addition, removal, or future investment.

Staff and communication

Ask about observable interactions with the team.

Broad questions such as whether management is good are hard to interpret. Ask whether staff are courteous, listen, explain next steps, provide timely updates, and follow through. In senior living, include respect, responsiveness, and resident involvement in decisions affecting daily life.

  • Courtesy, respect, accessibility, responsiveness, and clarity of answers.
  • Timeliness and usefulness of notices about repairs, events, policies, or disruptions.
  • Confidence that concerns are heard and residents know where to seek help.

Overall measures and priorities

Connect the score to the next decision.

Include a stable overall satisfaction item for trend context, but do not stop there. Ask which service areas matter most and what one improvement should come first. Managers can then examine high-importance, low-satisfaction areas before spending effort on a louder but less consequential theme.

  • Overall satisfaction using the same wording and scale each survey cycle.
  • Perceived change since the last period and intention to remain, when appropriate.
  • A forced-priority choice plus one open question about the most valuable improvement.

Privacy and follow-up

Give residents a clear, optional route to be contacted.

Anonymous comments can surface themes, while an unresolved personal issue needs contact details. Do not blur those purposes. Explain how responses will be reviewed, ask permission to follow up, and reveal name, unit, and preferred contact fields only when the resident requests a response.

  • A plain introduction stating purpose, audience, expected time, and response handling.
  • Optional demographic or location fields limited to information needed for analysis.
  • Explicit follow-up choice, conditional contact fields, and an alternative urgent-help channel.

Related tools

Build the rest of the resident feedback workflow.

Pair a broad satisfaction survey with focused forms for anonymous comments, maintenance, inspections, move-in condition, and community feedback. Each tool serves a narrower moment in the resident experience.

Explore all AI tools

AI Anonymous Feedback Form Generator

Create an always-open channel for concerns or suggestions residents may prefer not to attach to their identity.

Open tool

AI Maintenance Request Form Generator

Collect a specific repair location, issue details, access preferences, urgency, and photos for operational follow-through.

Open tool

AI Property Inspection Form Generator

Build repeatable inspection checklists for units and shared spaces instead of placing condition reporting inside a survey.

Open tool

AI Apartment Move-In Condition Checklist Generator

Document room-by-room condition and existing issues at the beginning of an apartment residency.

Open tool

AI Local Community Feedback Form Generator

Gather broader ideas about neighborhood programs, shared priorities, and community initiatives.

Open tool

AI Guest Satisfaction Survey Form Generator

Adapt a satisfaction format for short-stay guests whose experience differs from that of long-term residents.

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FAQ

Resident satisfaction survey questions

Practical answers for property managers and senior-living administrators planning, distributing, and acting on resident feedback.

What should a resident satisfaction survey measure?

Measure overall satisfaction plus actionable parts of daily life: home condition, common spaces, maintenance, amenities, communication, staff interactions, community atmosphere, and safety perceptions. Senior-living surveys may add dining, housekeeping, activities, transportation, respect, and belonging. Use a consistent scale, allow not used where needed, ask which improvements matter most, and invite focused comments after low ratings.

How long should a resident satisfaction survey be?

Keep the survey short enough for one sitting. A quarterly pulse might have five to ten questions, while an annual survey can cover more areas with compact rating matrices and conditional sections. Show maintenance, dining, or amenity details only to residents who used those services. Preview on a phone, remove duplicates, state a realistic completion time, and connect every item to a decision.

Should resident responses be anonymous?

An anonymous survey may encourage candor, but staff cannot respond to an individual concern. Protect anonymity by default and ask at the end whether the resident wants contact. If yes, reveal optional name, unit, and contact fields. Explain who reviews responses and how reporting is grouped. Avoid unnecessary details that could identify someone in a small community.

Which rating scale works best for resident satisfaction?

A labeled five-point scale from very dissatisfied to very satisfied is easy to understand and provides a neutral midpoint. Keep the same order throughout. Clearly relabel any switch between satisfaction, agreement, quality, and frequency. Include not applicable or have not used when needed. Ask importance separately because combining it with satisfaction obscures the result.

How often should a property team survey residents?

Many teams use one annual survey and short pulse surveys between cycles. The right cadence depends on how quickly the team can review findings and make changes. A post-maintenance or move-in survey measures that moment, while a quarterly pulse tracks stable community measures. Avoid another long survey before residents see action or an update from the previous one.

How can we make a senior-living resident survey accessible?

Use plain language, short sentences, one idea per question, readable labels, and uncluttered pages. Avoid large grids that are hard to follow on a small screen or with magnification. Offer a not used choice and do not require typed comments. Provide suitable completion options, such as a digital link or staff-assisted access that preserves the resident's choices. Test navigation before distribution.

Is the resident satisfaction survey generator free?

Yes. Makeform provides unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and reuse a resident satisfaction survey without a response cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge. Start with a sample prompt, replace example services with your own, adjust scales and conditional paths, preview, and share the published survey.

What should we do after the survey closes?

Review overall and service-area ratings, compare them with importance choices, and code comments into themes. Treat small segments cautiously. Separate residents requesting contact from aggregate analysis so staff can follow up. Share what the team heard, selected priorities, action owners, and the next update date. Preserve core questions next cycle for trend context.

Listen across the whole resident experience.

Generate a resident satisfaction survey built around your community.

Unlimited free forms and responsesEditable scales and conditional pathsHousing, amenities, maintenance, and staff
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