If you’ve never reached out to clients for their feedback, consider starting with a survey. Surveys let you interact with more clients at once, doing so anonymously. That allows you to ask challenging questions knowing your clients are more likely to answer truthfully. Surveys can be general or they can target specific issues—which format works best for you will depend on your goals.

Regardless of your objectives, however, Littlechild says it’s important for advisors to ask clear and simple survey questions. “Advisors have a tendency to get ahead of themselves on surveys—building assumptions into the questions they’re asking or posing two questions at once,” she says. “When you do that, you end up with feedback that’s at best hard to decipher, and at worst unusable.” Instead, keep surveys focused, pointed and succinct. Her recommendation: They should take around 10-15 minutes to complete.

One advantage of starting with a quantitative tool, according to Littlechild, is the ability to follow up with more targeted efforts. “In-person conversations let advisors get under the skin of the survey data they’ve collected,” she says. “They can probe and ask the kind of open-ended questions which allow clients to really express themselves.”

Client reviews are one opportunity to gather in-person feedback—although timing and discretion are important. “If you’ve been discussing disappointing returns or a sensitive planning topic in a meeting, asking questions about your communications strategy probably isn’t the most appropriate follow up,” explains Littlechild. She also recommends making a clear physical break between conversations about performance and feedback. For instance, put away the charts and move to the other side of the desk. That physical shift can help you and your clients reset before transitioning into the next discussion.

A group of 10 to 12 select clients can be a more efficient, and potentially more productive, approach to getting feedback on directed questions. Advisory boards are often tasked with tackling questions about the larger direction of the firm, such as adding services or directing a communications campaign. “The ability to build on each other’s input creates a unique collaborative dynamic,” explains Littlechild. “For that reason, board discussions tend to generate answers and raise new questions which you hadn’t thought of.”

Littlechild says the key to putting together a board is choosing members who represent your ideal client. “The ideal client is the one you’re building your business around, and the purpose of the board should be guiding decisions to help ensure that his or her needs are being met.” Advisors might also consider hiring an outside facilitator to organize and run board meetings.

Asking for feedback from clients can help deepen the advisor-client relationship. But failing to act on that input can make clients feel overlooked. To help avoid this, include a step in your process to acknowledge those clients who participated. Reach out to your entire client base detailing what you’ve learned and how you plan on responding to the feedback you received. You may not be able to act on every suggestion or criticism, but acknowledging their contribution reinforces the message that you’ve listened to them and care about their opinions. It’s helpful to remind clients that you plan on taking action based on the majority of client responses. If clients have a unique criticism, it’s a good idea to follow up with them individually to determine whether it can be addressed as an isolated issue or if it is indeed part of a larger trend.

Advisors typically use client input to benchmark performance or evaluate how well they’re doing in a particular area of service. But feedback can also be used more creatively, says Littlechild. Some advisors ask clients to help them assess the value of their own business or evaluate the risk and opportunity of buying another. Others have leveraged feedback to better articulate their value proposition. When it comes to client feedback, the biggest mistake Littlechild sees from advisors is not asking for it at all. “I think there’s a fear that asking these questions of clients is somehow going to unearth some latent dissatisfaction,” she says. “That’s just not the case. Don’t let that fear get in the way of creating a formalized feedback process which helps you deliver what matters most to your clients.”