As part of their ongoing conversations with clients, many advisors ask for feedback on how happy clients are.

That’s a good thing – as long as you ask in a way that allows clients to answer honestly.

In asking for feedback, remember that most clients are uncomfortable with conflict and with discussing difficult issues.

So if you say to a client “How do you feel about the job I’ve done for you in the past year”, the answer you’re likely to get is … “It’s fine”, regardless of how clients really feel.

And if you say “Are you happy with the experience you’ve had working with me and my team?”, you’re likely to hear .. “Sure”, even if your client isn’t that happy.

Answers like “Fine” and “Sure” are too vague to be useful.

So how then do you get answers that reflect how clients really feel.

A question clients feel comfortable with

The key is asking questions in a way that clients feel comfortable answering honestly.

One way is to ask clients to rate their satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 10.

For example, you could say “How would you rate the job I’ve done communicating with you from 1 to 10, with 1 being low and 10 being high.”

Or “how do you feel about the overall performance of your portfolio over the past year from 1 to 10?”

Few clients will give you a 1, 2 or 3 – if they’re not that happy , they’ll give you a 5 or perhaps a 6, thinking that’s a passing grade.

Meanwhile, you know that anything less than an 8 means clients aren’t that happy.

So if you get a score of 7 on communication, let’s say, that lets you ask the follow up question:

“What do you like about the communication you receive?  And what could I do to improve the way I communicate with you?”

Or if a client rates their portfolio performance at a 5, you’re able to have an open conversation about how they’ve done.

Remember this, though – if you’re not prepared to talk about how clients feel and what you can do differently going forward, don’t ask the question.

The single best question to ask clients

For high value clients whose satisfaction you’re really concerned about , here’s a question you could consider asking:

“What one thing could I do to improve your experience working with me and my team?”

The key to getting clients engaged is that you’re asking them to identify just one thing. And once you’ve talked about this, if appropriate you could go on to say “And what else could we do to improve your experience working with us?”

If you want to give clients time to think about this, you could bring this up when you’re setting the meeting up – telling your client that you’d like to address this question when you meet.

Again, remember that when you’re asking this question, you’re making a commitment to deal with the answer you get … so you don’t want to ask this question lightly. On the other hand, for high value clients, this kind of conversation can help identify small issues before they become big problems and potentially cost you an important client.