[vb6lives]

We've had success with direct communication.

Tell your users to call or email of they have questions or problems. Then personally speak with them.

You will find loads of valuable things you can do for them or find significant pain points to address.

As for sorting signal and noise, you have to find generic solutions if possible. Example: if you have any kind of reports or tables etc you will have people asking you to add, remove, rearrange them. Users will get very upset that their "really important" field isn't available. And you could add this field but then the next person will come along. So give them some options to add, remove, rearrange fields so they can get what they need without coming to you first.