What Are Customer Pain Points?
Before we attempt to discuss Pain Points, there must be a clear understanding of what they are. Client pain points are particular issues that your company’s consumers or potential customers encounter in the marketplace. They are any issues that a consumer may encounter throughout their customer journey. These issues may be different, and recognizing them may be more complicated than you think. Getting to the root of your consumers’ pain requires creative thinking and putting yourself in their shoes.
Looking for Pain Points
Top salespeople look for pain in their prospects first since suffering is what gets them started on a purchasing journey in the first place and drives the need to find a solution. When customers have Pain Points, they look for other solutions, allowing your sales force to move in. When existing customers have Pain Points, customer service staff should identify and resolve them, or your existing customers will go elsewhere. Here are some typical business pain issues that your sales staff and customer service may encounter.
Customer Service & Sales Teams are Sources of information – Use Them!
Every day, your customer service and sales staff are on the front lines of your organization, speaking with consumers. As a result, they are a great source of information. They are the go-to departments to help in identifying client pain issues. However, your representatives must comprehend the distinction between their own and the customer’s pain concerns. If their systems aren’t operating properly, it’s something you should look into, but it’s not the point of this exercise, so don’t let that derail you.
Customers may comment, “I loved your product when I purchased it before, but it’s way too costly without a discount, so I went with a different firm this time.” Alternatively, “I was disappointed to discover additional charges thrown on at the checkout that I wasn’t anticipating, thus I won’t purchase from you again.” These are instances of financial pain points, and they reflect an area of your company where you may be losing money by sending clients away with your procedures.
It’s also worth emphasizing that pain points must be evaluated and assessed regularly. Customer pain points fluctuate over time as their market expectations evolve. Furthermore, it would be unrealistic to answer every customer complaint; some consumers may never purchase a product beyond a particular price since that is just how they live their lives. You must be aware of when a pain point may be solved and when it will not bring any meaningful benefit.
Your Customer Service Team Will Know
There is a Lack of Adequate Customer Support
Does your company keep customers informed and supply support throughout the sales process and beyond? Support pain points are situations when your consumers are not getting assistance throughout the purchasing process. If a consumer cannot find an answer to a pressing concern on your website or get a prompt response from customer support, they will go elsewhere.
Your Sales Team Will Know …
Prices or the Pricing Structure Impacting on Sales?
Financial pain points are where potential consumers are spending too much money with their existing providers or goods or services and want to reduce their expenditure. Simply said, financial pain points are difficulties consumers have that include money. Here are some instances of financial pain points:
- Expensive subscription plans or membership fees.
- Low-quality items that, although being promoted regularly, will need to be replaced often.
- Fees applied at the checkout.
- There is a lack of openness on the ultimate cost.
- Fees skyrocket after a particular period.
- Problems with the Process
More General Pain Points That Impact the Entire Company
There are Inefficient Procedures Within Your Company
The processes within a company are often not specifically designed. They just are habits that have developed over time. When was the last time anyone sat down and asked, “Why do we do things this way?”
Process pain points are instances where your company causes friction or pain for customers due to inefficient procedures. Have you ever tried to get information from a company website and either been unable to find the information or had to dig down many layers to get to it? The poor user experience of the website is an example of inefficiency that will create Pain Points for your customer.
Think about your own experience – You are working on an urgent project and seek help from your supplier, only to discover that support is only available from 9 am to 5 pm on Monday to Fridays. You try email but know that the office is shut for the weekend. These are Pain Points that may make your customer look elsewhere.
Customers like convenience; therefore, if they find the purchasing procedure with your firm too cumbersome, they will move to another brand. Seventy-five percent of individuals are inclined to switch brands if the purchase procedure is too cumbersome. However, the process pain points may not be evident to you at times, so it is critical to speak with your consumers.
The Workplace Culture
People are at the core of any organization, and they are often both the most significant expenditure and the greatest value. When there are human issues, such as the ones listed below, it might, in turn, generate difficulties in other aspects of the business:
- Employee morale is relatively poor.
- Our top staff leaves for higher-paying opportunities elsewhere.
- Innovation suffers as a result of our lack of variety.
- We can’t put our faith in our intermediate management to teach and encourage us.
- Our corporate culture does not correspond to what we stated.
If any of the above are present in your organization, there should be alarm bells ringing. Once again, a complete review is long overdue. The review needs to incorporate people on the front line, not just senior management, who may be oblivious to the real-life effects their decisions make.
Productivity Difficulties
The managers’ role is to eliminate impediments for the team so that things get done, productivity stays high, and profit increases. It’s easy to become lost in the weeds of business and fall prey to inefficiencies that waste time. Here are some instances of corporate productivity issues:
- We’re always missing client deadlines.
- We waste a lot of time in meetings.
- Our administrative workload has gotten out of hand.
- Product quality flaws have resulted in expensive recalls and/or consumer turnover.
- Our personnel does not get enough help to carry out their given jobs.
This is another instance where a review needs to be carried out by management and those people in departments that are impacted by the inefficiencies.
Additional Pain Points that SMEs face.
When operating in a small firm, unresolved pain points have the power to stop operations entirely. If your company is a small firm, you should ask questions that address the various responsibilities that a small team must do vs. a corporation with a more hands-on-deck option. Small company pain issues may be widespread, such as:
- Orders are routinely sent late, and our crew is already overworked just trying to stay up.
- It hasn’t been simple to find the greatest talent for the firm.
- It’s time-consuming to post across all of our social media accounts.
- Managing staff in my company is difficult since I already wear a lot of hats.
- Accounting becomes increasingly challenging to keep up with as time passes.
Many of these difficulties may be solved by providing a product or service based on current technology and consultation. Workflow automation and proper assistance from seasoned people might help small organizations.
Fixing Pain Points
How to Solve the Problem and Make Sure Your Customers Are Aware of It.
Once you’ve discovered a client pain issue, you must devise a strategy for resolving it. The solution will differ drastically based on the customer’s pain issue and what your firm has to offer in terms of a solution. Whatever you devise, ensure the customer is informed of the changes.
Confusing and difficult to understand customer service channels might be identified as a customer pain point. Many customers may abandon their purchase if they can’t get a rapid solution to their query online.
They may have looked on your website but could not find an answer. They may have gone to your Contact Us page only to discover that they must write an email to get a response within five working days. Or maybe they need to contact customer support, but the hours are too tight, or they just do not want to since it is not their preferred mode of communication.
You should choose an omnichannel platform that provides a more flexible and comprehensive approach to customer relations. This means you may provide a variety of client contact alternatives to fit various tastes, such as Chatbots, Live Chat, WhatsApp, Calls, Contact Field Forms, and emails. You can use Chatbots 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you can now assist clients with any urgent questions they may have at the time.
Following that, it’s critical to ensure that your consumers realize that you’ve addressed this issue. Your marketing materials should contain information regarding your company’s communication availability and the breadth of possibilities it provides.
Final Words
We can see from the above article that Pain Points are very similar to the everyday challenges that your business faces. The main factor to consider is how you will fix these issues. The secret to resolving these problems is to know and understand them better. The investment in time to review the Pain Points will be an excellent investment in your company.
You may want to consider checking out some of our articles, such as In Business, How is Competitive Advantage Created.
