How to find and solve customer pain points

Without a problem, there’s no need for a solution. Unfortunately, that means your sales team may struggle to convert leads and generate growth. So how can you make sure your time spent with prospects is successful? It all comes down to pain points.

You may have heard the phrase used in business before, especially in marketing. That’s because pain points are a key motivator for a consumer to choose a particular product or service over another. To get your sales humming, this article explains how to tune into customer pain points and provide effective solutions they won’t want to miss. 

What are customer pain points?

Pain points refer to any customer needs that aren’t being met. Whether it be something you or another company is doing, understanding the problems your prospective customers have is the first step to making them happy. 

By understanding how your customers feel, you can make adjustments that keep them satisfied – and attract new customers too. Your job is to pay attention and provide an experience that makes them feel understood, heard, and valued.  

Examples of pain points

There are four types of pain points so let’s explore what they look like:  

• Financial: They’re spending too much money. 
• Process: They’re experiencing unnecessary challenges.
• Support: They aren’t getting the help they need.  
• Productivity: They are wasting too much time. 

If a competitor's customers are experiencing any of the above pain points, they will be looking for a better solution. So, by recognising them, you have the opportunity to intercept their business. 

If your competitor is taking too long to answer a customer query, you could reach out and help them first. They will more than likely leave the first brand and consider your product instead. In the same way, if a competitor’s product is prone to technical difficulties, you can show how intuitive and user-friendly your alternative is. Before long, your target audience will see that your brand is tuned into their needs and willing to provide the service other brands aren’t. 

In the same way, if your own processes are causing these problems, you risk losing customers too. Don’t make this mistake – you need to act now. 

How to identify customer pain points

Unfortunately, pain points are unique to each industry and target audience. To understand what your customer’s pain points are, you need to understand their values and priorities, as well as how well your competitors are meeting them. 

To help you keep track of all of this, we have broken it down into the following steps: 

Talk to your employees

Before you even reach out to the customers themselves, sit down with your customer-facing employees. These people come face to face with customers every day and know your customers better than anyone else for one simple reason – customers talk to them. When it comes to understanding what matters to your customers, your frontline employees will already have a good idea. They will know the most frequently asked questions, the reasons some customers abandon the brand, and why others joined in the first place. Take the time to collect all of this information, identify the common pain points, and apply the findings to your processes. 

Check online reviews

Another key place to look for pain points is in the online reviews your brand already has from customers. Whether positive or negative, reviews are priceless sources of information. Whatever your customers think is worth sharing with other consumers will reflect what they value most. If a customer gives you a low star rating for a long wait time, you know to streamline your customer service operations. Or, if your rating is 5-stars for affordable pricing, you know not to hike the price up. 

Watch your competitors

Whether they’re doing well or not, your competitors are often a great place to look for ideas. Simply note what their customers are complaining about, praising, or sharing online, and then use it to update your own processes. This way, you can attract those customers with an experience that addresses all their pain points and demonstrates how attentive you are to their needs. 

Ask for customer feedback

The most crucial step in understanding pain points is to ask the customers themselves. By using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data, you can see what common trends there are across all your customers and anticipate what they want. The best way to achieve this is with customer feedback surveys which ask for measurable rankings and ask open-ended questions for elaboration. This way, you can track overall customer satisfaction and understand exactly what is causing those patterns.  

How to address pain points

Once you know what your customer's pain points are, you need to provide an appealing remedy. In this way, you can entice customers from your competitors and ensure your existing customers are satisfied. If you notice customers are interested in a more affordable product, adjust your prices. If they want to spend less time calling customer support, make your product easier to use. Whatever it is, follow these 4 steps to make sure every pain point is addressed: 

1. Identify and document each pain point. 
2. Make relevant adjustments to your processes. 
3. Update your marketing to appeal to each pain point. 
4. Implement an ongoing customer feedback strategy. 

By following each of the above steps, you can ensure your customer's pain points are understood both now and in the future. This way you can appeal to new customers and retain existing ones – a surefire strategy for success. 

If you want to know more about your customer's pain points, you need a platform to gather and analyse your customer feedback, you need to find a Customer Feedback Management platform (CFM) that does all the hard work for you. 

With Review Tui, you can build customised surveys, use advanced metrics, measure data, and organise everything on the central dashboard. You’ll also get real-time reporting, HubSpot integration, and campaign links to distribute surveys across any communication channel. 

Sign up for the Review Tui software waitlist or download our practical guide where you’ll find everything you need to develop a customised feedback strategy and learn our tried-and-true framework.