The Market Veep Blog - Marketing Made Human

How to Identify and Address Customer Pain Points

Written by Market Veep | October 24, 2019

But what are pain points and how do you go about identifying them? You’ve come to the right place to find out. Throughout the course of this article, we’ll break several examples of pain points that customers commonly face and how to address them at each stage of the customer journey.

What are customer pain points?

Before we delve into the process of identifying and addressing customer pain points, let’s start with a baseline: what is a customer pain point?

Customer pain points are problems that a current or potential customer is experiencing. At the most basic level, pain points begin as unmet desires or unsolved problems that potential customers are looking for a way to solve.

 Whether they manifest as minor annoyances or major business challenges, everyone’s pain point definition will likely look a bit differently. But one thing will always remain constant: it’s the job of the products and services a company offers to solve that problem.

But it’s also important to address customer journey pain points, which are issues that stand between customers and your company’s solutions. Identifying these issues can go a long way toward providing a better customer experience.

Types of customer journey pain points

Customer journey pain points are the potholes along the road to customer satisfaction. At some point, we’ve all found ourselves on the receiving end of common pain point examples like getting stuck on hold or dealing with confusing product instructions. Here are several major types of customer pain points to avoid:

Product or service quality

No matter how skilled your sales and marketing teams may be, news of a bad product won’t stay quiet for long. Never release a product or service before you’ve done enough research to ensure that it adequately addresses the customer pain points it’s designed to solve.

Subpar customer service or support

The realm of long, elevator music-infused wait times, multiple call redirects, and slow responses is where customer satisfaction goes to die. Make sure your customers know exactly where to go for support and that they’re able to receive it in a timely and efficient manner.

Financial

Financial pain points come in many forms, from excessive subscription or service prices to hidden fees. Avoid this pitfall by offering fair, transparent, and consistent pricing. Additionally, ensure that your checkout process is as easy as possible.