Customer Pain Points

A Customer Pain Point is something that makes Customers uncomfortable during the process of purchasing or acquiring a product.

 

If you have ever complained about:

• Having to wait too long in a queue…
• Having go through a boring and long Registration process before buying a product…
• Having received terrible customer service…

Then, you know what a Customer Pain Point is.

 

In Business, Customer Pain Points are of great importance as they affect the Customer Experience enormously.

• Unfortunately, we all tend to remember bad experiences very well.

The best way you have to find Customer Pain Points is to ask yourself:

• What makes people feel uncomfortable?

 

There are 3 main things that make people uncomfortable:

 

1. Financial Transactions: Basically, the time to Pay.

• Every money transaction should be regarded as a Pain Point.
  • It is a Universal constant: People don’t like to pay.

 

2. Social Interactions: On average, people are shy.

• Claims, Assistance, Customer Support, etc. Should be regarded as Pain Points.

 

3. Waiting Periods: People hate to wait.

• Queues, Loading times, Time to answer a Claim, etc. Should be regarded as Pain Points.

Customer Pain Points scheme.

 

• You may have the best product.
• You may offer the best service.
• You may be giving something even for free.

… But if you don’t take care of these Pain Points, all your efforts will be sterile.

Bad memories are remembered more easily than good ones

 

Science is no 100% sure of it.

• In fact, Science is never 100% sure of anything.

 

But, a Boston College study, developed by Elisabeth Kensinger concluded that we tend to remember bad memories better than good memories.

• Check here the article if you are interested about it: “Bad memories, Easier to Remember“.

Companies tend to focus on improving their products, but they rarely try to improve situations that can be uncomfortable for their customers.

 

And, as we just saw, from a psychological point of view, they have good reason to worry about it.

• Their Customer Pain Points.

 

But there are more and better reasons why a Business should worry about Customer Pain Points.

In addition to the obvious answer (keep your customers happy) there is one reason Pain Points are very important:

• They offer Business Opportunities.

 

If you find a way to relief a Customer Pain Point in an effective, original or new way, you have a successful Business.

We know that all of this seems a bit “theoretical”.

 

Now, we will give some examples.

These are some examples of famous companies that have been successful in reducing customer Pain Points.

 

Let’s begin:

 

What Amazon is trying with “Amazon Go” is basically: A Grocery Store with no Customer Pain Points.

 

In case you don’t know, these stores have multiple sensors that detect the product you choose from the shelves and transmit this information to your account.

• Of course, you need a mobile phone with the”Amazon Go” app installed.

 

In an “Amazon Go” store, there are:

• No lines: So you don’t have to wait.
  • Waiting Pain Point.

 

• No Checkouts: So you don’t even “feel” the moment of payment.
  • Financial Pain Point.

 

• No Cashiers: So you don’t have to interact with anybody.
  • Social Pain Point.

 

However… these stores have a little problem:

• Once inside, you may not have to wait or interact with anyone but… You’ll have to queue outside until you enter the store.

 

In the past, if you wanted to listen to your favorite song, you had to buy the entire album.

• And, usually albums only have 1 good and 3 “bah… not bad…” songs.
  • The rest, tend to be ****it.

 

That is why lots of peer-to-peer file sharing programs became so successful.

• Napster.
• Kazaa.
• eMule.
• etc.

They allowed people to download the only song they wanted.

 

The “legendary” Napster platform.

 

The concept was “perfect” and for Customers; it solved lots of Pain Points:

• People didn’t have to go to the music store to buy the album.
  • Social Pain Point.

 

• The Waiting time was much better: you could do whatever you wanted while your playlist was downloading.
  • Waiting Pain Point.

 

• Music was free: you only had to buy an mp3 player or a CD if you wanted to have a physical disc.
  • Financial Point.

 

It only had one problem: it was ilegal (Copyright).

 

Apple did exactly what these peer-to-peer programs were doing… But legally.

• With a much better platform and sound quality.

But… Of course, you had to pay for each song.

 

If you think about it … YouTube is the definitive platform for audiovisual content.

 

You can see whatever you want (except for movies):

• You can watch the perfect pizza recipe.
• You can see what happens if you crush a Coca-Cola can with a hydraulic press.
• You can listen to your favorite music in streaming.
• You can learn physics, math… or MMA.
• You can even see a man in underwear with a horse mask dancing.

Whatever you want.

 

And, the best of all:

• You have all this content for free.
  • Financial Pain Point.

 

•  You have access to all this content immediately with virtually no waiting times (you don’t even have to register).
  • Waiting Pain Point.

 

• You can interact with YouTubers or a YouTube community without even meeting those people in person.
  • Social Pain Point.

 

We do not know if this situation will change in the future:

• With mandatory premium accounts.
• With content limitations.
• etc.

But, for now, YouTube is King.

A Customer Pain Point is something that makes Customers uncomfortable during the process of purchasing or acquiring a product.

 

There are 3 main things that make people uncomfortable:

• Financial Transactions.
• Social Interactions.
• Waiting Periods.

 

If you find a way to relief a Customer Pain Point in an effective, original or new way, you have a successful Business.

 

And Remember: Bad memories are easily remembered so… You should be concerned about Pain Points.