A customer pain point is an area of difficulty or frustration that customers experience with your product or service. Pain points are problems or challenges that customers face when interacting with your business.

Identifying customer pain points provides insight into opportunities to improve your product or service to better meet customer needs. Understanding pain points can also reveal areas where you can differentiate your business from competitors.

Some common examples of customer pain points include:

High pricing or unexpected fees
Difficulty using a product or service
Long wait times or delays
Complicated purchasing processes
Lack of customer support
Missing key features they need

The root of customer pain points lies in the gap between what the customer expects and what you actually deliver. Pain points arise when there is a disconnect between customer expectations and their actual experience.

Why Identifying Pain Points Matters

Understanding customer pain points provides many benefits:

Improve Customer Experience

Pinpointing specific pain points allows you to address issues directly impacting customers. Eliminating pain points enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty.

For example, if customers find your checkout process convoluted, you can streamline it to be simpler. If buyers complain about long shipping times, you can implement faster fulfillment options.

Differentiate From Competitors

Analyzing customer pain points also reveals where you can distinguish your business from others in your market.

If you uncover that customers struggle to navigate your product manuals, you could develop easier-to-use help content. Or you may discover convenience is a major pain point, so you add more self-service options.

Spotting unique pain points allow you to improve customer experience in areas competitors overlook.

Increase Sales

Resolving pain points makes it easier for customers to purchase from you. Each pain point you eliminate is one less obstacle in the customer journey.

For instance, simplifying a confusing billing process removes a barrier to completing transactions. Offering more personalized service addresses pain points around lack of customer support.

The more seamless you can make the buyer experience, the more likely customers will convert and become repeat purchasers.

Prioritize Product Improvements

Knowing customer pain points helps guide decisions on product or service enhancements. Rather than guess what customers want, you can take a data-driven approach to improving your offering.

For example, if late deliveries are a major complaint, you would prioritize upgrading fulfillment systems over less urgent feature requests. Resources go toward what matters most to customers.

How to Identify Customer Pain Points

Now that you know why identifying pain points is crucial, let’s explore proven tactics to uncover them:

Customer Feedback Surveys

Feedback surveys ask directly about any difficulties customers experience. Well-designed surveys isolate specific touchpoints to pinpoint where pain points arise.

For example, you may query customers on challenges faced during signup, making a purchase, using the product, contacting customer service, and more.

Possible survey questions include:

What obstacles did you encounter when purchasing our product?
How could we make our checkout process better?
What features were most difficult to understand?
How can we improve our customer service?

Surveys should also gauge overall satisfaction levels and the likelihood to recommend.

Customer Service Records

Analyze customer support interactions to detect pain points. Look for common questions, complaints, and requests to discern trends.

If many customers ask about the same issues, it likely indicates underlying pain points. For example, repetitive shipping or billing questions would reveal difficulties in those areas.

Support software can compile reports to identify frequent problem topics. Alternatively, manually review written or recorded interactions.

User Testing

Watching customers actually use your product reveals usability pain points. Note where users seem confused or need help completing tasks.

You can conduct in-person observation, record customer videos, or use tools like UserTesting.com. Identify points with high drop-off or completion times.

For example, user testing may show customers struggle to add items to the cart or check out. These would present obvious pain points to resolve.

Negative Reviews

Product reviews call out specific difficulties customers encounter. Look for recurring complaints in areas like usability, quality, features, pricing, and customer service.

If reviews consistently cite shipping mishaps, that signals an underlying fulfillment pain point. Let negative feedback guide your pain point search.

Tips for Uncovering the Root Causes of Pain Points

Identifying surface-level pain points is a start, but you need to dig deeper to reveal root causes. Here are tips to uncover the origins of customer difficulties:

Ask Follow-Up Questions

Don’t take initial feedback at face value. Ask customers follow-up questions to better understand the reasons behind pain points.

For example, if a customer says your product is difficult to use, ask what specifically makes it challenging. Is it unclear navigation, complex features, or lack of instructions?

Likewise, explore why processes are frustrating. Find out exactly which steps are problematic so you can address the root issue.

Map Out Customer Journeys

Visually map how customers interact with your company, noting pain points across each touchpoint. Chart out the complete journey from awareness to purchase and beyond.

Seeing the full experience provides context to hone in on the origins of pain. For example, check out pain may stem from earlier difficulties comparing plans.

Use 5 Whys Analysis

Ask “why” five times to get to the source of pain points. For example:

Customer: Your returns process is a hassle.
You: Why do you feel the process is a hassle?
Customer: It has too many steps.
You: Why does this make it a hassle?
Customer: It’s confusing to know what’s required.
You: Why is it confusing?
Customer: The instructions aren’t clear.

Now you know unclear instructions ultimately cause returns process pain points.

Observe Real-Life Usage

Watching how customers navigate your product often reveals deeper issues. Seeing users struggle first-hand provides insights harder to obtain through just feedback.

You may discover product organization causes confusion, page layouts are unclear, or instructions are insufficient. On-site observation uncovers the root causes of underlying pain points.

Executive Summary

Customer pain points are problems or areas of frustration customers experience with your business. They arise from gaps between expectations and actual experiences.
Identifying pain points is crucial for improving customer satisfaction, getting a competitive edge, increasing sales, and focusing on product enhancements.
Tactics for uncovering pain points include surveys, customer service analysis, user testing, and monitoring negative reviews.
Pinpoint root causes of pain points by asking follow-up questions, mapping journeys, employing 5 Whys analysis, and observing real-life usage.
Eliminating customer pain points enhances loyalty and creates promoters who rave about your business. Make pain point identification a priority.

Focusing on customer pain points provides tremendous opportunities to improve your business. While it takes commitment, uncovering and addressing pain points enables you to boost competitiveness, sales, and loyalty over the long term. Make pain point analysis a regular practice, and you’ll reap the rewards.

What is a Customer Pain Point and How to Identify it?

What is a Customer Pain Point?