In any company or organization, business-to-customer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B), driving sales is the most desired goal. As essential as this goal is, it has an enormous challenge: Pain points. 

Recurring customer pain points in your marketing strategy can spell doom for your business. Therefore, understanding pain points is crucial if you are trying to outshine your competitors. The questions that you should ask at this point are; 

• What exactly are pain points?
• Types Of customer Pain points.
• How can we identify pain points?
• What are the steps to addressing pain points?

In this article, we are going to answer these questions. Read on!

What are customer pain points?

Customer pain points are the challenges your current or prospective customers are facing. Simply put, they are the problems that inconvenience your customers or prospects. Customer pain points are endless and may vary from customer to customer. It is up to the marketers to discover and address the specific pain points for every customer that starts your sales journey. 

Types of customer pain points

Generally, Pain points can be grouped into four types.

1. Financial pain point: Financial pain points are the most critical pain points. They may occur due to an overpriced good or service; when your customers feel they are paying too much. A financial pain point could also result when your product or service could be more efficient than it is.

• Productivity Pain Points: Customers naturally want a seamless experience when using your products. They also expect lightning-speed support for their query because time is of the essence. Productivity pain points occur when all these criteria still need to be met. For example, there is a lag in the purchase process or a hassle in using the product or service.

• Process Pain points: These refer to customers’ inconveniences when trying to buy your product. Process pain points may be delayed in loading of the sales page or too many redundant steps in the sales funnel.

• Support Pain points: Support pain points occur when you do not have an efficient support system or help center, leaving customers to figure out things themselves which could be pretty frustrating.

How To Identify Customer Pain Points

After knowing what pain points are, the next ideal thing is to try to address them. But how can you manage them if you have yet to figure out your customer’s pain points? These are a few tips that will help you identify them;

1. Be the customer: Going through the sales funnel you set will help you experience the pain points firsthand. Purchase your products, pay for your service, and document what you find, especially the things you would change if you were a customer.

• Ask questions: Another effective method of finding customer pain points is asking your customers the right questions. You can also conduct surveys to let customers drop feedback or reviews. 

• Keep your social media pages as active as possible: It is not surprising that people are more ready to speak out on social media than anywhere else, sometimes customers may skip surveys or direct questions in the customer journey, but when it comes to the comment section on your page, they are ready to pour out everything, hook, line, and sinker.

 

Below are 5 steps to help you address customer pain points. 

1. Use a live chat: A live chat builds trust and confidence between you and your customers. Live chats can help you get a detailed report of an individual customer’s pain point and solve it instantly.

• Avoid overpricing: Make your products as affordable as possible. As much as this might be a difficult step, it is critical to address pain points. However, this does not mean running your business at a loss. There are ways to cut down on price so that it doesn’t affect your gross profit. A little price difference can help push your business above your competitors.

• Use Automation tools: Your customer’s journey needs to be as seamless as possible; Automation can help you send personalized content or emails to nudge the customer at the right time. That could be a free shipping offer as they leave the page or a 10% off code as they click back to reassess a specific product. This customized content can increase their chances of purchasing.

• Keep an eye on your competitors: When you watch your competitors, you can determine what works and what doesn’t. It can also help you develop ideas and marketing strategies that you can apply to ensure a smooth transition of prospects to dedicated customers and strengthen your market position.

• Mapping out your sales funnel: Mapping out your sales funnel will help create a seamless purchasing experience for your customers. Sales funnel mapping may comprise reviewing; a landing page, sales page, valuable offer, confirmation mail, thank you page and following your email. You can revisit these processes, remove the redundant steps, and improve the vital ones.

When you discover your customer pain points, you are on your way to developing a loyal and dedicated customer fan base. If you want to address all your customer pain points to be ahead of your competitors, click here and get an expert to help you.