How to Identify Customer Pain Points
Having a solid understanding of your audience is key to being able to effectively communicate with them, and convert them into customers. And part of this is knowing what their pain points are. Understanding customer pain points can be powerful, because once you know what they are, you can address them and start to remove those barriers that are stopping your customers from converting. So, how can you find out what those pain points really are?
What are customer pain points?
Customer pain points are any problems your customers encounter during the customer journey, in their interactions with your business by extension, similar businesses in your industry. To be clear, we’re not referring to the pain points that your product or service is solving. Hopefully you identified those when developing your product, and nailed it with a great offering. What we’re referring to is those snags along the customer journey that might put people off purchasing, and even make them turn to your competitors instead.
Examples of customer pain points:
Pain points can fall into a few broad categories…
Communication and customer service:
- Is it difficult for customers to get in touch with your business?
- Do customers get a timely response when they ask a question on social media or via your customer service channels?
- Are your customers receiving too little or too much communication (e.g., daily promotional emails that could be considered annoying)?
Processes:
- How difficult is it to make a purchase on your online store? Could you reduce the number of clicks customers have to take to get to the checkout?
- Is any part of the ordering or booking process confusing or time-consuming? A study found that around 75% of people are likely to switch brands if they find the purchasing process too difficult.
- Are there any snags or areas of friction that customers have to deal with in order to make a purchase?
Information
- Can your customers easily access all the information they need about your product or service, or do they have to trawl through pages and pages on your website just to find a simple answer?
- Does the way you present your information make sense to your customers? For instance, is it obvious which menu items users need to click on to find the information they’re looking for, or have you used language or a layout that could confuse people?
Financial
- Do customers have issues with the price of your product (e.g., too expensive for the perceived value, or suspiciously cheap)?
- Are there other financial snags, like expensive shipping or booking fees?
Follow-up
- What happens after a customer makes a purchase, enquiry or booking?
- Do they get further information that could improve their experience?
- Do you do anything to make them feel valued for making their purchase or engaging your services?
How to identify customer pain points:
You might already have some ideas about where the snags are for your customers, but it’s best to do some research so you can get a really accurate picture. Here are some practical ways to research and pinpoint your customers’ pain points:
- Identify your most engaged customers and ask if they’d be up for a chat, or to fill out a survey. Ask them where you could improve, but also what they love about the customer experience with your brand, so you know if you could be doing more of it.
- Add an email into your welcome sequence with a quick survey asking new customers how they found their experience checking out, booking an appointment, or navigating your website.
- Do some social listening. Read Facebook groups, forums, your own comments section or customer service inbox. You might find customers sharing about good or bad experiences they’ve had with your customer service team or website, or even comparing your prices, deals or offers with those of your competitors, which can be insightful too.
- Read reviews – your own and your competitors’ one and two-star reviews. What is lacking that you could be addressing? Other than comments about your product or service, look out for things related to processes you could improve on, like communication or shipping times.
Creating content to address pain points
Now that you know your customers’ pain points, what should you do? If there’s anything that’s a straightforward fix, like a broken link or confusing language on your website, take care of that ASAP (and be sure to keep track of any improvements in conversions that come with those quick fixes!). But what about everything else? It’s possible some of your customers’ other pain points could be addressed with the right type of content.
Issues with price or value
If a common complaint you come across in your research is that the price of your product or service is too high compared to your competitors’, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to drop your prices. It could be that you haven’t communicated that value of your product clearly enough, and how it differs from what your competitors are offering.
Try creating some content that will show your audience why your product is worth the price. This could be:
- Behind the scenes video showing how your product is carefully created or assembled.
- Testimonials from people who have used your services and had success.
- Content that highlights how your product is unique from others on the market.
Use this content in your organic social media, in middle-of-funnel ads and on your website to help your customers understand the real value of your product or service.
Not meeting expectations
If a common theme when you read through reviews is ‘the product doesn’t look/fit/work as I expected it to,’ you might need to turn your attention to things like product descriptions on your website. Having clear and detailed product descriptions helps set up expectations for your customers and can alleviate some of that confusion. The same can be said for services. Make sure customers have clear expectations of how your appointments or consultations will work before they book in. We have a very handy free product description template that you can work through to make sure you’re nailing those descriptions.
You can also try creating social media content like product demonstration videos or user generated content that shows your product in use to give your customers a clear picture of exactly what they’ll be getting.
Insufficient information or communication
If your customers can’t easily find the information they need on your website, or your customer service team can’t keep up with enquires, it could be stopping people from making a purchase altogether. Try creating an FAQs sections on your website, and even save it as an Instagram stories highlight. People will feel more comfortable purchases if they can get answers to their key questions. You might even benefit from a chatbot on your website that can take care of some of those FAQs, and increase the chances of customers converting on your site.
If your product or service is something that could benefit from some education around how to use it, this can also help to ensure customers to get more out of it, and therefore see its true value. Maybe you sell a software program or something that requires assembly or particular care or upkeep, like a delicate garment or a plant? Try creating a series of video tutorials, blog posts or articles to educate customers about how to get the most value from what you offer. You can set these up to be sent out automatically as a follow-up email sequence after purchase, which will take the pressure off your team to answer individual enquiries.
We hope this has helped with identify your customers’ pain points, and start thinking of some content you could create to address them. Hopefully in time, you’ll see happier customers, and an increase in conversions. If you want help understanding why your customers might not be converting, you’ve come to the right place. Our team are experts in creating digital marketing strategies that convert, and can help you iron out any snags in your customer journey. Get in touch today to find out how we can help!
