As marketing professionals, we put a lot of emphasis on the things that customers want, need, and what could be missing in their current lives. We even try to predict the things they don’t realize they want/need – but what are the things that keep them up at night, and why is this important to consider as a business?
If you know what keeps your customer up at night, you can develop new and innovative ways to eliminate their concerns by providing comprehensive products and services that give them peace of mind.
That’s the short answer – but our writers at REM Web Solutions aren’t going to leave it there. In this blog, we’ll explore this topic more in-depth and give you the industry tips and tricks to help your customers sleep like babies. Figuratively and quite potentially, literally.
Identifying the Problem
What keeps most of us up at night? Fear, worry, anxiety – the typical emotions we associate with sleeplessness.
These concerns come from a myriad of potential issues: finances, interpersonal relationships, concerns about the world, and more.
No matter what industry you’re in, you have customers out there with “pain points” that you can help with.
A great example of a product/service designed to relieve a pain point would be the Life Alert products. Concerns that an elderly loved one might slip, trip, fall, or medical emergency would keep anyone up at night. Life Alert, as a business, came up with an innovative solution utilizing advances in current technology to create a product to ease that concern.
Now, they’ve expanded their business into several products and services and have seen significant growth. According to Markets and Markets, the global market for medical alert systems is forecasted to achieve 11.1 billion (USD) by 2026, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 10.3%.
Another prime example of a business providing relief to a pain point would be… well, us! REM Web Solutions. We take on the burden of managing a major pain point for a lot of companies – including website upgrades and management as well as additional marketing tasks. We have everything you need to provide the marketing solutions you need.
We use our tech and expertise to maximize your company’s marketability, addressing the pain point of your business not reaching the target audience you want. Our services and products increase your business. More business, better functionality, less headaches and worry for you.
Finding Your Customer’s Pain Points
It’s easy, as a business owner in a niche sector, to believe you know exactly what your customers' pain points are, and we don’t blame you. You may very well be well-in-tune with what your customers worry about, but can you be entirely sure?
The best way to really know for certain is to go straight to the source – your customers themselves. By leveraging quantitative market research based on the customer experience (including the things they worry about), as well as how satisfied they are, and what they might want to see from your business going forward, you can tailor your services and products to their needs.
Customer satisfaction surveys are excellent for gathering information, but instead of providing your customer base with multiple-choice questions, it’s better to ask more poignant, open-ended questions.
You can ask questions such as:
- “What did you feel was the greatest struggle during the sale process? What do you feel could be improved to make this process smoother for other customers in the future?”
- “If you could have new features added to/changed about our products and services, what would they be and why?”
- “How could our staff offer you a better experience? What gaps do you feel we can fill that we aren’t currently?”
The reason you want to offer open-ended questions is because it allows your customers to answer in their own words, rather than trying to lead them to a pre-determined conclusion.
Remember, finding your customer’s pain points is all about seeing the major concerns they have from their perspective, rather than being presumptuous about what they want or need.
They may even help you identify issues that you didn’t even know were a problem and could offer innovative solutions to these pain point issues tailored to your unique customer base.
Taking the Next Steps: Talk to Your Internal Sales Team
OK, you’ve touched base with your customers. You have a detailed list of pain points and potential pain point solutions that you want to implement by developing a comprehensive business plan. However, despite being well-versed in their own thoughts and feelings, they might not be the best equipped to articulate the best way to fix them – especially for those working in a specialized industry.
However, your sales and customer support teams are well-equipped to provide actionable feedback that fits with your business model. Besides, if anyone within your internal team is able to find inefficiencies, it’s your sales and customer support team. They work directly with customers and likely hear about the major concerns they have on a regular basis, and are well-equipped to organize and find solutions to ease pain point issues.
You can ask them a series of important questions:
- “What problems are customers regularly bringing up to you on a daily/weekly basis?”
- “What problems do you regularly run into?”
- “What changes do you feel are the most important to implement moving forward?”
Asking these questions can help you and your team to build a comprehensive pain point plan that addresses the issues facing both staff and your customers.
Exploring Pain Points - Some Examples to Consider
We won’t get into scenarios that are too specific, seeing as we work with people across several industries, but we’ll give you some general examples of customer pain points you could potentially come across.
Financial Pain Points
A customer is stressed about their finances due to limited financial literacy, or they need a service that is simply out of their budget, even if they’re good at budgeting.
Financial limitations can stop customers from receiving the services they need and search for more affordable alternatives – even if it means they have to sacrifice on the quality of product or service.
Keeping things competitive or offering a more cost-effective solution could help resolve these issues.
User-Friendliness Pain Points
Sometimes, as businesses, we can have too many steps (or too complex of steps) to accessing products and services.
This is an issue of user-friendliness, and it can be as easy as having a complex website or even a mobile website/app that isn’t optimized for the platform.
This can be super frustrating to your customers because your services and products may not be simple to access, causing them to look elsewhere.
Communication Pain Points
There needs to be clear and regular communication between your departments, from your sales team to the teams that develop and produce your products and services.
If there isn’t good communication between departments, things can begin to fall through the cracks, causing issues for you and your customers.
Teams have to improve information translation to minimize processing errors.
Not Taking Customer Pain Points Personally
While it might seem like this goes without saying, it can be difficult to hear detailed feedback from your customers about their concerns and how they feel your business may not entirely meet their needs.
Whether they're complaining about your services, dissatisfied with a product you offer, or maybe even have an innovative idea for improving, you should take these customer pain points as opportunities for business growth. Treat your customers as part of the solution.
Customers are what keep the wheels of your business turning. They need to be top priority whether they end up purchasing an end product or service to help your operations run.
Remember, customers affect your bottom line, so it's important that you and your business team solve these issues so your organization can function at its maximum efficiency. Addressing business pain points can help keep your business functioning well and ensure issues are urgently addressed.
Final Considerations
Pain points for your customers is a subject you can continue scratching the surface on the more you delve into your specific sector. Luckily for you, REM Web Solutions is here to help you every step of the way. Our detailed and tailored marketing tools are designed for you and your business, including the pain points your business faces.
We offer marketing solutions with innovation and the current digital landscape in mind and tailor our products and services towards your needs. We're not just here to offer you pain point solutions - we're here to hear you out and ensure that you and your business get the outcomes you need to sleep well at night without pain points keeping you from having sweet, sweet, blissful business dreams. REM Web Solutions has your back.
