While your brand strives to offer the best products and create an exceptional shopping experience, some factors may be undermining your success. A complicated website can cause even eager browsers to leave abandoned carts. Slow shipping that misses promised timelines convinces customers they can’t count on you when it matters. A product that overpromises and under delivers—like a “premium” wool sweater that pills after a wash—will ensure a buyer never shops with you again.
These are examples of customer pain points that crop up along the buyer’s journey—from when a shopper first interacts with your brand to when they finally use it. Read on to learn about the types of customer pain points, how to identify them, and best practices for fixing them.
What are customer pain points?
Customer pain points are the specific problems that consumers face when interacting with your business (or its products and services). In ecommerce, customer pain points might include a shopper abandoning their cart due to unexpected shipping fees, while a customer at a brick-and-mortar store might struggle to find the assistance they need. Understanding and solving these pain points can help you maintain a competitive advantage and avoid customer churn to retail rivals.
Types of customer pain points
A customer might abandon their shopping cart due to an exhaustive checkout process. Alternatively, they might feel frustrated that the item they received in the mail isn’t as simple to use as advertised. While both of these are examples of pain points, they fall into different categories. Here are four different types of customer pain points to know:
Financial pain points
A financial pain point relates to customers’ concerns about costs and the value of your products and services. These issues often manifest as sticker shock, unexpected fees, or the feeling that a product isn’t worth its price tag. Customers may feel they’re overpaying for features they don’t need or that competitors offer better value. For example, a customer might hesitate to purchase a high-end seven-speed blender, questioning whether the premium pricing truly reflects superior quality compared to more affordable options—especially if they have to pay extra for accessories and shipping.
Productivity pain points
A productivity pain point arises when customers feel a product or service is inefficient and difficult to use, or if it fails to actually solve their problem. These pain points can lead to frustration and a sense that the purchase has complicated (rather than simplified) their lives. For example, a “smart” thermostat that needs frequent manual adjustments, despite claiming to be self-learning, might frustrate homeowners by complicating a once-simple task.
Process pain points
Process pain points occur when customers encounter friction during their interactions with your brand. These might be a convoluted ordering system, opaque shipping policies, or inconsistent experiences across different sales channels. Customers facing process pain points often feel confused, annoyed, or undervalued. For instance, a furniture retailer might create process pain points by offering inconsistent delivery information online versus in-store, leaving customers unsure about when they’ll receive their purchases.
Support pain points
A support pain point emerges when a customer struggles to get the assistance they need, leading to feelings of frustration and abandonment. These issues can manifest as long hold times, poorly trained representatives, or a lack of self-service options for common problems. This can leave customers feeling ignored or undervalued by your brand. A consumer electronics brand selling smartwatches and wearables might create support pain points by offering generic and unhelpful troubleshooting advice on its FAQ page that fails to address common product questions that customers may have.
How to identify customer pain points
You may see the consequences of genuine customer pain points in high cart abandonment rates or elevated return rates. It might even be impacting customer retention. But are people bouncing from your website because of poor ecommerce UX or high price points? Here are some strategies for identifying customer pain points:
Review your website analytics
Analyzing your website metrics can reveal critical pain points in the customer journey. Pay close attention to bounce rates, exit pages, time on site, and conversion rates at each stage of your sales funnel. Additionally, heat maps and session recordings can provide insights into user behavior and points of frustration. For instance, if you notice a significant drop-off at the account creation step during checkout, customers might find this process cumbersome and you could try introducing a guest checkout option.
Set up user testing and feedback sessions
User testing (or usability testing) sessions are invaluable for uncovering pain points, whether you’re addressing existing issues or proactively improving your product before it goes to market. Invite participants to use your product or navigate your website while you observe their interactions and listen to their feedback. Offer incentives like gift cards to encourage participation and honest feedback. Consider conducting both in-person sessions for detailed observations and virtual sessions via Zoom or Google Meet to reach a broader participant pool.
Nadya Okamoto launched August, a sustainable menstrual care company, after compiling years of market research and community feedback. She spent six years speaking with customers about menstrual equity and better period care.
“Who are we serving? Who’s the end user? What do they need? What are they not currently getting? And how can we do it in a way that is unique and different?” Nadya says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, describing the questions they sought to answer in their research process. “It started as Zoom calls and iMessages. And then, we were looking for a conversation platform. Geneva really fit what we were looking for.”
Monitor social media sentiment
Customers might not be forthcoming with their feedback to your inbox but may share their experiences openly on social media platforms, providing unfiltered insights. Look for mentions of your brand on platforms like TikTok, where users might post product review videos, or X for real-time feedback. Try out sentiment analysis and social media listening tools like Brandwatch, Sprout Social, or Hootsuite Insights to track these conversations and help you identify emerging issues before they bubble into brand perception problems.
Assess customer support tickets and calls
Customer support interactions are a treasure trove of information about pain points. Analyze support tickets and recorded sales calls to identify recurring issues. Don’t limit this valuable data to your customer support team and sales team; create systems like regular cross-departmental meetings and shared dashboards to share these insights with product development teams and executive leadership. One mention is a data point, but many mentions indicate a trend worth addressing.
Lulus, a fashion retailer known for trendy women’s clothing, has been a staple in the ecommerce space for more than 25 years. On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, CEO Crystal Landsem shared one secret that has helped keep customers happy: the brand’s unwavering commitment to staying engaged with customer feedback. “We’re still looking at every single customer exit survey that comes through in a very raw data dump into our email every morning,” she explains. “The entire leadership team looks at it. It’s not aggregated. It’s not streamlined. It’s just raw customer feedback every day.”
Set up customer surveys
Customer surveys provide direct insights into the experiences and frustrations of your buyers. Post-purchase emails in particular offer a timely opportunity to capture feedback while the experience is fresh in customers’ minds. To boost response rates, consider including cards with QR codes in your packages, linking to your survey, and offering an incentive for participating, like a discount on future purchases.
While designing your survey, balance between gathering comprehensive information and respecting your customers’ time. Here are a few questions to include in your customer surveys:
- On a scale of 1-5, how satisfied were you with your recent purchase?
- What was the main reason for your purchase?
- Did you encounter any challenges during the shopping or checkout process?
- How likely are you to recommend our product to your friends or family?
- Is there anything we could have done to improve your shopping experience?
How to address customer pain points
- Simplify the checkout process
- Provide flexible pricing and payment options
- Develop comprehensive self-help resources
- Implement responsive customer support
- Establish a rapid product development cycle
- Offer effortless returns and exchanges
Knowing the issue is one thing; addressing it is another. Some pain points can be resolved quickly—like adding clearer pricing information—while others might require more time and resources. Here are some strategies to consider:
1. Simplify the checkout process
Simplifying the checkout process helps reduce cart abandonment rates. Offer a guest checkout option for new customers, and consider providing important price and shipping information before asking users to fill in their details. Implement one-click purchasing for returning customers and integrate popular digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal to provide faster payment options. Add address autocomplete and validation for checkout information to reduce errors and save time. Finally, offering a progress indicator can show customers how close they are to completing their purchase, reducing uncertainty and improving the overall experience.
2. Provide flexible pricing and payment options
Price can be a significant barrier for many customers. Introducing different price points or product tiers can help cater to various budget ranges. For added convenience and optionality, implement a buy now, pay later service like Shop Pay, Klarna, Afterpay, or Affirm to make larger purchases more accessible. Explore subscription models or bundle deals to provide better value and encourage repeat purchases. Be transparent about all costs, including shipping and taxes, early in the checkout process to avoid surprising customers with additional fees.
Faded, a skin care company specializing in hyperpigmentation treatments, offers its flagship Faded Serum in full-sized ($38) and mini ($18) versions. For budget-conscious shoppers, it provides four interest-free installments through Afterpay or Shop Pay. These flexible pricing and payment options make the product more accessible to a wider range of customers, potentially increasing sales and reducing the barrier to entry for new users interested in trying their skin care serums.
3. Develop comprehensive self-help resources
Often, your product might not be as intuitive as you hoped, leading to customer frustration. However, you can alleviate this pain point with robust resources. Start with great customer onboarding and provide detailed FAQs and troubleshooting guides.
Bruvi, a coffee brewer company, has a wealth of resources covering orders and shipping, brewer care, and troubleshooting. It provides how-to videos on descaling its Bruvi Brewer, instructions for using reusable pods, and a comprehensive tour of brewer features, helping customers resolve issues on their own.
4. Implement responsive customer support
Don’t skimp on customer support. While AI chatbots and self-serve options can complement your support function, human interaction remains important—whether via chat, email, or phone. Empower your support team to go off-script and provide real solutions, including no-questions-asked refunds for unhappy customers when appropriate. This approach builds trust, demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction, and can turn a negative experience into a positive one, saving the customer relationship in the long run.
5. Establish a rapid product development cycle
If a product has recurring issues, addressing them might require more than a quick fix; you may need to return to the product drawing board. To make this less cumbersome, establish a system for rapid prototyping and testing improvements, and leverage technologies like 3D printing for quick mock-ups of physical products. The quicker you can iterate, the faster you can get improved products to market, addressing customers’ pain points at their source.
6. Offer effortless returns and exchanges
Even with the best products, sometimes items just won’t work for a customer. Make your return policy easy to find and straightforward. Simplify the return initiation process, possibly through an online portal or app. Consider offering free return shipping if it’s financially feasible for your business. While an item might not be right for a customer now, a smooth returns process can leave a positive impression, encouraging them to try your company again in the future.
Customer pain points FAQ
What is an example of a customer pain point?
An example of a customer pain point is a complicated checkout process that requires multiple steps and unnecessary information. This may cause the customer to abandon their cart and leave your website without making a purchase.
What are common customer pain points?
Common customer pain points include a complex online checkout flow, inadequate customer service, hidden fees, complicated return processes, and poor product quality.
Why is it important to identify customer pain points?
Identifying and addressing customer pain points is important because it allows businesses to solve issues that may be driving customers away, improve overall satisfaction, and increase customer retention and revenue.
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