Customer Pain Points
Customer Pain Points- Necessity to understand
Startup customer pain points- Why a startup entrepreneur should know the pain points of his customer
A startup entrepreneur has to understand customer pain points, for a wider acceptance of his ideas and to engage the interests of his customers
To put it very simply, pain points are cries for help.
" Use Your own experiences and pain points to identify an opportunity. Be arrogant in thinking you can do it better than others."_Chris Hughes- Co- Founder,Facebook
The entrepreneurs have to understand that all customers will not explicitly talk about pain points but generalize their wants and needs. It is up to the entrepreneur to pinpoint their exact pain and come out with an effective solution, either be it a product or service
Why Customer pain is your most important resource ??
If your product is gonna stick, it needs to address your customers’ pain points–whether they can articulate them or not. Thankfully, some very smart people have thought about this.
https://www.fastcompany.com/1844165/why-customer-pain-your-most-important-resource
Customer Pain Points -Collect a list
i) Individual Customer
Collecting a list of pain points helps him understand what his prospective customer truly desire. Referring to these same pain points in the promotion and advertising and in one-to-one meetings with customers and prospective customers help them relate better to the product or service. This builds bridges resulting in a better rapport finally a higher trust factor.
ii. Business
There is better chance of selling a product or service to a business where the pain is a problem to the business. Here, it is better to understand the pain and act accordingly, find a solution rather than merely guessing.
The more acute the pain of the business the better the chances of the solution being accepted.
Customer Pain Points - -Testing for Customer Pain
There's a simple method for figuring out whether the new venture idea will address a real customer pain. It comes down to this: Can you describe the pain your company solves—and why anyone should care—in just a few words? Can you then persuade a prospective customer to purchase your product using your simple explanation?
Innovators and founders who need paragraphs to describe their market or persuade potential customers demonstrate that they haven't refined their businesses sufficiently.
Psychology behind human pain
· At the most basic level, people typically spend money on two things:
· First, they readily spend money to combat pain. Second, they spend money to pursue pleasure.
· Pain and pleasure, are listed in that order for a reason. All things being equal, the more acute the pain or problem, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to offer a compelling solution. The more compelling the solution, the more quickly the customer will pay. From an entrepreneur's perspective this means that it's often better to be in a "pain business" than a "pleasure business." There is simply more staying power in pain-solving businesses.
The concept of pain is applicable to businesses too. Whether it’s the pain of something not working well as the business wants or the frustration that it’s not happening quickly enough. Frustration is often the biggest pain businesses experience, as it becomes a counterproductive distraction.
So here’s five things to
consider
Customer Pain Points - Examples
The stated or unstated pain points can be well related to the following three examples.ch the pain your potential clients are experiencing – the immediate severe pain as well as the chronic pain. Provide a cure for the immediate pain first because that’s what
1.Disney’s Magic Bands ( Source : Mckinsey)
After a five-year effort to root out pain points in the experience of visitors to its theme parks, in 2013, Disney introduced Magic Bands. These brightly colored wristbands allow visitors to board rides, pay for meals and gifts, and even unlock the doors of their hotel rooms. More important, the bands and the technology behind them—which is stitched into every part of the park—allow visitors to select exactly what they want to see and do in advance. That has helped turn a day at Disney from a series of highlight attractions interrupted by waiting in line to a magical end-to-end experience.
2.Men’s Fairness Cream
It is an accepted fact that women desire to look fairer by using creams/ lotions. However, we see a sudden spurt in the growth of fairness cream business for men. It was an unstated need This is corroborated by statistics that fairness cream business for men in India is growing at twice the growth rate of women’s fairness creams.
Initially, even the advertisements showed a man stealing the women’s fairness cream. However, over a period of time as demand picked up the messages have changed and companies have brought out advertisement focusing exclusively on men’s fairness cream. This required deep pockets to create awareness by showcasing expensive male models.
3.Laptop and Smartphones
The computing industry realized that people would like to communicate, listen to music, watch movies to relieve boredom even when they are moving. This resulted in development of light weight devices. Today, this industry has created a host of new businesses by solving this problem.
The selfie craze has created a new opportunity to focus on this aspect in new smartphones.
Customer Pain Points-Epilogue
Remember that if a person or a company has a need they will spend time to find out what is available in the market to meet their need. If the same people have a problem, they will spend money to solve their problem. The startup entrepreneur has to understand this to succeed. He needs to ask that one question- what problem is he solving?
