What Are Pain Points?

Key takeaways

Customer pain points are challenges that disrupt the customer experience and can influence buying decisions.

• According to recent research, 89 percent of consumers say customer service is important, with 59 percent considering it more important than price [1].

• Effective pain‑point analysis requires understanding how issues arise across workflows, support interactions, pricing structures, and user experience design.

• You can strengthen your customer experience skills by practicing gathering insights from surveys, frontline teams, and review platforms to spot and resolve pain points early.

Learn about business pain points and how to identify them. If finding ways to overcome pain points interests you, consider enrolling in the Google UX Design Professional Certificate. In as few as six months, you can get on the fast track to a career in UX design. In this certificate program, you’ll learn in-demand skills and get AI training from Google experts.

What are pain points in business?

Pain points in business refer to specific issues encountered by customers, both existing and potential, within the business environment. Pain points can lead to negative experiences for customers, influencing their decision-making process and potentially dissuading them from making a purchase.

Notably, customer pain points can have implications on several aspects of a business, including product quality, research and development, brand image, and competitive positioning.

In a survey of more than 1,000 American consumers looking at customers’ expectations, data reveals that 89 percent of consumers saw customer service as important, with 59 percent identifying it as more important than price [1].

Types of customer pain points 

Pain points can have an effect on any stage of the customer journey. The list below outlines a few common types of customer pain points.

• Productivity pain points: Productivity pain points can stem from inefficient workflows and obsolete or out-of-date tools. For example, manual entry of product details into an inventory management system can be cumbersome and lead to customer dissatisfaction.

• Support pain points: Lacking customer support for a product or service creates a support pain point for customers. Limited availability of sales representatives during the purchase phase and prolonged delays in obtaining technical support are common manifestations of support pain points.

• Financial pain points: Financial pain points arise when customers perceive the lack of a fair deal. Hidden fees, ambiguous price models, or changing rates can also deter customers from making a purchase.

• Process pain points: This type of pain point results from design shortcomings, such as an excessive number of steps to download an application or a clumsy drop-down menu, leading to poor user experiences.

How to identify customer pain points with examples and solutions

Here are some tips for identifying pain points before they become bottlenecks.

1. Ask the right people. 

Customer-facing employees, such as those in customer service and sales, can provide valuable insights into customer issues. By interviewing employees and focusing on frequently mentioned issues, you can pinpoint customer pain points impacting your business.

2. Conduct customer surveys.

Get to know the pain points of your customers through qualitative market research. Be sure to include open-ended questions in your survey to encourage participants to provide detailed answers.

3. Check for online reviews.

Monitor social media and trusted review sites to identify customer pain points as they occur. Peer-to-peer review sites, such as Trustpilot, serve as a treasure trove of information for brands, as they contain a vast array of customer experiences.

After understanding pain points, it is essential to promptly and effectively address the woes. This could involve making improvements to product design, enhancing customer service processes, streamlining user experiences, or introducing new features or functionalities that better align with customer expectations.

What are the three levels of pain points?

The three levels of pain points are interaction, journey, and relationship levels. Interaction-level, or surface-level, pain points result in frustrations from a customer service experience. Perhaps the customer has long wait times to resolve an issue or has to interact with different levels of customer service to find a resolution. At the journey, or process, level, a customer may struggle with ongoing interactions with a company—whether their order experiences delays or they consistently have trouble navigating the website. Finally, relationship-level pain points are deeper issues, such as a lack of transparency about pricing or advertisements that take away from the user experience.

Read more: How to Apply a Customer-Centric Approach in Business

Related terms

• User journey maps

• Good customer service

• Customer service representative

• Customer service skills

Stay in the loop on career trends and tips

If you’re interested in expert guidance and no-fluff tips to help you build your skills, check out our Career Resource Hub. Then, explore our free customer service and user experience resources to optimize your professional growth:

• Watch on YouTube: Career Spotlight: Customer Service Representative

• Subscribe to Career Chat on LinkedIn: How to upskill for professional growth 

• Bookmark for later: Glossary of UX Terms and Definitions

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