Pain Points Deteriorate The Customer Experience
How easy is it to find a niche? Easy. Especially if you can diagnose pain points. You know, get downstream from a product or service and find the gaps between what is thought to be delivered and what is delivered; between reality and expectation.
The easy targets are bad customer experiences, high fees, and little to no innovation.
Pain Point Recognition
I love when I walk into an establishment and the employees are trained to make my experience memorable, to deal with me no matter how difficult I become, and have the ability to sidestep processes in order to get me to solutions. More memorable are untrained employees, with little to no people skills or ability to solve my problem.
The outcome: bad customer experience. Identify the logjam where customers are having a high incidence of bad customer experiences and you have a pain point. A competitive advantage. Heck even, Ceteris Paribus, a reason to start a business.
You have gas stations, grocery stores, retailers, restaurants, and health clubs that you frequent. What happens when the service provided is disproportionate to the cost? Maybe droves of potential buyers find the fees too high.
First thing that comes to mind is my AT&T bill. For most of us, price is a pain point and depending upon the product, lower fees can be a competitive advantage.
What can happen when you enter the market with price as the pain point?
Beware; as the incumbent realizes there is a competitively priced product in the market, he may start a price war with you leading to “the race to the bottom,” a price war leading to lower and lower prices. To avoid a price war, be strategic, methodical, and wise with your pricing.
Use analytics when possible. Do not put yourself out of business.
Products with little to no innovation (assuming they are not a dead invention like a Walkman) can be modified to produce a competitive advantage.
Augment the product or presentation. Once again, being downstream as a consumer has its advantages. Identify where the current product or service is lacking and create innovative solutions that match customer profiles and needs.
Brainstorm the Pain Points
A quick brainstorming session with friends, over cheese & wine can produce the pain points for your next business venture. Start by identifying the gaps between expectation and reality.
If the current solution is marred by bad customer service, high fees, and no innovation you may have found your next business concept.