Solving customer issues is a key to creating value in a customer relationship. Once you have identified potential customer pain points, you will know what you need to do to do to create an ideal customer journey. Establishing ways to listen to your customers is essential to learning what is causing them friction.

Let’s examine common pain points that may be affecting your customer satisfaction and how to resolve them.

1. Long response times | If getting assistance takes too long, your customers will get frustrated. Look at ways you can deliver a faster response time through live engagement tools like chat software.
   
   
2. Inconsistency | One of the key elements of a successful brand is consistency. Your customers need to feel like they can count you to deliver on their expectations through consistent experiences every single time. Make sure you have communicated with your team about the standards you expect, train them well, and inspect what you expect.
   
   
3. Lack of information | People want their questions answered 24/7 regardless of your business hours. You may need to enhance your website or technology to provide ways for customers to get the information they need when they want it.
   
   
4. Buying process is too complicated | It’s estimated that 87% of customers will abandon their cart in an online sale if the process is too long or complicated. The same holds true offline as well. Really look at the customer’s buying journey and look for ways to simplify and streamline.
   
   
5. One size does not fit all | Knowing and understanding what each of your customer segments needs can improve sales and boost customer satisfaction. Are there ways you could create more specialized experiences for different customer segments?
   
   
6. Absence of empathy | Customers want to feel that you understand their pain. How you handle situations when things don’t go as intended, will speak volumes to your customers about how much you care. In fact, problems can create an opportunity to really WOW your customers with your response.

Unhappy customers are devastating to a company’s growth. By putting the right efforts into identifying and understanding customer pain points, you can align your processes to ensure they remain happy. In short, map out the customer’s journey, understand their needs, and do what you can to remove all the frictions to that will prevent anything short of a delightful and smooth experience.