Why Worry About the Pain of the Customer?

Bradley Gale and Robert Buzzell in The PIMS Principle stated, “…businesses with a superior product/service offering clearly outperform those with inferior quality.”

Does worrying about the customer’s pain really pay off?

The data from over 450 companies (in The PIMS Principle) shows that companies that care about quality and meeting customer needs have stronger customer loyalty (more repeat business) and are less vulnerable to pricing strategies (price wars). These companies can command higher prices for their products and services. They have lower marketing costs. A customer that buys from one of these companies is less likely to be challenged by management for making that decision. It is a “safe” decision.

Many companies collect pain points. We have seen lists of several hundred pain points within a division of a Fortune 500 company. How does this company decide which pain points to address? In most cases, the decisions are political, based upon who complains the loudest. Obviously, with a list of several hundred pain points, only a small percentage of these ever get attention. Much of the focus of this book is to help you decide what needs attention, how to select the appropriate issues and what strategies would address the most pain points where you have the most to gain.

As you progress through this book, realize that most customers respond to products and services that reduce their pain or their risk of pain. Do you remember the ads for headache and pain relievers from years ago? Some of these ads give you the impression that they are striving to create the headache that their product would then solve! Customers respond to pain in advertising. Any popular magazine illustrates this point. The ads, even in business magazines, often focus on one or more pain points and use the solution or reduction of pain as a key to the promotion of their product or service.

Keep in mind that the pain of the customer is the foundation of the Pain of the Customer and all of the processes described herein.