What have ‘pain’ and dissatisfaction in common?

To find out read on, it could change your whole perception of both.

In my early 20′s I unwittingly injured my back, and to my up most ’horror’, was struck down with absolutely debilitating back pain! From being a really bubbly outgoing person overnight life changed in the most ghastly way. I spent months and years doing the rounds of endless medical  and consultant appointments all over the UK, but no one had any answer. I even spent a much unwanted stint in a wheelchair. Meals out, the cinema, weddings, holidays and even the prospect of having children were out of the question. Life ground to a halt!  Then one day I quite literally stumbled upon a book called Pain; the Gift Nobody Wants….

The Gift Nobody Wants is written by, Dr. Paul Brand & Philip Yancey. It changed my whole perception of pain and why we ‘need’ it even when it’s chronic, and transformed me and my life back to the absolute ‘gift’ it is today.

One of Dr. Brand’s greatest breakthroughs is his discovery that people with leprosy do not have ‘bad flesh’ that just rots away by itself but in fact, their flesh is just as healthy as yours or mine. Unfortunately they lack the ability to feel pain. As the blood flow is cut off from key parts of their body, their nerve endings die. With the death of their nerve endings comes the death of their ability to sense danger to their bodies. Leprous people live a virtually pain-free existence. Many of us would do anything to live a pain-free life wouldn’t we? Yet in fact, the absence of pain is the greatest enemy of the leper. Again and again they wound and impale themselves. Yet they don’t feel a thing.

As the damage to their limbs becomes infected it causes further problems leading eventually to whole areas literally falling away. The book is a fascinating read about the work carried out by Dr Brand in saving millions of lives due to his discoveries and the treatments that followed. It gave us hope that pain is good.

Dissatisfaction – the Business Pain Nobody Wants

Pain is a warning signal that tells us things are not right. So too is customer dissatisfaction – it tells us we need to attend to an area of our customer experience that needs fixing. Dissatisfaction is something we may not wish for in the minds of our customers but acknowledging it and using it to eliminate the cause of the customer’s pain is important.

But here’s the challenge, many customers feel the ‘pain’ of doing business with you but they don’t always go on to tell you. My wife suffered chronic pain for over a decade but she didn’t make it a habit of telling everyone she met how she was feeling. She kept her thoughts to herself only sharing them when she had to or when the situation became too intense to hold back any longer.

Customers can be the same too, they may be putting up with some pain, what I call the PinchPoints within their customer journey. They may be tolerating these without letting you know how shortcomings in your service or product offering are effecting their experience. Keeping silent until the pain gets too bad.

But what has this to do with dissatisfaction?

Where Are Your PinchPoints?

So where within your customer journey are the PinchPoints? And how do you know, when after all, only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches?

As much as you can predict where some PinchPoints might be the only way to really understand them is to ask your customers. And the best way to do this is to speak with as many as you can regularly. Use a multitude of feedback mecahnisms e.g. online surveys, face to face, telephone interviews, custoemr forums, informal meetings and just asking them after each transaction.

Four Actions You Can Take:

• Map out your customer’s journey with all the steps they go through
• Work out where you think the PinchPoints are – the likely points of pain
• Work to eliminate these
• Involve your customers in helping you not only identify the PinchPoints but how to creatively fix them

Dissatisfaction – a Protective Pain

So the next time you receive a customer complaint, avoid reacting as if it’s a pain you don’t want, but react as if it’s an opportunity to save your business. A pain designed to protect. pain that is good. And remember the silent voices are often the silent majority, if they aren’t complaining it doesn’t mean they aren’t suffereing any pain.

Like to know more about PinchPoints and NiceTouch Mapping or how to gather feedback automatically?

Then drop me a line or give me a call on 01214 269076 and I’ll explain how we can help.