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2.1.3 Customer pains

Customer pains can have a different nature. According to Osterwalder et al. (2014) they can be grouped into three categories: undesired outcomes, obstacles and risks.

Undesired outcomes are the negative aspects that a customer may experience in getting a job done. They can be:

  • functional: a solution does not work
  • social: a solution is not appreciated socially
  • emotional: a solution does not create positive emotions
  • ancillary: a solution creates some annoyance.

Obstacles are the things that prevent customers from doing something. For instance, using a banking application on a smartphone can pose serious difficulties for some customers who are not confident in using the technology.

Risks are related to things that could go wrong while using the service. For instance, when using a delivery service such as Deliveroo, customers run the risk of food arriving damaged or cold, which is something that the app considers in its interaction with customers.

Referring back to the context of a hotel booking platform, you will now try categorising customer pains.

Activity 3

Allow approximately 5 minutes.

Match each type of customer pain with its category, considering a customer who would like to book a pet-friendly accommodation.

Social problem

The platform is known to charge high fees to hotels and flat owners

Obstacle

There is a limited and very expensive supply of pet-friendly accommodation

Functional problem

The platform does not send a confirmation email of the booking

Emotional problem

The design of the platform website looks outdated

Risk

The platform seems to have a weak data protection policy

Ancillary problem

The platform sends too many marketing emails

Using the following two lists, match each numbered item with the correct letter.

  1. Social problem

  2. Obstacle

  3. Functional problem

  4. Emotional problem

  5. Risk

  6. Ancillary problem

  1. The platform is known to charge high fees to hotels and flat owners

  2. There is a limited and very expensive supply of pet-friendly accommodation

  3. The platform does not send a confirmation email of the booking

  4. The design of the platform website looks outdated

  5. The platform seems to have a weak data protection policy

  6. The platform sends too many marketing emails

The correct answers are:
  • 1 =
  • 2 =
  • 3 =
  • 4 =
  • 5 =
  • 6 =
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