Customer Pain Points: How to Find and Rank Them
Customer pain points are the specific problems buyers already feel strongly enough to spend time or money on. To find them for a product idea, read the places buyers describe problems in their own words: Reddit threads and comments, one and two star reviews of competitors, replies under TikTok and YouTube videos, and the promises in ads that keep running. Copy the words, count how often each problem comes back, and rank it by how often it repeats, how strongly it is felt, and whether people already pay to fix it.
This guide covers where to look beyond a single forum, how to sort what you find, and how to turn the top pain point into a product decision. For the Reddit part in depth, see how to find pain points on Reddit.
What counts as a customer pain point?
A pain point is a problem the buyer names, not one you think they have. Compare two made-up examples: a buyer writing “I lose track of my meds every week” names a pain point; a founder thinking “people could be more organized” is guessing.
A useful pain point has three parts you can check:
- A situation. When and where it happens.
- A cost. Time lost, money spent, stress, a moment of embarrassment.
- A workaround. What they do about it today, even if it is a spreadsheet or nothing.
If you can’t find the workaround, the pain may be too mild to pay for. People who really hurt have usually tried something.
Why do founders get pain points wrong?
The usual route is to ask friends or run a survey. Both reward polite answers. Ask “would this help you” and you will usually hear yes, because saying no feels rude and costs the other person nothing.
The cost is building for a problem people agree with but don’t act on. You launch, the same friends say “nice”, and nobody buys. Pain you read in public, written before anyone asked, is harder to fake.
Where do you find customer pain points?
| Source | What you read | What it is best at |
|---|---|---|
| Reddit threads and comments | Long posts and replies about a problem | Detail, workarounds, emotion |
| One and two star reviews | What buyers of competitors hate | Gaps in products people already pay for |
| TikTok and YouTube comments | Short reactions under how-to and review videos | How widespread a complaint is |
| X posts | Quick complaints and recommendations | Fresh frustration, tool names |
| Running ads in the Meta Ad Library | The pain sellers lead with | Which pain is worth paying to reach |
| Support forums and app reviews | Questions people can’t solve | Problems inside a product category |
Search for the problem, not your product. “Can’t keep my plants alive” finds buyers; “smart plant pot” finds sellers. Use the phrases a buyer would type, the same ones you would use to find competitors for a product idea.
How do you do voice of customer research?
Voice of customer research means collecting buyers’ exact words and keeping them exact. A short routine works:
- Pick 3 to 6 buyer phrases that describe the problem.
- Collect 30 to 50 quotes across at least three of the sources above.
- Paste each quote word for word with its link. No summaries yet.
- Tag each quote with the situation, the cost and the workaround it mentions.
- Group the tags. The groups are your pain points.
Keeping the words exact matters twice. It stops you from rewriting a mild remark into a strong one, and the same words later become your headline and your ads.
How do you rank pain points?
Score each group on three questions, then sort.
| Question | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| How often does it come back? | One or two quotes | Across many threads and sources |
| How strongly is it felt? | “Kind of annoying” | Swearing, “I’ve tried everything”, “I’d pay anything” |
| Do people already pay to fix it? | Only free workarounds | Competitors with sales, ads that keep running |
The pain point to build for is high on all three. One that is frequent but mild makes a nice feature, not a product. One that is strong but rare may be a small market. Proof that people pay is covered in willingness to pay.
How do you turn the top pain point into a product decision?
Write one sentence: “[Buyer] struggles with [pain] when [situation], and today they [workaround], which costs them [cost].” If you can fill every bracket from your quotes, you have something to test.
Then:
- Check the competitors against it with a competitive analysis template. If they all fix it well, you need a sharper angle.
- Run a cheap test before you build. A fake door test or a pre-order page shows whether the pain turns into clicks or payments.
- Use the quotes in your copy. The buyer’s words usually beat anything you write. Brand positioning for a new product shows how to build on them.
FAQ
How many quotes do I need?
Thirty to fifty is usually enough to see which problems repeat. Stop when new quotes stop adding new groups.
Are surveys useless for pain points?
Not useless, but weak on their own. Use them after you’ve read public complaints, to check which ones your audience shares.
What if I find no pain at all?
Try different buyer phrases first. If the pain still doesn’t show up, that is a warning sign, covered in signs your product idea is bad.
Can AI find pain points for me?
A chat assistant alone answers from memory. Connected to a tool that reads live threads and comments, it can sort real quotes. See validate a business idea with ChatGPT.
Find the pain points with Vettoz
Vettoz collects these quotes for you inside Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. For one idea he searches Reddit for each of your keywords over the last year and reads the comments of the busiest threads, then adds X, TikTok, YouTube, active Meta ads and competitors. He scores pain, demand, pay, room and reach from 0 to 100 with a GO, TEST or RETHINK verdict, and your AI writes the report with every quote linked. Your first 2 checks are free, no card. Create a free account and type “check this idea with Vettoz”, or see how it works first.