EP #23 | 6 Ways to Research Client Pain Points

Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald, interior designer, mama, and CEO of a thriving interior design business, built on authentic word-of-mouth referrals. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate architecture job to build my own dream, one that would allow me more time with the people that I love, the ability to serve my clients at the highest level and to make a great living. It wasn't always easy, and I've made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today, and I've learned a thing or two. This podcast is for you - the inspired, creative, ambitious, and let's admit it,  occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives by transforming homes. Join me and my guests each week as we walk through practical ways to build an interior design business you love, and help you transform your client's lives. You can do this. 

Welcome back, my beautiful friend. Today we're talking about six ways you can identify clients pain points, ways that you can research them. And I kind of feel like there's been this buzz recently that this you know, talk about client pain points just gets like drilled down at nauseam and we're just kind of like, okay, you got it already. We need to know their their pain points. But sometimes it's easier said than done. And so that might be where some of the frustration is. And then there's also other scenarios where I've talked to designers who are maybe just getting started, and you're like, how do I research my clients, pinpoints if I've never had a client yet. So we're going to address that today as well. 

Whether you're just getting started, or if you've been working with some clients, how you can use their words, and where you can find their words to help you uncover those unique challenges for your specific ideal client, and understand their pain points are, before we get into these six research methods, I want to address why this is so important. Knowing your ideal clients pain points, helps you speak directly to them. And when you're able to do that, you can help them feel seen and heard. And like you get it, you understand their challenges. And you can bring the solution, understanding your clients pain points, your ideal clients pain points, both internal and external pain points. By the way, this is the bedrock of your business. Everything else works. On top of that, once you have identified your ideal client, which is another for this, we're gonna save that for another episode, because that's another one of those conversations that I feel like we heard over and over again, and it just feels like it's gotten washed away. And you know, like, we're, we're over it already, we're on to one or two. But here's the deal, your ideal client can evolve over time. So I think it's something you should be revisiting at least once a year and just see how some of those characteristics may have shifted. And so the same is true for client pain points. So it's the bedrock of your business, everything else works on top of it, because you're going to be able to craft your brand messaging, your services, the experience that you provide for your clients based on what you learned and what you uncover and what you find out. 

We're gonna get into the interior design aspect of this in a minute, but I know when I was starting designers away CES, this was one of obviously one of the first things I started researching was understanding those the pain points of designers. Being a designer myself, I had my own unique challenges and pain points. And I assumed that everyone around me shared the, you know, similar pain points, and that was true to an extent but there were different designers at different stages of their Business, who were having different challenges, some designers who were just getting started, they're gonna have very different challenges than designers who've been doing this for a while. And maybe they're trying to scale or grow or refine their client base. So you can see how this can be unique. When you're thinking about your, your ideal client, your ideal client can evolve into their pain points might evolve, evolve to, and so I'm going to give you some tools and tactics so that if you are at this stage where you're either just getting started, and you need to understand who or what your clients struggles with, or if you're revisiting your ideal client, and maybe some of those pain points have shifted a little bit, where can you find this information? So kind of no matter where you are, there's something in the episode for you.

Today, you know, I was just on a call with one of the members of the designers Oasis membership. And, you know, she said, I don't, I haven't had a client yet, right, I'm just getting started. I'm building my website and building my brand. I'm starting to get out there and talk to people. But I haven't had a client yet. So let's start there. So one of the first research methods where you can find pain points is in magazines. I don't know if you're like me, I have a obsession with magazines. I am subscribed to way too many of them. But I love them, it's one of my favorite things to do is to sit down on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and just casually browse through my magazines. But also, if you're like me, you may be guilty of perusing the beautiful photos without actually reading some of the articles. Well guess what? Inside those articles are stories and copywriters love to tell these stories. And I'm going to guess if you pick up one of your favorite design magazines and flip to one of the main stories, you will find some examples of pain points identified. And to test this theory out, I reached over and grab the closest magazine I could find as I was thinking about today's episode, and to my shock, there was only one magazine in eyesight, which is very, very unlike me. It was the European homes and gardens that I opened to the one of the feature articles in there. And right away, I found a couple of pain points. This person in this in this article, the homeowner to their home did not feel inviting. Yet they wanted a home that didn't feel run of the mill. That the the space planning in their home felt limited and restrictive. So right away, I was able to identify some pain points that a prospective client might be experiencing. And it's those words that you want to try to capture. And copywriters do this exercise called Copy banking, which is what I would encourage you to do is to create a copy bank where when you hear or find words, that resonate with you, that you save those in a place that you can come back to and refer to. And I would organize them into categories, and one of those categories should be pain points. So in your copy bank, have a section for pain points, and you could put in their spaces and feel inviting, doesn't want run of the mill feels limited or restrictive.

 So those are some examples. So I would encourage you to go to the kinds of magazines that you are drawn to and that you love, and that resonate with you. Because you're you're more likely going to find the kind of words in there that are going to resonate with the kind of clients that you want. Okay, research method number two, online forums. So online forums are websites for discussions. So some examples are Reddit, Facebook groups, or house discussions. So I'm going to say this with a little bit of Yes, but the online forums can be a good starting place. But I want you to be wary, in the long run, that your ideal clients may be different from those folks who are hanging out in the forums, just something to be mindful of, I still think there's a place for online forums to be a place where you can go search for pain points. So let's say you go to Reddit and you search interior design or you search home design. Look through the questions and see what questions are people asking. This is where you will find a plethora of pain points to help you fill your copy pink.

Okay, so moving on. Those are two examples that even if you've never had a client, you can use those right away to just get started. Once you begin to have a client base You are going to meet and talk with people who are going to give you copywriting gold, right? This is the kind of these are the kinds of words that you can use throughout your social media, your website in your collateral. So your collateral, your marketing collateral, or things like your services and investment guide, your welcome guide. And just generally speaking, how you how you talk with your prospective and existing clients. So, research method number three are your intake forms. I have a folder, a physical folder, because I'm a pen and paper kind of girl in my office. Whenever I take a discovery call, I'm always handwriting my notes, I've just done it that way. For years, I've got a little cheat sheet with specific questions, I want to answer different areas where I make certain notes. But then I'm also careful to ask specific questions that are going to guide this, these prospective clients to give me the kind of information that I'm looking for. And this is not just for copy banking, this is because I'm trying to understand if we're going to be a good fit, right? But when you're in that discovery call, you can ask questions like, tell me, what does how does your current home and I'm going to use residential as the example here because that's what I do. And that's what I'm used to. How does your home currently make you feel? So they might jump on the phone and want to say, hey, we want to do a kitchen and a bathroom innovation. And while we're at it, we might want your help doing some builtins in this mudroom or adding on an addition whatever the case may be. And they may want to go through their like mental checklist. And that's all well and good and you want to get that information.

 But I think it's also important to take time to get into a little bit of those questions of what's under the surface because pain points can be both internal and external. External pain points are the examples of you know, the space feels limiting or restrictive. Or, you know, the style doesn't fit within my tastes. It doesn't reflect me. The internal pain points, which is really important to get as well are going to be things like, okay, it doesn't look like you or your home doesn't look like your reflect who you are. Why does that matter? Well, it matters because my home, it feels embarrassing. I don't want people coming over here because it doesn't feel like me, right? Our homes are so much of our identity for a lot of folks. So understanding those internal pain points as well is really important. 

Okay, research method number three is all about your intake forms. So your intake form and you may call it something else. But this is going to be the form on your website in which a client would fill out just a couple of simple questions, probably to book a discovery call. So in this form, and you want to keep it short and simple. I do have the blog post that I can link to that shows you the kinds of questions that I recommend you include on your intake form. But your intake form is also good going to be an opportunity for you to learn clients pain points. And this involves asking the right kind of questions that are going to get to the heart of what your client is feeling. Yes, you want to keep it pretty high level you want to ask things about them. generally getting an understanding of what the project scope is, you're gonna get more information in the discovery call. But in this intake form, you can look back and you can see what are what are the words that people are using and describing to share with you what's what's going on with them. And I have kept all of my intake forms from over the years. And so for me, and you can do this too, that can be a goldmine for you to go back and look at these intake forms and decide what are those key words that jumped out that really, you know, feel like they identify your ideal client. 

Next, research method number four, are your discovery call notes. So your discovery call notes after a client has filled out a brief intake form and booked a call with you, these are going to be the notes that you take while you're on the phone with them. This may be you, or you may have someone who does your discovery calls for you. So it's really important that they know the importance of capturing the right information and gathering this information. But I will just tell you, I've always done my own discovery calls, I have a folder in my office, where I have saved probably hundreds of discovery calls, notes from over the years, and I have a little cheat sheet that I use, where I, you know, reminds me to ask certain questions, and also sections where I can highlight specific information. And one of those sections is just about pain points. So anytime a client says words to me, like overwhelmed, don't have enough time, don't know where to start, my partner, and I don't see eye to eye on what it is that we want, or those kinds of words. Those get highlighted in those pain points section for that specific client. Now, imagine if you save all of this information, whether it's digitally or handwritten, like me, you've got this to go back to three years. But part of that comes down to asking the right kinds of questions, you're going to want to ask questions that get to not only the external pain points, but also the internal pain points. So let's talk about the difference between internal and external pain points. An external pain point might be, we want to do an addition to the backside of our house or pop the top because we don't have enough space in our house. Okay, so we don't have enough space in our home would be an example of an external pain point.

If you ask the question, why does that matter, you can usually get to the underlying internal pain point of why that matters. Well, maybe it's because we are home feels cluttered, and we don't have storage for anything, and it makes me feel crazy. Or we're a family of introverts. And we feel like we're living on top of each other. And we just need some space where we can go be alone and rejuvenate. Now you're starting to get into some of those internal pain points that are going to be so important as well to helping you build that copy bank. So the discovery call can be another place where you start to get into some of those internal and external pain points. I like to for me, and however you might capture these notes, I think it's really important that as soon as that phone call is over, that you find a way to highlight those, those pain points and keep note of them for that specific client because we're going to bring those back later when we're working on the proposal. But in the grand scheme of things and the big picture for your business, those words generally can also be key for you whenever you're crafting your your brand language. Okay, so we're moving on sort of through the design process through the onboarding, and getting to know you process with your clients. And that brings us to research method number five, where you can story mine and dig up and find your clients pain points, and the next obvious place would be in the consultation. 

So oftentimes an in home consultation paid consultation is the first step to say a full service project. Now the way you run your business and the way you the way you offer services may look a little different, but this is kind of a commonly accepted pathway. So that's what I'm sharing with you today. And it's the one that we we practice so the next step would be a paid consultation. It is so important in this consultation Um, of course that you're coming in, you're getting value and you're talking and you're learning and you're listening, and you're explaining, and you're a lot of back and forth. It's very conversational. But I want you to also make time to ask those kinds of questions that are going to dig further into why something isn't working for them. What is it that, you know, if they tell you, we want to, you know, bust open this wall and do an addition, and they're getting through all of those nuts and bolts, that's great. And you're probably getting a lot of those external pain points. But I want you to also make sure that you're asking the right kinds of questions that are going to uncover their internal pain points as well. Because both are going to be really important to helping you craft your brand language.

I think it's super important to have an assistant when you're at a consultation, somebody that can be there and take really meticulous notes. And they need to be clear on the kind of information that is important to you. And it's important to educate them that, you know, I want you to be listening for words like, overwhelmed, embarrassed, you know, doesn't light me up, doesn't feel inviting, I want run, I don't want run of the mill, those kinds of things are really important to capture and write down as well. I think having an assistant that can do that note taking for you, is really valuable, because that allows you to stay connected with your prospective client while they take notes. If you're not quite there yet, you're not quite ready to bring on an assistant. Another option would be to audio record your conversation, of course, make sure you get permission from your prospective client and let them understand why that's important that you want to be able to come back and listen to it. This is just for your records. But it allows you to come stay focused and just keep in the zone of of offering your your time and your your service and your value. So consultations is another place where you can really dig and mine for those pain points as words that are going to help you create your story bank and your brand copy and your brand's language. Okay. 

And finally, the sixth and final, I wouldn't say final, there's probably many more places where you could find language to help support you and your brand. But the sixth one that I'm leaving you with today is the deep dive interview. I don't know if this is something that you do in your business. But it's something that I highly encourage the designers who are in my membership and who take my courses to include and incorporate into their process. So a deep dive interview, is the opportunity at the very, very start of a project to get to know your clients in a more personal way. So if we think about the intent of some of the touch points that we've already had, you know, the intake form is just getting real high level information discovery call getting a little bit more detail about the project, understanding what's going on and why that's important. The consultation, you're really going to be heavily focused on understanding the scope of the project so that you can go back and you can put together a proposal for them that reflects their needs very succinctly. And exactly. 

Once you've landed the project in you've signed, sealed and delivered, you've accepted your payment, you the client sign their contract, so on and so forth. One of the very first steps I recommend is this deep dive interview. You can call it something else if you want. But where everything else has been really focused around the home or the business, if you're a commercial design, this is going to be an opportunity for you to get to know your clients on a personal level. What makes them tick, what's important to them? Where did they come from? Where did they fall in love? What what do they believe what are their core values is this kind of softer things because a lot of really great design, inspiration can come out of these conversations. And it can help you just to guide the design in a way that brings the client to the forefront and shines a light on them. And you just have a better design. So in those deep dive interviews, you want to be asking some really thoughtful and meaningful questions that are going to also get to some of those core desires and core values that are going to be important in helping you craft your brand language. Maybe self care is something that's really important to them. That would be a word that you could highlight in your in your brand language brand copy. So asking great questions. And taking really good notes are going to be really important. And all of this, you know are words that you can reflect back to them in their concept design, and those other words that you took up into this point. Right are words that you can use and reflect back to them in your proposal. So when they sit down to go over your proposal, and you're using their pain points right back at them words that came out of their mouth, they're going to feel like, oh my gosh, she sees into my soul. She knows what I need and what I want, where do I sign? Right? So there's a lot of reasons why having specific pain points dialed in, for your ideal client are really important. And today, I just outlined six research methods that you can use to find those words in your business. And I just want to point out one last thing before we go.

I think it's also important that you go back and you identify, maybe there was a client that you worked with that was unsavory, maybe you missed some red flags. Or maybe you turned down a project because it wasn't a right fit. I think it's just as important to go back to the to their intake form their discovery call notes. If you got as far as a consultation, look at their consultation notes, and try to uncover maybe what was different about their words. Were there some things that they said or alluded to or hinted to? That? Maybe were some signs or red flags that maybe you caught? Or maybe didn't? I don't know. But those might be words that you avoid in your brand copy? If that's the case, so I think that every intake form, every discovery call note, every consultation, every deep dive interview has meaningful, valuable information that you can glean, if you'll take the time to stop and reflect back and look at it. Okay, I hope this is helpful. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for letting me spend part of this day with you. If you're loving this podcast, please share it with a friend who you think might also love it. Or perhaps you can take just 30 seconds to open your podcast app and leave us a five star rating. And if you have just an extra minute, go ahead and leave a review. This helps me so much and it helps other designers like you to find the podcast. It also adds fuel to my motivation to keep making great episodes just for you. However you choose to help. Please know I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time