pain point

noun

plural pain points

: a persistent or recurring problem (as with a product or service) that frequently inconveniences or annoys customers

When you're in an established market, you have an established customer; their needs and pain points are clearly laid out on your competitors' review sites.

—Billy Polson

Customer service, which has been a pain point of bigger banks for years, is also improving in that it's getting faster and requires little from you.

—Chris Welch

broadly : something that is a recurring source of trouble, annoyance, or distress

Meanwhile, ironing is a pain point with her boyfriend because she loves the look of a crisply pressed men's shirt. "He never irons his shirts and it drives me crazy," she [Elyse Moody] says.

—Jura Konicus

Examples of pain point in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Long March In terms of AI safety and the singularity, Altman, when asked about pain points, suggested that there’s going to be a big gap between AGI and the eventual singularity. —John Werner, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024

Volvo’s infatuation with minimalist controls continues to create some pain points. —Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press, 25 Nov. 2024

Your first meeting on the topic is to socialize the idea of the change and assess pain points for people. —Jay Sullivan, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024

These assessments are meant to help health departments identify a locality's major pain points to then devise a plan to address them. —Sabrina Moreno, Axios, 19 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1986, in the meaning defined above