Got Tech Buyer’s Remorse? You’re Not Alone Says Gartner

We’ve all been there. We purchase something and…it doesn’t quite work out like we thought it would. Buyer’s remorse is a seller’s nightmare. According to a recent CIO Dive article, even the best cloud software solutions, DevOps applications and CRM systems are major failures when purchasers aren’t happy.

 

But new Gartner research shows buyers should shift their blame and look inward to identify who is at fault. What drives customer dissatisfaction most often is the quality of a buyer’s approach to acquisitions rather than the technology, a Gartner report found. Most buyers find a way to get value from their purchases, said Hank Barnes, VP analyst at Gartner. “They just don’t enjoy the experience, and many find the initial stages of deployment more challenging than they expected,” Barnes told CIO Dive in an email.

 

Playing the post-sale blame game is as tempting as it is unproductive. Buyer remorse rebounds onto the product and service vendors, regardless of where the fault lies. Ultimately, enterprise IT providers want happy customers. Unhappy customers are easy to come by, according to the Gartner report, which surveyed 1,120 IT leaders and managers involved in large-scale acquisitions over the last two years.

 

The respondents regretted 56% of the purchases Gartner analyzed. Seven out of ten respondents complained that purchases fell below expectations or were less ambitious in scope than originally planned. Poorly orchestrated decision-making by the customer, internal disagreement over objectives and delays in green-lighting purchases are three common symptoms of impending buyer remorse.

 

In-house talent also plays a role. “Between the Great Resignation and the cost of highly technical resources, there’s this new commonality, where customers don’t have the technical expertise to do what they could do 24 months ago,” Gartner said.