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“Different industry; distinct problems and challenges.” It is an undeniable truth. When you traverse from one industry to another, you will come face to face with unique problems.
The IT industry isn’t an exception. No matter how much technology has advanced, challenges never cease to stop. Clients and customers who have a lot of expectations sometimes have to return with disappointing faces or sometimes empty-handed, if not most of the time. But why is that? What are the challenges faced by customers and clients? Shortly, we will discuss these.
The IT industry is the fastest-growing sector in the world. Every day, you interact with new trends and technology. Therefore, clients and customers like you have to face distinct challenges. Sometimes, you are unknown about the huge and diverse IT sector, making it tough for you to know what to expect from a vendor or what and how to convey your requirements.
Sometimes, you interact with a company that cannot understand your problems. They are incapable of coming up with solutions, even so, they commit. Other times, you cannot choose the right company. Similarly, you face many challenges in the IT industry.
So, in this article, we have addressed some problems and challenges faced by customers and clients in the IT industry. So, without further ado, let’s start.
Challenges faced by customers and clients in the IT industry
Finding the right company or experts
You probably have heard of or seen a lot of IT companies. People being more fascinated by the technologies and seeing the demands of the software, more and more startups are popping into the market. Plus, almost every sector is run by software nowadays, so people are more attached to this field. As a result, not only companies, but the number of developers and designers is also skyrocketing.
It is a good sign. But for customers and clients, it is a challenge. It makes it harder for them to choose the right company or experts for their project. If they are not so tech-savvy, then it becomes impossible for them to select the ideal one.
Moreover, there is the risk of choosing an unreliable company and being stuck with the wrong one.
Lack of knowledge about IT
One of the biggest challenges faced by the customers is the lack of knowledge about IT. The trends and technology change quickly. As a result, their requirements may need modifications, but they may not be aware of them. They may not be able to grasp the situation that their requirements aren’t feasible in the current market scenario.
Moreover, even if they know about a system, it gets a new update. As a result, they again have to get comfortable using it. And there is a possibility that it may get another update before they adapt to the previous versions. It becomes more time-consuming.
Plus, there is another major concern. If customers are lacking IT knowledge, then not finding the right company is one problem, but they may not be able to know what to expect from their vendor. It will be a challenge for them to communicate their requirements.
Changes in the industry
As stated earlier, the IT industry is the fastest-growing plus ever-changing sector in the world. The technology that you are using now may not be usable tomorrow. It is like a dynamic environment where you won’t know when it will change.
Technology stack changes, the way software looks and works changes, and so do the requirements. This makes it challenging for customers and clients to choose the right company that has expertise in what they are looking for.
Complex systems
The technology you are using gets updated from time to time. So, you need to keep updating it. At the same time, you need to adapt to it, making it more time-consuming and sometimes, complex to understand the changes.
Moreover, the systems in the IT industry are integrated for many years. So, it makes it harder for anyone to fix, improve, and modify the system without hampering the other functionalities in any way.
But, you might be wondering how it affects the customers. Maintaining such a system for any company is huge. So, the cost of products and services also increases and is charged to the customers and clients.
Hiring new people before/during the project
Few people may know this, but many companies practice hiring employees right before and during the project. While recruiting experts is not a bad thing at all, the chance of project delay increases because they need time to understand the project’s requirements, and scope, and above everything, finish everything before the deadline.
Such practice sometimes risks the entire project. Moreover, they may only have a few weeks of training. Plus, companies assure that they have enough employees and expertise for the project, but instead hire new people to do it. This sometimes dangers the project’s data and source code.
Just competent for the job
Sometimes, people are just competent for the job. But, they don’t understand that there are things they need to understand, such as communication skills. If employees don’t have interpersonal skills, then communicating with the customers and identifying their pain points will be challenging for them. Moreover, this makes it tough for the clients to communicate their needs and requirements clearly. And, there is the chance of misunderstanding and the expected results may deviate.
Low-quality product
This is a major concern in the world of IT, where after delivery, the customers and clients report that the software stops working or throws lots of bugs and errors. This happens when the developer misses the testing process either voluntarily or involuntarily. And this mainly results when you hire an unreliable software company or freelancers.
Without testing, sometimes the developers deliver the project. They just test the software for the sake of testing, but not rigorously. They don’t observe how the software is performing. And sometimes, they practice integration testing, but not unit testing. When they opt for such practices, the system may work fine, but knowing how each feature functions may not be known. As a result, software crashing, constant hang, slow performance, etc.- such issues arise.
Price trap
Price trap is a common, and one of the most disappointing challenges faced by customers and clients. With the increasing number of IT startups, differentiating genuine and fake, unreliable companies has become a challenge.
Some people lure customers by offering a cheap price. And the customers get attracted to their offers like a magnet.
So, the fault also lies in customers since they are attracted to such a cheap price. Anyone can say anything, but the customers must research thoroughly before falling into their trap. You will see many firms or people telling you they will do your work just for $200 or $300. Such tricks are tempting, but the quality of services and products they provide will be low.
We understand that some of you might not have enough budget to hire established or reliable companies. But opting for such a cheap price, in return, will be an expensive journey for you. You might get the software, but not a fully functional quality product. So again, you have to hire developers to fix the issue or redevelop the software.
Delay in delivery
The delay in delivery is another most common challenge faced by the clients.
Sometimes, the companies fail to deliver the project on time. There might be various reasons for it. However, when a company commits, it should finish the work right on schedule. If they are having problems, then they should immediately report them to their clients. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen sometimes.
Delay in communication
Communication is a bridge between clients and companies to have a mutual understanding and work together on making a project successful. However, sometimes, miscommunication becomes a villain. It completely disrupts the progress, dissatisfying the clients. In this situation, either clients are unable to convey their requirements clearly or the development team mishears. As a result, the developers develop a different product.
Sometimes, companies don’t follow up with the clients and don’t report on the project’s progress. Instead, the clients remind them, which is a poor practice.
Sometimes, clients have to wait long before getting any updates about the project.
Such poor communication, miscommunication, or delay in communication is a major problem faced by customers and clients not only in the IT industry but in others as well.
Hidden fees
Sometimes, the companies may not tell you about the hidden fees that come up when taking their services.
The hidden cost may include servers and hosting, third-party APIs and app integration, app stores, mid-development changes, maintenance, updates, etc. Some companies may or may not comprise these, but they will charge them by camouflaging these costs in some services when estimating.
These costs are the genuine cost that the software companies have to pay, so it is best to tell your clients, instead of hiding them.
Unable to offer a solution, still overpromises
Some companies commit even if they don’t have the expertise to develop the software. They plan to hire experts, but sometimes, it backfires on them, since getting the right person at the right time might be impossible.
One reason they over-commit is increasing competition in the market. Everyone wants recognition, customers, and scale. So, the best way is to take on as many projects as possible- this is what they think. However, they don’t understand that if they don’t stand firm in their promises, it not only leads to customer dissatisfaction but also hampers their reputation.
So, it is best to take the number of projects you can handle and, most importantly, provide quality services and products.
Data Security
There is always a risk of data leaks and theft. This happens whenever you don’t give yourself enough time to research the firm or developers you are hiring. If you don’t hire a trustworthy company or freelancer, then no one can guarantee the protection of the project’s requirements, features, blueprint, designs, source code, etc.
Plus, the increasing number of hackers is a challenge for everyone. So, whenever you are hiring someone, ensure they have secure security protocols and technology. Make sure they keep everything confidential and use the industry-based security guidelines.
Read more: 9 Ways to Manage Client Expectations in Web Design
Why choose Truemark Technology?
Truemark Technology is a software company with 5+ years of experience. Since customer satisfaction is our main motto, we have been delivering services and products that resonate with their brands.
What we do to solve the above problems:
- We have development teams with years of experience to help you deliver exactly what you need.
- We use technologies that are flexible enough to cater to your changing business requirements.
- You get the best development services without compromising on quality.
- We have dedicated working processes and communication guidelines to help everyone stay on the same page.
- We communicate regularly with you (clients) to report the project’s progress and also practice standup meetings daily.
- Before starting any project, we always opt for the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to keep your data and project confidential.
- We offer free consultation services.
To know about our history and achievements, you can check out our portfolio.
So, if you are looking for a reliable development partner to make your dream project idea a reality, then Truemark is here to help you. Feel free to contact us at any time. We would be happy to assist you.
Cover Image Credits: Vectorjuice from Freepik
