Unanswered calls and being told to check the website are biggest London company bugbears

A new survey by leading outsourced communications provider Moneypenny, shows the biggest bugbears for Londoners trying to contact a business are calls not being answered (30%) and being told to check the website (30%).

Company communication bugbears

Calls not being answered:                              30%

Being told to check website:                           30%

Being asked to call back:                                24%

Annoying hold music:                                     22%

Background call centre noise:                        22%

Complex phone attendant messages:           22%

Having to leave a voicemail:                           21%

Feeling rushed/not listened to:                       20%

Interestingly, those in London appear to get least riled by annoying hold music: 22%, compared with 50% in Northern Ireland and 42% in the East Midlands.

The survey also shows that a major source of irritation for Londoners is when companies don’t put their phone number on their website – cited by 67%.

Moneypenny’s Customer Communications Trend Report¹ also highlights that a bad call experience can significantly impact ongoing business success, as more than a third of Londoners (34%) say they would go elsewhere following a poor call, 32% would make a complaint, while a quarter would write a negative review.

There are clear regional differences in choice of communication methods, with 28% of Londoners preferring Whatsapp to contact a company, compared with only 1% of those in the East of England and 3% in Scotland. Similarly Londoners are happier to use social media to contact a company than those living elsewhere: 12% compared with 3% in both the East Midlands and South West.

Chatbots are most popular with Londoners as a form of communication: 55% of Londoners said they are satisfied with using them to contact a company, compared with 29% in Wales and 32% in Scotland.

The survey showed that for Londoners the phone is the top choice when callers’ needs are ‘urgent’ (42%), ‘complicated’ (30%) or when they are ‘short on time’ (29%).  The research also found that 62% of Londoners spend longer on the phone to businesses than three years ago – a marked increase on the 52% finding on this in Moneypenny’s identical 2022 company communications survey.

Joanna Swash Group CEO at Moneypenny, said, “Our survey shows that people want to talk to people, but poor phone etiquette is a major turn-off, and its costing firms business.

“Just one bad call can result in lost revenue and a damaged reputation.  Professional telephone answering support can mitigate those risks, solve the phone irritations and give clients what they’re looking for – consistently high-quality and empathetic customer care, every time.

“If companies invest in their phone-led customer service to meet callers’ changing needs and complement it with digital channels, such as live chat and social media, they will deliver a much more well-rounded, seamless and positive experience for clients.”