Slow communication costs British businesses £70bn

The average cost of not responding to a potential new business enquiry is as much as £30,000

British businesses are losing valuable contracts because they cannot be reached fast enough by potential customers, according to a recent study from Vodafone.

According to Vodafone’s Critical Response Time Index 2010, the average cost of not responding to a potential new business enquiry is as much as £30,000 for the average company. This marks an almost £10,000 rise on the 2009 figure and equates to £70bn of potential business lost across the country.

Over the past year, almost four in 10 businesses (39 per cent) that had cancelled a contract with a supplier, did so because of poor communication. They cited difficulty contacting key decision makers or getting a slow response to an urgent call as being the deciding factor when terminating the contract.

The study also shows that suppliers are not safe because they have worked with the same company for a long time, as more than seven in 10 businesses polled (71 per cent) said there is less room for goodwill, personal relationships and giving suppliers the benefit of the doubt in 2010.

Peter Kelly, director of enterprise at Vodafone UK, said that unified communications is the key to making businesses more responsive.

“Companies can become uncompetitive because it takes them too long to get the right people together to make decisions quickly. The power of unified communications is to reduce the time to make decisions – whether to approve a commercial offering, to approve an investment or an appointment,” he said.

“It is possible to have a single phone number to cover a fixed and mobile phone. When someone calls the number, the recipient’s fixed and mobile phones ring at the same time. This is an invaluable feature, say, for a service-based company that wants to be available around the clock. And for the customer, there is just one number to call, regardless of the time.”

Despite Vodafone’s advice, end user demand for unified communications remains stagnant, with most businesses claiming that it is too complex and not worth the money.