New survey shows the UK regions most resistant to communications technology

Despite great strides being made by companies using a range of digital technology to handle customer communications, a new survey by outsourced communications provider Moneypenny, shows that people in certain regions of the UK are more reluctant to engage with it than others.

The survey, conducted among more than 1,000 consumers across the UK showed that 36 per cent of those surveyed across the nation are satisfied with their experience of using chatbots, forums and FAQs to handle their queries, while 28 per cent had neutral feelings towards it, and 22 per cent were dissatisfied.

However, while Londoners are broadly satisfied with engagement with this tech, this is not the case in some of the regions.

Satisfaction with chatbots, forums and FAQs:

Dissatisfaction levels with chatbots, forums and FAQs also vary similarly:

The survey also showed that older generations are more resistant to using digital communications than younger ones, with the following dissatisfaction levels shown:

Live chat has been around for some time and continues to grow steadily. In fact, during the pandemic, Moneypenny says the usage of live chat conversations doubled.

Across the country, those in Greater London, Northern Ireland and Scotland are most happy with live chat (40 per cent, 48 per cent and 47 per cent respectively), compared with only 29 per cent happy to use it in the South West.

Younger people are much happier using live chat than older people are: 54 per cent of 25 to 40 year olds are happy with live chat, compared to 30 per cent of over 66 year olds and 35 per cent of 57 to 66 year olds.

Despite variations in satisfaction with different tech communication channels, there is general agreement that great customer service is an important business differentiator: 72 per cent of those surveyed agreed with this, whereas only 12 per cent disagreed.

There seem to be strong feelings in the power of customer service in Scotland, where 86 per cent agreed that it is a great differentiator, compared to 63 per cent in the South East.

The survey also showed older people believe most strongly in the power of great service: more than 81 per cent of all those over 44 said it was a differentiator, compared to 64% per cent of 16 to 24 year olds. 

Commenting on the survey results, Joanna Swash, Group CEO Moneypenny, said: “While it’s interesting that our survey showed people are becoming more accepting of newer forms of communications, it’s clear that the human touch is so important, and our live chat services manned by our people are certainly very popular. 

 “Clearly companies need to provide a range of communication channels to suit everyone, but they would do well to remember that whichever channels used, the key is in delivering excellent customer service.”