New survey shows the UK regions that are 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 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, by global communications company Moneypenny, showed that 36% of those surveyed across the nation are satisfied with their experience of using chatbots, forums and FAQs to handle their queries, while 28% had neutral feelings towards it, and 22% were dissatisfied.

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

London                        57%  satisfaction with chatbots, forums and FAQs

Wales                          24%     “

South West                 29%     “

Northern Ireland          28%     “

And dissatisfaction levels with chatbots, forums and FAQs also vary similarly:

South West                 34%

Wales                          29%

Northern Ireland          28%
South East                  17%

Greater London           13%

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

57 to 66 year olds       29%

25 to 44 year olds       18%

16 to 24 year olds       13%

Live chat has been around for some time and continues to grow steadily. In fact, during the pandemic, Moneypenny reported 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%, 48% and 47% respectively), compared with only 29% happy to use it in the South West.

Younger people are much happier using live chat than older people are: 54% of 25 to 40 year olds are happy with live chat, compared to 30% of over 66 year olds and 35% 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% of those surveyed agreed with this, whereas only 12% disagreed.

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

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

Joanna Swash, Group CEO from Moneypenny, commented on the survey results: “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. At Moneypenny we pride ourselves in providing highly efficient communications channels through cutting edge tech, which work in tandem with our fantastic PAs.”

Joanna continued, “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.”