E-lag loses UK Plc £31.6 billion a year

One in 10 workers confess to responding to emails from friends and family ahead of work-related items.

According to a new poll from Vodafone UK, less than a quarter of workers say they respond to an email from a potential customer, and one in three businesses will take their custom elsewhere if a potential supplier does not get back to them within just two hours.

In addition, 85 per cent of businesses have experienced no response to a new business enquiry, with one in 10 saying this happens frequently. And according to Vodafone, failure to reply to business emails is costing companies £18,000 on average, equating to £31 billion of lost revenue per year across the UK.

Region plays a part. Manchester is highlighted as being the worst offender, over half have no access to mobile working technology with just one in 12 businesses operating a formal policy for answering new business email enquiries.

Kyle Whitehill, director, enterprise business unit, Vodafone UK, commented: "Business culture and business expectations are dramatically changing with the development of new technologies.