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Business Comment

Talking Business, with Chris Lee, managing director at CCS

It’s been an interesting couple of years, experiencing a recession for the first time in a generation has

certainly honed the survival instincts of many businesses large and small and the need to ‘work smart’ has never seemed more pertinent.

Expectations get even tougher in a hard economic climate and those businesses who aren’t able to respond to a customer’s needs quick sharp, can find themselves losing out. A fact highlighted in Vodafone’s latest Critical Response Time Index, a clever and informative study now in its third year, that explores the importance of response times and attitudes to remote and mobile working.

According to the latest study, one in five of Britain’s bosses now expect a reply to their queries within just 10 minutes or they just take their business elsewhere. How quickly times change. A couple of years ago the first study coined the phrase ‘two hour timebomb’ which was the expected response to a new business email.

And it’s not just expectations that have increased either. The average cost of not responding to a new business enquiry has also reached a new high - topping £20k for the first time.

For companies who embrace remote and mobile working the benefits are infinitely worthwhile both in terms of cost implications and improving efficiency. For smaller businesses (11-50 employees) especially, enabling your workforce to work from home on occasion can help save up to £30,000 pa in overheads. And gives them the choice to ‘work late’ as over 27% of the working nation does at least once a month, from the comfort of their own home.

It’s a sign of the times, that customers do expect businesses to be available practically 24/7 and the perception from a massive 70% of businesses is that organisations who don’t embrace mobile working are less trustworthy and unable to deliver on time.

Finally, with nine out of ten businesses now actively seeking out suppliers who they know are able to work remotely, the question to all business owners is not can you afford to invest in mobile working but can you afford not to?

The research for Vodafone’s Critical Response Time Index was gathered from a robust sample of 800 senior businesspeople (owner managers, MDs and board directors) alongside 1000 members of the wider working population.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .