Competition for business is getting so tight that putting off dealing with a call or email for less time than it takes to have a sandwich break can cost your firm thousands according to an annual bellweather survey of the nation’s firms.

A year ago the survey revealed firms had a two hour window to respond to enquiries or risk losing business. Twelve months on and that figure is falling dramatically with one in seven UK companies saying they now demand a response in just 30 minutes.

And the report estimates that the average cost to businesses of opportunities lost via slow response stands at £18,840 per business (a rise of 5% year on year).

The city where the 30 minute time-bomb is most likely to apply is Birmingham where one in five now expect a response within half an hour. Other cities where the 30 minute time-bomb is becoming increasingly normal are Manchester (18%), Newcastle (18%), Cardiff (17%) and London (17%).

But leading author and ‘e’ expert Matt Beaumont believe senior management can’t shoulder responsibility on their own and staff need to share responsibility in being available to respond wherever and whenever is needed to meet the customer’s needs. That’s backed up by the survey where 58% of the working nation believe that all employees, not just senior management, need mobile email access in the future to combat the problem.

So what can you do to ensure your business is as responsive as it can be during the credit crisis? What can you do to help your boss and what do they need you to do to make sure your business doesn’t fall victim to the business timebomb?

Leading author Matt Beaumont and Vodafone’s Bryony Clow join Jane Constantinis live online on Wednesday June 12th at noon to discuss answer your questions.

H: Jayne Constantinis, host
B: Bryony Clow
M: Matt Beaumont, author

H: Hello and welcome to the Business Show, I'm Jayne Constantinis. Now, here's a frightening thought – competition for business is getting so tough that putting off dealing with a call or an email for about the time that it takes to eat a sandwich, could cost your company thousands of pounds.  That's according to an annual Bellwether survey of the nation's businesses. A year ago the survey revealed that you had a two hour window to respond to enquiries or risk losing the business. Twelve months on one in seven companies say they now demand a response in just 30 minutes. Well joining me today to discuss this and more is Vodafone's Bryony Clow and leading author Matt Beaumont, thanks very much for coming in to join me, and of course we're live so if you've got questions for Bryony or Matt then just type it into your screen, send it with your name of course and we'll get through as many as we can in the course of the show. So that's a pretty dramatic change in a year?  Two hours and thirty minutes – tell us a little bit more about this research

B: Well we conduct annual research looking at email trends, and the survey threw up last year a two hour time bomb. This year that hasn't changed, this isn't going away, this isn't something that's going to go away, but there's been quite an interest in the companies expecting a response within half an hour, and that's gone up by 11% in just 12 months, so what we're seeing is businesses are expecting, just a response, not a full response maybe but just to let the person whose sent you the email know that you need a response and that you've got your email, and we're going to get back to you, and that has gone, that has increased dramatically in the last 12 months.  We're also seeing from the research that the average, the average figure, amount of money being missed out on an email like that, annually is about £18,000 and that has gone up 5% from last year which is above inflation, so this is – these are kind of real examples of where businesses might want to have a rethink about their comms strategy

H: And for a small or medium sized business, that's a huge – I mean that's the difference between success or failure, that's a huge amount of money isn't it? Matt you know more than most people about the business of emailing? What's happening here, it seems to be getting out of control?

M: I think – I don't think it's necessarily getting out of control, I just think it's the trend that the internet is leading that everything, everyone expects instant gratification now because you know the internet allows you to have everything right now, you can shop on the internet instantly, you can do pretty much anything on the internet instantly, instant information – and so people, you know commensurate without expect an instant response to an email, or pretty much instant, and if they don't get it they'll look elsewhere. So it's just the way the world's going, and email's part of that and mobile phones are part of that, and the fact that we never need be out of touch with anyone any more is sort of driving this trend and it's inexorable and inevitable and you know I don't think there's any turning back from it so it's a matter of coping with it

H: And Bryony is this a general sort of nationwide trend, or are there pockets where it's particularly bad?

B: Well yes we naturally regionalised the research as well to see if we can get any clarity. There is – with regards to the most impatient area – we're seeing Birmingham come through as top so we're seeing one of the leading cities, and there's also, there's another part of the research which looked into stress and conflict, and within that we see a third of people within business identifying moments of stress and conflict that could have been avoided if they'd had mobile email, and that actually goes up to nearly 50% in London as you can quite expect, people identifying real moments in their daily lives of work where they were probably thinking actually if I'd had access to mobile email I wouldn't be as stressed as I am right now, whether that's because you're having to stay on late from work and letting someone down outside of work –

H: Yes, that's a very interesting point because I confess to being a little bit of a dinosaur in that I'm holding off getting a Blackberry, although my business partner – there are two of us in a small business, we're in the communications business, she's got one, and it's a Godsend to us because she picks up things when we're away at meetings, and we're virtual so we have no office, because I'm not sure whether having a mobile device – and Matt you can enlighten us on this – causes more or less stress?

M: I think people can look at it both ways. I think you could say it could cause more stress because my boss will always have access to me, 3am he'll be emailing me, or you can say it will allow me to manage my life better because I can leave the office on time and not have to wait in for an email that I'm expecting. You know if it comes in at 7 o'clock and I'm in the pub at 7 o'clock, I can still deal with it, so it can work both ways. It kind of depends on how good you are at managing your email work load, your phone calls and so on. And what kind of employer you've got as well, whether it's a tyrannical one or a more liberal and enlightened one. I think –

H: Yes. And actually what you've raised there is an interesting point of where you are in the food chain, if you like. If you're running a small or medium sized business then it's probably absolutely imperative. Did the research throw up anything interesting about that, about what sort of level of –

B: Hierarchy in business?

H: Yes

B: That's what we were explicitly looking at this year, is that if you like, the Blackberry has just been the reserve of the boardroom for so many years that we really see 2008, email, mobile email is more accessible, more affordable and easier to set up than ever.  We're not just talking about Blackberries here, we're talking about most of your workforce may have mobile phones, and you need to perhaps enable those phones, with email, you don't have to buy them a specific piece of hardware, you can just put "add email" to that, so what we're seeing actually is areas, pockets of business, that perhaps don't have email now so you're sales team or your engineering team, if you were to just spend you know £5 per head, per user on enabling them for email on a monthly basis, you're going to get absolute dividends back from that. We're seeing on average 4 working days a month just going awry because people don't have access to email

H: Yes. And it's interesting, John has sent us a message that he's absolutely pertinent about. He says "I'm often out at meetings, but my manager doesn't think anybody under senior management should have Blackberries. How can I convince him otherwise?" That's interesting because you'd expect the senior managers to be saying I want you to be in contact, but this is, he's implying I think that it's a cost issue and you're saying that it needn't be?

B: Yes I think in the past it has been a cost issue, you know that –Blackberries have come down in price, email has come down in price. No longer do you have to have a Blackberry to have email, it can be added to – you know in 99% of our handset range, so the last year or two these things have shifted, and I think, you know, part of me being here today is to talk about actually – it can save the business a lot of money. You think there's an initial outlay, yes there is an initial outlay, but actually when you look back at maybe a month on how much time has been saved overall on maybe a team of 20 people having access to email, and the more responsive the company has become, and the more opportunities that you've grasped because of it, that massively outweighs –

H: Isn't that a bit like, I mean it's now absolutely taken for granted that everybody has a mobile phone

M: Yes

H: Even my mum's got a mobile

M: I think the point is that you know, in the early days of mobile phones, they were a status symbol, and you know it was kind of yuppie idiots had them and board directors had them, and now they're completely ubiquitous, most of us have got more than one it seems

H: Yes

M: There's certainly more mobiles than people in the country, and it's the same way with mobile email and devices like Blackberries and so on are seen as a status symbol, but that's dying away as more and more people – more and more people will get them and feel that they need them and deserve them

H: Yes and it will be just –

M: It will be –

H: Just expected that –

M: It will be

H: That everyone already has them

M: It will be, and I think the problem John's writing about will disappear. You know his boss might never change but bosses generally will, they'll see the necessity for it

H: Yes. Do you think that people communicate differently via – I'm talking now style and tone and content – on a mobile device than they do when they're sitting at their desk?

M: They're possibly even briefer because they feel like they're on the run and they're in the middle of doing something else or whatever

H: Yes

M: So I think they're possibly briefer on something like a Blackberry than they would be at their desks, but essentially it's not that different. It's maybe shorter or snappier answers but it's not that different

B: There's two sort of real examples here – very, very small keyboard, and often the case is you don't want to spend ages typing something, a long response so yes definitely shorter.  What you can do to generally avoid offending people is to have, on the device you can set an auto signature, so Blackberry do it for you automatically where it says it's been sent from my Blackberry, if it isn't Blackberry email you can set an auto response, so when the person gets it, everything they get from you, from your mobile device, says this has been sent from my phone, this has been sent – and that just stops people getting offended if your answer is really curt

H: Yes. Can you set up an individual signature that may say something like "sorry this is a bit brief, I'm on my mobile"

B: You can basically type your own auto – whatever you want to say

H: Yes

B: You may have your phone number on the end of it, you know, I'm out and about – excuse the shortness of this email

H: Yes

B: And that can just be there, and that gets attached to every email you send back

H: That would really help

B: Yes I think it does

H: Because you can get into such difficulties can't you with humour particularly, writing something and thinking oh yes, they're going to find that really amusing, send and they look at it and go – hello

B: Exactly

H: It's an interesting new way of communicating isn't it, the whole new –

M: I think the way people use email isn't the way they used to write letters, I mean they – when people write a letter, you're taught at school – used to be taught at school how to write a letter and it was very formal and structured, and it started a certain way and ended a certain way, whereas email doesn't do that, email treats it like conversation, they write emails as if they're talking to someone

H: Yes

M: And that's the way it's used, because it's instant, and because it's now and because –you know you can reply in the same sort of time as you would with a verbal reply so –

H: Yes. But crucially, without tone of voice and without facial expression which is a big –

M: Yes I think people have to teach themselves how to write a bit, I think so they're not misunderstood and don't cause offence where no offence is intended

H: Intended, yes.  Let's have a look at this question from James Marriot who says "will I lose business, even if I have an out-of-office on? At least then potential clients will know that I don't have access to email and it can wait till I get back."

B: Do you want to answer that one or – we were talking about out-of-office weren't we –

M: Yes, no I because – personally I hate out-of-office replies

H: Yes

M: When I send an email to someone, it's just something about them that really winds me up, even if someone's on holiday, and I think it's personally reasonable that they're on holiday and shouldn't answer their emails for two weeks, but I just really hate it

H: Yes

M: And you know my first novel was written in emails which is why I'm here. I'm writing a sequel now where I've got this running joke in it about out-of-office replies

H: Right

M: And it's just going to build up, it's going to be a motive for murder in the end

H: Oh

M: The out-of-office reply – but I feel quite strongly about out-of-office replies

H: I think from the perspective of a – somebody running a small business but wanting the business to look maybe a little bit bigger than it really is, it looks a bit amateur to have an out-of-office reply. What do you think?

B: I think the people I know who run their own businesses, 9 times out of 10 have mobile email these days, and if they're on holiday they tend to have, they tend to do an hour in the morning. I mean they – the business is them, they can't afford not to be connected to the business, mobile email enable them to go on holiday in the first place, but you know I've friends and friends of colleagues who will do an hour in the morning, make sure everything's up-to-date, maybe look at it for 2 or 3 minutes in the afternoon, and that enables them to have that holiday that they probably wouldn't even dare go on maybe you know 7 years ago before the dawning of mobile email, or you know access to remote email

H: And of course if you're doing any kind of international business where you're dealing with different time zones, absolutely vital because you don't want to have to necessarily stay at your desk to answer, to speak to people at 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening or whatever

B: Yes were - there was a case of a gentleman who used to get up at 3 – he I think was part of a Canadian company and would get up at 3 in the morning and just check his email, I mean that's his choice –

H: Yes

B: And that's the business he's in, but you know at least he doesn't have to – at least he can do that and feel like he's achieving and keeping on top of things with this international time zone company

H: Yes

B: And I – again you know, even 3 or 4 years ago it would be a different position, he would probably – his anxiety levels may have been up going in first thing in the morning, he may have even got up extra early and gone in sort of 6 o'clock in the morning so he would – gave him a 2 hour overlap between himself and Canada, just to make sure that there was about a – a sort of 2 hour conversational piece that could go on

H: Sure

B: So it really does sort of help in the sort of international community

H: Did your research bring up anything about different types of business, different sectors and whether or not response time is longer or shorter?

B: Yes it did, it did and I mean – I think they tend to be what you'd imagine the traditional kind of sectors, wanting a response quicker and a rising expectation in middle management actually, those people who have perhaps not been adorned with the glorious Blackberry yet, you know these guys are really starting to see an era whereby they absolutely think it's their right to be given email, and to have mobile email, have access to it and not just the boardroom

H: Question here that's just slightly off what we were talking about then but it's interesting from Thomas Charles Whitman who says "I never know when to copy in people for information purposes" – we're back to the kind of etiquette, I'm sure this is another cause for murder in your next novel! "Because sometimes this can challenge the chain of command within an organisation, so copying the most senior person in on something you've done

M: I mean, I think from a novelist point of view, writing a novel in emails, the cc facility and the bcc facility are absolutely a Godsend

H: Yes

M: Thank God for them, but I can see the problem, and that's where all the drama comes from, it's not knowing who to copy and when, and copying people inappropriately and some people using it really well in a really devious fashion

H: Yes

M: And I've got no good advice for this guy really! Because –

B: It's one of the pitfalls of reply to all as well isn't it –

H: Yes

B: And these are things that affect all of us with email, you know just email generally

H: Yes, yes exactly.  And in fact Sean from Wembley, let's just build on that a bit – "with email becoming the favoured method of communication, what advice would you offer in terms of cc and bcc'ing – there's often too much politics involved. What's the correct etiquette? Come on put it on the line as a woman!

B: I think they should be lessons at school

H: Come on give us some advice

B: I think there should be – seriously – I've been in business 10 years and I probably think the last 2 or 3 years I've really started to come to – not to – to be really adept to using carbon copies and blind carbon copy, and reply to –

H: What's your rule of thumb then?

B: I don't have a rule of thumb. If you really need something to happen I often copy senior people in, not to you know, you need to know the people perhaps you're going above their head of, you know you're going above people's head, you're copying in their manager, but it is often for a reason or for, because what you're doing with, dealing with is urgent, but 9 times out of 10 to copy somebody's manager without letting them know first or without knowing them well enough is – would really put a fly in the ointment and annoy, wind people up, so you need to know the environment you're working in really well

H: And also it might come back to our language, how to write a good email, how to subtly communicate whatever it is, rather than the very briefest message

M: Yes I think people have to learn, and possibly say a little bit more than they otherwise would because they haven't got the benefit of adding a smile to something which you can face-to-face

H: Absolutely yes

M: So you have to write the smile

H: You can write the smile, yes

B: And re-read it, and the thing sometimes with email I write something, I go and do something else, it's a really important email, I come back and I read it again with the, without the sort of knowledge or the –

H: The tone in your head that you were using when you put the words down

B: And assume nothing, go from, read it again and assume nothing, you know nothing about the person, the tone, the situation, and often you'll find a couple of caveats thrown in that makes it absolutely more clear than it would have done had you sent it 10 minutes earlier

H: And then of course there's signing off – is it best wishes, is it kind regards, is it lots of love?  I mean again the etiquette –

B: I get carried away and I put, if I'm texting especially I put you know a kiss and then I think – why would I send a kiss to this person? You know because it becomes very kind of – texting is a very kind of, although it's used in business it seems to be a more personal thing

H: Yes it's more intimate isn't it?

B: And then sometimes I'm texting in business because they're in a meeting and I absolutely need to get hold of them, and I'm just about to put a kiss and I'm thinking, why would I do that?

H: You wouldn't kiss them in person – I'm assuming! So just to get back then to the interesting point you made about middle managers increasingly needing to be in touch when they're out of the office. Where can people get some more detailed information, maybe technical information about how easy it is to achieve that?

B: Yes the website is http://www.vodafone – with an "f" .co.uk, and if you put / business at the end of that, that takes you through to you know this research and other information, and has – there's all sorts of return on your investment calculators on there, so if you're really concerned about cost and what you're going to get back for your money, all that kind of stuff is there. And some other research that we've done identifies you know 2 or 3 barriers to mobile email, the first major one is apathy so people will know about it and I think it's probably a good idea, but they haven't done anything about it yet, and there's time often, with businesses and small businesses, they don't have the time, it's not on their priority list, but you know give it 5 minutes, it's easier than ever. Other barriers are – is appearance and people, like you were saying about you know the nobs in the boardroom, people are like – I don't want to be associated with this kind of Blackberry clan

H: Is that a technical term, nobs in the boardroom –

B: Nobs in the boardroom, yes it's a term we've been refining, yes! 

H: Well I – I'm now further down my journey to getting that mobile device because it does make sense.  The dinosaur is going to get into the 21st century, so thanks for that. And good luck – when's your new novel out?

M: Well I'm writing it now, so

H: Oh – well get on with it then!

M: When I finish it it'll be out – probably some time next year

H: Oh great well we look forward to that, and thanks very much for coming in and talking to me today

M: Thank you

H: And thanks to you for watching, hope you've enjoyed it and I'll see you again sometime soon.  Bye bye

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