70% of UK adults would be annoyed about an unknown business calling them, while just 18% of people say they would be annoyed by an unexpected call from an ex-partner.

This is according to a poll, which is part of a ‘Me, myself and I’ phone research series, run by global cloud communications platform, Infobip.

The series aims to examine the importance of their mobile phones compared to other aspects of their lives.

The research found that, despite more people being annoyed by business cold calls, consumers are willing to provide personal information after a connection is made with a business. Infobip discovered 85% of British adults would give their address to a business while only 59% would share this information with someone they just met.

Nikhil Shoorji, MD (Europe) at Infobip, said: “For today’s businesses, it’s crucial to transform cold calls into warm leads – showing customers you genuinely care will encourage loyalty and boost revenue in the long run.”

A previous study by Infobip found that customer loyalty and satisfaction are most negatively impacted by:

• waiting to speak with customer services (35%)
• limited ways and times to contact a company (31%)
• repeating details to a customer service agent (20%)

Further consumer frustrations arise from mobile communications being exploited by businesses in the form of spam messages and a bombardment of cold calls.

Shoorji explained: “After a year of relentless uncertainty, what we can be certain of is that customer experience is more important than ever; especially when face-to-face contact with brands has been so severely reduced. The problem is that businesses aren’t delivering on these channels, with cold calls rated more annoying than a former partner reaching out.”

The ‘Me, myself and I’ poll was carried out by Infobip from Novermber 24, 2020, to November 27, 2020, and surveyed 2,000 UK adults in a nationally representative sample.