Vonage shared damning new research revealing that 44% of public sector service users have missed an appointment due to communication issues with the organisation. This soars to a staggering 70 percent of 18-24 year-olds.
Vonage’s independent survey of 2,000 UK adults who have contacted public sector organisations since the Covid-19 lockdown started revealed that more than a third (36%) felt extremely frustrated following their last interaction.
Nearly half of those (46%) attributed this to not being able to make contact through their preferred communications channel. In fact, 27 percent of respondents reported that their favoured channel was not available, despite 71% of those questioned stating this would have enhanced their experience.
According to the survey, 88% of respondents want public sector organisations to send them important messages directly, with email being the preferred channel for 43%, closely followed by SMS (41%). 12% of 18-24 year-olds would like to be notified via Facebook Messenger, while 15 percent of 25-34 year-olds chose WhatsApp.
When asked about their favourite overall channel for contact from public sector organisations, respondents again chose email (33%) followed by SMS (25%). Top reasons cited for email were ‘the message is documented for reference’ and ‘I can easily respond if needed’ (both 47%). Those preferring SMS chose the channel as they ‘can be reached instantly, anywhere, any time’ (56%) and they are ‘unlikely to miss the message’ (55%).
NHS data shows that missed general practitioner (GP) appointments alone cost the NHS £216 million a year, meaning the annual cost to the public purse of all these missed appointments across the sector is likely to be significant.