Poor communication costs UK businesses billions in lost sales
10/08/2005

Bad design, poor grammar and atrocious spelling could be costing UK businesses a staggering £41 billion a year in lost sales, a survey published today has found.

The survey, commissioned by Royal Mail, shows that businesses can't even rely on a great offer to win customers if their presentation is substandard. Nearly three-quarters of all customers (74%) said they wouldn't trust businesses that used poor spelling or grammar, whilst almost a third (30%) said they wouldn't buy any product or service from them.

Julia Strong, Deputy Director, National Literacy Trust, said: Good literacy skills play a fundamental role in all aspects of life, including business. This survey not only highlights the significant impact staff with inadequate literacy skills can have on an organisation's competitiveness, but also emphasises the importance to business of providing skills training where literacy problems are identified.

Alex Batchelor, Royal Mail's Director of Marketing said: "Businesses are losing the goodwill and faith of customers by failing to pay attention to good English. This study is proof that poor communication really does hit companies where it hurts - and that's on the bottom line."

The findings also show that the personal touch remains important. One in four people (26%) would decline to buy a product if their name was spelt incorrectly on a letter or mailing.

Mr Batchelor said: "We all know how upsetting it can be when people spell our name wrong. Now we know it has a financial impact when the mistake is made by a business. Customers are just driven away."

The problems have been amplified by the failure of companies to invest enough in employees with good spelling and grammar. Of the businesses surveyed, more than half of all employees (56%) relied on computer spell-checks to proof their business documents, without even asking colleagues to proof them a final time.

Lack of confidence is clearly a factor for some employees. One in four women (25%) said they were too embarrassed to correct their manager's grammar, whilst one in five men (21%) shied away from the task.

"No business is perfect but we recognise the need for all employers to encourage staff to actively check documents going out to customers." said Mr Batchelor.

Notes: Results based on survey of 1,000 people interviewed by NOP between 1-3 July 2005.

Figure of £41 billion is based on the average value of products or services not used by the entire UK population as a result of poor communication (based on the responses of 1,000 people surveyed).