One in 10 workers confess to responding to emails from friends and family ahead of work-related items.

According to a new poll from Vodafone UK, less than a quarter of workers say they respond to an email from a potential customer, and one in three businesses will take their custom elsewhere if a potential supplier does not get back to them within just two hours.

In addition, 85 per cent of businesses have experienced no response to a new business enquiry, with one in 10 saying this happens frequently. And according to Vodafone, failure to reply to business emails is costing companies £18,000 on average, equating to £31 billion of lost revenue per year across the UK.

Region plays a part. Manchester is highlighted as being the worst offender, over half have no access to mobile working technology with just one in 12 businesses operating a formal policy for answering new business email enquiries.

Kyle Whitehill, director, enterprise business unit, Vodafone UK, commented: “Business culture and business expectations are dramatically changing with the development of new technologies. As the world becomes more demanding it is vital for business to be able to take advantage of opportunities when they arise by being flexible, responsive and available at all times.”

The average time a business will wait on a response to a new business enquiry before going elsewhere is nine hours and 16 minutes. Despite the findings only a fifth of businesses say they are fully switched on to mobile working, even though more than half of businesses actively seek suppliers who can work remotely

More than 1,000 managers, company directors, business owners and corporate decision-makers were quizzed.