The most irritating trait a company can display is failing to have its contact details on its website, according to new research.

The study by 1&1 Internet found that 77% of people listed this as their biggest customer service bugbear, followed by being held in a telephone queue (also 77%), speaking to staff with heavy accents (56%), poor on-hold music (42%) and inflexible office hours (40%).

The poll also found 90% of consumers wanted the ability to interact with companies through live-chat, forums or call-me-back facilities, with one in three requiring it from a business they currently use.

But the vast majority of small companies (92%) do not offer such facilities and 42% had no plans to introduce them, the survey found. One in three businesses (35%) even said they felt there was no need to provide further online communication options.

"Our research clearly shows that struggling to contact a business from its website is a major cause of concern for consumers," said Andreas Gauger, chief executive of 1&1 Internet.

"There is also a clear discrepancy between how consumers and businesses value internet-based customer service," he added. "Consumers now place a high value on the ability to talk to businesses in real-time online and businesses of all sizes need to respond to this trend or risk losing sales."2007-12-04

Despite the fact that 42% of customers would choose real-time online dialogue as their preferred contact method, 44% of companies believed there was no link between online customer support and sales revenue and almost half (47%) felt providing such facilities would not increase customer retention.

"Britons benefit greatly from access to support in real time and both consumers and businesses have a lot to gain from developing better online relationships," added Gauger.