Companies that fail to respond to emails about customer service are responsible for increased stress levels in consumers, according to research from a web hosting company.

The survey commissioned by Fasthosts Internet found that nine out of 10 adults interviewed said slow or poor response via email from a company’s customer service department caused them anger and stress.

Those in London were found to be the most stressed, with a fifth admitting to being so frustrated that they wanted to vent their frustration in person.

The research found that one-third of British consumers have sent more than 10 emails about a single customer service enquiry, and nearly three-quarters admitted to waiting more than 24 hours for a reply.

Mark Jeffries, of Fasthosts Internet, said: “British businesses really need to sit up and pay attention to their response rate for customer emails, or risk losing their customer base to competitor brands. The public suffers real stress from slow or sub-standard email replies so it is no surprise they feel so strongly about the issue.”

The survey also found that automated replies that do not answer questions caused anger in 64 per cent of customers. One in three people had also experienced rage at online customer service forms that had insufficient space to type requests and 31 per cent were also angered by the unprofessional style of responses they received.