The number of UK small businesses making phone calls over the internet is set to double over the next year, according to research carried out for BT.
The company said the number of firms using VoIP will rise from the current 25% to 48%.
New research has shown that online companies need to dramatically improve their customer service and offer more help to customers on their sites. Telecoms providers came off worst in the survey, with banking websites the best performers.
The survey, by eService provider Transversal, has revealed that customers often face waits of up to 2-3 days for their emails to be answered, a situation which is exacerbated by the lack of online help offered by some websites. Some 60% of customer emails are generated by the lack of available information on websites.