An area of business where digital communications could arguably have the biggest impact is customer relations. Read this post by Andrew Grill about his attempts to resolve issues on his BT broadband account and you’ll understand why.

I actually spoke to seven people, over the period of five calls and navigated 15 IVR “trees” (push 1 etc), but I was still no closer to a resolution.

In the end Andrew’s problem was solved efficiently by a live chat session via the BT web site. He speculates that in five years time customer care centres will have fewer people on the phone and more using online channels.

It would almost certainly deliver a better customer experience and be more cost effective to the business.