Failed home deliveries and appointments are costing businesses £53 billion a year, according to Esendex, the web SMS company.
Customers not being at home, had most impact on retailers, utilities, telecoms and postal service companies, with an estimated £238 per failed delivery or service attempt.
The survey of logistics, transport and customer service decision makers found that 31 per cent of all delivery and service appointments fail, negatively impacting revenues by an average of 8.42 per cent.
The main factor contributing to this figure was found to be a lack of notification or communication of arrival times, as cited by 34 per cent of businesses.
The £238 cost per individual failed appointment was attributed to an associated increase in admin and business process costs (25 per cent), a lack of capacity utilisation (16 per cent), and call centre overburden (10 per cent), among others.
Esendex also found that 65 per cent of companies said they were planning to use SMS within the next 12 months.
