• Watford wins the title of chattiest town overall for business calls 
• Swindon and Bangor businesses spend the most time on the phone compared to any other UK town
• North vs South: Southern businesses take a surprising but narrow lead in CircleLoop’s new Chatterbox Matrix

London, UK, 17th March 2022: Communication is central to the work many of us do. Whether you’re part of a large corporation or a small local business, the ability to chat is a key tool in helping businesses of all sizes grow, ultimately boosting your local and the national economy. 

Chatting really does make the world go round and today, cloud-based business phone system, CircleLoop, releases The Chatterbox Matrix. The new analysis of the company’s internal data demonstrates just how important phone calls are to day-to-day business – and most importantly, establishes which area is the chattiest, North or South? According to the data, Southerners take this crown by a very narrow lead.

According to the data, businesses in Watford have an average call duration of 1.8 minutes (108 seconds) and businesses claim 21% of all calls made in the area, making it the chattiest town overall in the UK. This means 1 in 5 calls made in the town over the last 6 months were made by chatty businesses.

Coming in close second to Watford is Macclesfield. Businesses in this Cheshire town claim 1 in 6 (16%) calls made in the town over the last 6 months and an average call duration of 1.7 minutes (104 seconds). 

The Chatterbox Matrix also finds that Swindon businesses spend the longest amount of time chatting over the phone despite fewer calls being made, talking for 2.5 minutes (150 seconds) on average. The town is very closely followed by Northern Irish town, Bangor in which business spend an average of 148 seconds chatting. 

Damian Hanson, Co-Founder & Director of CircleLoop, said: 

“It was really interesting putting The Chatterbox Matrix together. The pandemic’s disruption of day-to-day business highlighted the importance of “anywhere, any time” communication. As we emerge from that disruption, our data shows that UK businesses have really embraced cloud-based communications in a way that, pre-COVID, would have been unprecedented.

I think the call volume data is particularly interesting. Seeing that a fifth of all calls in Watford are made by businesses is significant and a really positive sign that businesses big and small are bouncing back after a very challenging few years. At CircleLoop we want to support chatty businesses doing what they do best and celebrate it right alongside them.”

Of course while not all areas get to claim the chatty titles, there are others worth noting. While businesses in Newcastle only account for 0.8% of all calls made in the town, they certainly make them count with an average call duration of over 1.6 minutes. In Scotland, out of the 5 cities analysed, businesses in Ayr had the highest average call duration, beating business in both Edinburgh and Glasgow at 1.25 minutes on average per call. 

Similarly in Wales, though Swansea trumped Cardiff with a higher call volume (7% vs 3%),  it’s Cardiff that uses those calls to the maximum with almost double the average time spent on calls compared to Swansea (1.5 minutes vs 98 seconds).

CircleLoop’s Chatterbox Matrix, accessible via the company’s website, analysed data from approximately 4,000 businesses across the UK over the last 6 months. If you want to view The Chatterbox Matrix and find out how your town ranked in the list, click here.