Around the clock access to customer service support is of key importance to more than 90 per cent of European business managers, a survey has claimed.

The Flexible Working in Europe and Russia study was commissioned by vendor Avaya and showed 91 per cent of senior business managers would be more likely to choose suppliers offering 24/7 customer service functions. 89 per cent claimed they would be prepared to pay premium prices for such services.

Despite this only 17 per cent of firms currently give employees the flexible working options to facilitate round the clock customer support. 58 per cent of employees surveyed believed their company had the technology and systems to enable flexible working.

The research indicated business managers want to choose how they communicate with their suppliers and want all forms of communication to be supported equally. 70 per cent would like to use the telephone to deal with suppliers, emailing is favoured by 59 per cent and 56 per cent wanted face-to-face contact.

Martyn Lambert, Avaya's vice president of EMEA marketing said: "“The survey results show conclusively that the service gold standard has changed and that businesses need to adapt to accommodate customers’ new expectations and that there is a strong business case for introducing flexible working solutions across Europe as a way to plug this potentially lucrative gap.

"It is increasingly clear that not only can flexible working help companies attract better employees, retain them longer and foster business agility, it could also help increase the bottom line if flexible working is deployed to enable always-on customer service.”