💬 Communication Statistics 2026

With clients…

Email remains the most widely used tool for client communication. Other methods of communication include project management tools (16%), online chat tools (10%), face-to-face (5%), and phone (10%).

With co-workers…

Email is still the most popular tool for internal communication too, however, it is closely followed by online chat and project management tools.

Email (33%) is closely followed by online chat tools (19%) and project management tools (23%).

Interestingly, project management tools overtook online chat tools this year.

Other methods include face-to-face and phone calls (both 7%).

The majority of people (37%) still work from home, and for the rest it’s pretty split. Although last year 42% of people were working 100% from home so we have seen a slight decrease this year.

Additionally, 15% of people work from home most of the time, for 17% it’s 50/50 between home and the office, 12% work mostly from the office, and 18% are always on site. An increase from 16% last year.

38% of people think that communication is no more or less challenging than last year.

However, the remaining half are split on the matter. 29% find communication more challenging and 33% find it less challenging.

69% of companies have implemented new communications tools this year. Slightly up from 67% last year.

56% of people feel that they waste time in meetings – a very slight reduction on last year. A slight reduction on the last 2 years.

53% of people say they’ve personally wasted time as a result of communication issues in their business.

46% of people have missed messages as a result of communication issues in their business.

40% of people have suffered from burnout, stress and fatigue as a result of communication issues in their business.

26% of people have experienced lost and missing files as a result of communication issues in their business.

25% of people have had a poor customer experience as a result of communication issues in their business.

16% of people have lost customers to competitors as a result of communication issues in their business.

9% of businesses have lost employees as a result of communication issues in their business.

Efficiency

14% of businesses rate their efficiency as ‘excellent’ – a fairly substantial jump from 9% last year and just 4% 3 years ago!

A significant majority of businesses (41%) believe their efficiency levels are ‘average’. 30% feel that their efficiency levels are above average, 12% below average, and 2% admit to having poor efficiency.

Interestingly we see a shift this year from people saying their efficiency is average to people saying it’s above average and even excellent.

Communication

When it comes to communication, most businesses (43%) rate themselves as average.

A combined 46% believe communication in their business is either above average or excellent. A 5% increase from last year.

While 9% rate their communication as below average, and 3% said communication is poor.

Organisation

When asked to evaluate how organised they are, the data follows a familiar pattern.

36% describe their organisation levels as ‘average,’ while…

50% describe their performance as ‘above average’ or ‘excellent.’ a huge jump from 38% last year.

Only 14% feel that organisation levels are below average or poor. A drop from 19% last year.

98% of people say it’s important that a business communicates effectively with them as a customer.

96% of people feel the businesses they buy from have room for improvement when it comes to effective communication and project management.

96% of people say it’s important they can find out where things are up to with their purchase or project – e.g. exact status and next deliverable.

And most tellingly…

66% of people say they’ve stopped dealing with a company and moved to a competitor due to poor business communication skills.

BUT THERE’S SOME GOOD NEWS…

50% of people feel the businesses they work with have improved (a hughe jump from 35% last year) their communication in the past 12 months, much more than those who feel the businesses they work with have got worse (19%).

Interestingly, 31% reported no change.

69% of people say they have a good idea of what others in their team are working on at any given time – but this increases dramatically to 100% for those that use a project management tool to chat with their internal team and clients.

While 69% of people generally find it easy and quick to get an exact overview of where projects are up to in their workflow – this rises to 93% when they primarily use a project management tool to communicate with both their co-workers and clients.

76% of people who primarily use a project management tool to communicate with co-workers say it leads to improved internal communication

66% say it leads to better internal efficiency, 52% say it delivers an increased rate of project success. 42% say it leads to improved client communication. 35% say it leads to a better customer experience, and 19% associate it with better employee wellbeing.

74% of people who primarily use a project management tool to communicate with clients say it leads to better internal efficiency.

57% say it improves the customer experience, 56% say it increases the rate of project success, and 24% say it leads to better employee wellbeing.