CIRCLELOOP'S

Chatterbox Matrix

After face-to-face meetings, phone calls have long been one of the best ways to conduct business. Far superior to email or instant messaging, which miss the all-important benefit of hearing someone’s voice, phone calls have been key to the success and growth of the global market and cross-country deals. When face-to-face meetings were officially banned during the pandemic, this only served to reinforce the importance of the phone call in business, not just externally but internally too. But the telecoms industry has of course come a long way since the business first began relying on phone calls for success…

Rapid advancements in technology have made business calls even easier with the need for a wired connection becoming redundant and cloud-based phone systems taking over. Thanks to this, a new era has been born that enables business to be conducted from anywhere, at any time. Across the UK, and the rest of the world, we’ve been making up for lost time and getting increasingly chatty over the phone, with call numbers and durations rising to impressive levels as businesses bounce back post-Covid. Creating the Chatterbox Matrix, we endeavored to find out which town, region - and even North vs South - in the UK would be home to the chattiest businesses.

The Top 3 Chattiest Towns in the UK

01 WATFORD

By far the chattiest, businesses in Watford have an average call duration of 1.8 minutes (108 seconds) and a call volume of 21%.

02 MACCLESFIELD

Coming in second place, businesses in Macclesfield have an average call duration of around 1.7 minutes (104 seconds) and a call volume of 16%.

03 BURNLEY

In a very close third, businesses in Burnley have an average call duration of around 1.7 minutes (106 seconds) and a call volume of 14%.

The Chatterbox Matrix Ranked

Check out the Chatterbox Matrix top 10 to see where you’ll find the chattiest businesses. To reveal the full list of rankings, including all towns and UK regions, type your email address below.

Town
Town
Region
Region
Average Call Duration
Average Call Duration
Call Volume
Call Volume
Chatterbox Score
Chatterbox Score
1 Watford East 108 20.5 100
2 Macclesfield North West 104 15.5 73
3 Burnley North West 106 14.4 69
4 Southampton South East 118 11.9 64
5 Bath South West 93 13.8 58
6 Huddersfield Yorkshire and the Humber 89 14.5 58
7 Durham North East 114 10.2 53
8 Killingholme East Midlands 79 14.8 53
9 Chester North West 92 12 50
10 Stoke-on-Trent West Midlands 113 8.9 46
11 Portsmouth South East 113 9 46
12 Leicester East Midlands 82 12 45
13 Wolverhampton West Midlands 93 10.4 44
14 York Yorkshire and the Humber 119 7 38
15 Exeter South West 91 9.3 38
16 Norwich East 111 7.4 37
17 Ayr Scotland 75 10.5 36
18 Blackburn North West 85 9.1 35
19 Harrogate Yorkshire and the Humber 139 5.2 33
20 Rochdale North West 90 7.8 32
21 Halifax Yorkshire and the Humber 129 5.2 30
22 Bristol South West 120 5.5 30
23 Colchester East 115 5.8 30
24 Milton Keynes South East 100 6.4 29
25 Basildon East 98 6.5 29
26 Wigan North West 126 4.9 28
27 Edinburgh Scotland 69 9 28
28 Liverpool North West 67 8.9 27
29 Reading South East 102 5.7 26
30 London Greater London 81 7.1 26
31 Manchester North West 58 9 24
32 Cambridge East 139 3.6 23
33 Ipswich East 121 4.2 23
34 Glasgow Scotland 67 7.5 23
35 Bangor (Co. Down) Northern Ireland 148 3.2 22
36 Oxford South East 113 4.4 22
37 Wakefield Yorkshire and the Humber 92 5.2 22
38 Peterborough East 89 5 20
39 Birmingham West Midlands 77 5.7 20
40 Swansea Wales 59 7.6 20
41 Brighton South East 90 4.8 19
42 Doncaster Yorkshire and the Humber 81 4.9 18
43 Nottingham East Midlands 66 5.9 17
44 Cheltenham South West 97 3.7 16
45 Northampton East Midlands 70 5.2 16
46 Lisburn Northern Ireland 132 2.4 15
47 Tyneside North East 116 2.8 15
48 Bolton North West 73 4.5 15
49 Canterbury South East 92 3.3 14
50 Cardiff Wales 91 3.1 13
51 Darlington North East 77 3.7 13
52 Coventry West Midlands 131 1.9 12
53 Dudley West Midlands 100 2.7 12
54 Luton East 78 3.3 12
55 Swindon South West 150 1.6 11
56 Worcester West Midlands 112 2.1 11
57 Middlesborough Yorkshire and the Humber 69 3.5 11
58 Belfast Northern Ireland 102 2.1 10
59 Leeds Yorkshire and the Humber 80 2.6 9
60 Plymouth South West 128 1.4 8
61 Warrington North West 98 1.7 8
62 Rotherham South East 114 1.4 7
63 Sunderland North East 66 2.2 7
64 Aberdeen Scotland 59 2.7 7
65 Hull Yorkshire and the Humber 110 1.2 6
66 Sheffield West Midlands 71 1.6 5
67 Bradford Yorkshire and the Humber 102 1 4
68 Newcastle North East 100 0.8 4
69 Dundee Scotland 56 1.1 3
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Which town has the highest call volume?

Including inbound and outbound calls, focusing on the call volume by town population, our research has found that these towns have the highest volume of business calls in the UK.

21 %

01 Watford, Hertfordshire

Businesses in Watford claimed a call volume of 21%. This means 1 in 5 calls made in the town over the last 6 months were made by chatty businesses!

16 %

02 Macclesfield, Cheshire

Businesses in Macclesfield claimed a call volume of 16%. This means around 1 in 6 calls made in the town over the last 6 months were made by chatty businesses!

Which town spends the most time on the phone?

Including inbound and outbound calls and focusing on the average call duration, our research has found that these towns spend the longest amount of time chatting business over the phone out of all UK towns.

01 Swindon, South West

Businesses in Swindon spend on average 2.5 minutes (150 seconds) chatting on each phone call.

02 Bangor, Northern Ireland

Businesses in Bangor spend on average just under 2.5 minutes (148 seconds) chatting on each phone call.

North v South: Which half of England is the chattiest?

Including inbound and outbound calls and focusing on both average call duration and call volume, we divided English regions into their Northern and Southern family groups and our research established once and for all who’s really chattier - Northerners or Southerners?

01 South

Businesses in the South of England have an average call duration of 1.7 minutes (101 seconds) and a call volume of 7%. This means 1 in 14 calls in the South are made by chatty businesses!

02 North

Businesses in the North of England have an average call duration of 1.5 minutes (92 seconds) and a call volume of 6%. This means 1 in 17 calls in the North are made by chatty businesses!

Methodology

The data used to create the Chatterbox Matrix was sourced from CircleLoop’s own internal data. Over a period of 6 months in the latter half of 2021, CircleLoop’s customer data was extracted and anonymised. The specific data points sourced were geographical location or town where the business resides, the call count of inbound and outbound calls and the average call duration of inbound and outbound calls. Call count figures were then divided by total the town population to produce a call volume percentage that represented the share of calls businesses were making in that town. The Chatterbox Score is ranked out of 100, and combines the number of calls per person with the average call duration. The most ‘chatty’ town or city across these two factors is awarded a score of 100, with all other towns and cities being awarded a score relative to the most 'chatty' location.

At CircleLoop we’re here to help you stay connected. Our cloud-based phone system offers seamless integrations with a number of other apps and platforms too and provides virtual numbers when you’re looking to call from a particular location while you’re on the go.