Paymentshield has claimed that over one-third of the general population would sooner deal with companies via email rather than face-to-face or over the phone.

An online survey for the insurance provider has revealed that 42% of people prefer email as a method of communication when dealing with businesses or suppliers, whilst 39% prefer a phone call and only 12% would rather deal face-to-face.

The survey also revealed that more people are inclined to turn to online forums such as Money Supermarket for financial advice as opposed to going directly to a financial adviser.

In response to these statistics, Paymentshield has launched the first ‘National Conversation Week’, where sales and marketing director James Watson hopes that people will become more aware of the benefits of direct conversation.

He said: “In this day and age it’s easy to get wrapped up in everything the internet has to offer, especially with people having so much access 24/7. What we want to achieve with our support of National Conversation week and our wider Bring Back the Conversation campaign is to get both advisers and consumers to embrace conversation and combat the growing rise in people turning to the internet for business matters and advice.

“We want people to lay down their keyboards so to speak, and realise the benefits associated with face-to-face or over-the-phone contact as a means by which they can resolve their issues and get much more effective financial guidance.

“This way we can help protect consumers from some of the issues that arise when people buy insurance online without fully understanding what they should be looking for. This can lead to really harrowing situations where customers find themselves in real financial difficulty because they’re not able to claim for something they thought they could.”