According to a new study released today by swiftcover.com, the first 100% online insurance provider, 17 million people in Britain are suffering from the double whammy of time pressure and the stresses of modern life. Despite a host of labour saving devises in our homes – from microwaves to dishwashers - we still spend a massive 4.47 hours a day on household chores. Two thirds of us think that modern life is just too stressful and a staggering 96% of us admit to behaving badly because of pressures of time. swiftcover.com has identified this group of people as part of Britain’s ‘Impatient Nation’ with stress turning ordinary urbanites into people with erratic and often unsociable behaviour.

swiftcover.com’s study, commissioned through the Future Foundation, looked at the UK’s behaviour today compared with the 1960’s and found that time pressure on consumers is leading to a host of new and often unsociable habits. The new study revealed that:

• 60% of Brits have jumped or swapped queues at a supermarket
• 22% have actually abandoned their trolley or basket full of shopping instead of queuing because they have run out of time
• 60% waste money by not having the time to shop around for better deals and buy the first thing they see
• 51% have eaten standing up
• 39% shop late at a 24 hour store because we can’t cope with queues
• 37% rushed a DIY task and messed it up

What makes us part of this ‘Impatient Nation’?

The study found that it’s a double whammy of general stress and time pressures which, according to the Future Foundation, is a volatile combination. Even though leisure time has almost doubled in the last forty years, we still want more, so feel pressured to deal with problems and mundane tasks in record time. This in turn puts pressure on companies who are expected to respond immediately. Unfortunately, most companies are unable to meet these exacting demands.

Andrew Blowers, Chief Executive Officer of swiftcover.com commented: “It’s a sad fact of life that, despite a plethora of time saving appliances in our homes, Brits are more time pressured than ever and, as a result, are displaying erratic behaviour. Our study shows this stress and time pressure they are experiencing is clearly having an impact on peoples’ health and mentality, as well as having a major impact on their quality of lives.”

What things really frustrate us?

The swiftcover.com study looked at the most common events that have lead to the birth of the ‘Impatient Nation’. When asked which were their worse frustrations the research found spending time on the phone to call centres was the top offender (81%) – ahead of sitting in a traffic jam (71%) or waiting for a delayed train (63%). It’s no surprise - as the study revealed that telephone admin is the new form of domestic drudgery with Brits spending more than an average working week each year of their life (41 hours) on the telephone dealing with administration.

Why are call centres the biggest offenders?

The study probed the various experiences consumers have had with call centres and found a host of problem areas. Of the things people find very stressful when dealing with call centres, the most common complaints are being passed from pillar to post without speaking to the person they want (70%) and being cut off before they speak to anyone (69%). More than two thirds (68%) dislike being held in a queue.

It also appears call centres take up too much precious time with a staggering one in three (37%) having held on for more than 20 minutes at a time, and unbelievably one in twenty people have held on for more than an hour!

Blowers concludes: “The last twenty years has seen a massive growth in the number of call centres which were created to make consumers’ lives easier. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for many people today - we believe that the way forward is to cut out the call centre and move towards 100% online purchasing in the future.”

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For further information please contact:

Kay Gorman @ swiftcover.com: kay.gorman@gbinsurance.co.uk / 07917 064104
Shellie Wells @ Lansons Communications: shelliew@lansons.com / 0207 490 8828
Laura Cronin @ Lansons Communications: laurac@lansons.com / 0207 490 8828
Siobhan McCluskey @ Lansons Communications: siobhanm@lansons.com / 0207 490 8828

Notes to Editors

www.swiftcover.com has been set up by a dedicated team of experts that between them hold many valuable years’ experience in the UK insurance industry, and is owned by GBI (Holdings) Limited.

www.swiftcover.com is a 100% online insurance provider offering consumers a complete car insurance quote in under a minute and 70% of people who get a quote save around 20%.

The research programme involved analysis of two main sources of time-use data (the Eurostat Survey on Time Use (2001) and the Multi-National Time Use Study 1961), and the Future Foundation’s own social trends database, nVision. A survey of 1000 adults aged 16+ was commissioned in May 2005 and conducted by ICM.

The Future Foundation found that members of the Impatient Nation are a distinct but sizeable group, representing 35% of the population or almost 17 million people, who are suffering the double combination of time pressure and general stress. As the charts indicate they are most likely to be urban dwellers in their mid-thirties to mid-forties, married or co-habiting, with children under 16, and in full or part-time employment with a household income between £17,000 and £35,000. There is a slight bias towards women, but this is unsurprising given that they bear the brunt of responsibility for domestic life. Exasperated Consumers are a romantic and nostalgic group. Compared to other consumers they strongly feel the need to escape the confusion of everyday life and yearn for the simplicity of life in other eras. They are more likely to believe that life was better for previous generations than other people – agreeing with statements like “parents used to spend more time with their children”, “the air we breathe is not as clean as it used to be” and “the food people eat is less healthy than it used to be”. Despite their nostalgia they are adventurous experience seekers – more likely to want to try new things or take a risk than other consumers, but at the same time they have a serious side. They are concerned about health and safety issues and believe that the government has a responsibility to provide good healthcare and take care of the elderly. When it comes to domestic life they are less likely to have help at home with cleaning or childcare, but, not surprisingly, much more likely to want it than other people. They try to shop around for the best deal before making purchases but are often waylaid and end up spending more than they originally planned to, perhaps because they are more spontaneous than the rest of the population and enjoy shopping for new things even though they are marketing savvy and actively try to resist the influence of big brands and advertising. The double pressures that they face combined with their aspirations, make them a demanding group with high expectations of the companies that serve them. They are easily frustrated if companies do not respond efficiently to their needs and with their tendency towards spontaneity means they could easily be persuaded to switch brands if companies don’t deliver the service they expect and believe that they deserve. Stress and frustration with domestic tasks can drive them to extreme behaviour.