With more consumers screening unknown calls and second-guessing unexpected messages, MaxContact said businesses are finding it harder to reach their own customers. The company’s Voice of the UK Consumer 2026 report, based on an independent survey of 1,000 UK consumers who had interacted with a contact centre in the last 18 months, suggests that hesitation now often begins before any conversation has started.
According to the research, 69% of consumers always or often screen calls from unknown numbers, while half said they had ignored a message from a legitimate company because they assumed it was a scam or otherwise fraudulent. Only 22% strongly agreed they could tell when an unexpected company contact was genuine. Among those who had ignored a legitimate call, 77% said doing so had led to a real consequence.
MaxContact said the effect is being felt operationally as well as commercially. Missed calls can mean missed appointments, interrupted service delivery, and delayed or unpaid bills, while repeated failures to connect risk leaving more issues unresolved. For businesses that rely on timely phone contact, the difficulty is no longer confined to outbound performance alone.
Response rates also vary by sector. Loans, credit, and debt management businesses were the most avoided, with 37% of consumers saying they would be least likely to answer calls from that category. Insurance followed at 25%, while technology, telecoms, retail, and e-commerce each recorded avoidance levels between 22% and 23%. Banks and building societies performed better, at 16%.
Alongside that shift, the report highlights how AI disclosure is becoming part of the trust question. MaxContact found that 88% of consumers believe businesses should clearly disclose when AI is being used. Some 87% said they believed they had interacted with AI or automation in a recent company exchange, and 22% of that group said they were sure, or fairly sure, they had done so without realising it at the time.
Ben Booth, CEO of MaxContact, said: “This data should make every business leader pause. Consumers broadly trust the sectors they deal with, but that trust doesn’t translate into picking up the phone. This turns brand trust into a clear operational issue, because businesses need to earn their customer’s trust if they expect them to answer the phone. If consumers can’t tell the difference between a legitimate call and a scam, they’ll start to become invisible to their own customers.”
He added: “The Trust Gap is a solvable problem — but only for businesses willing to treat trust as an operational priority, not a brand one. That means being transparent about how you use AI, giving consumers clear signals of legitimacy before you dial, and recognising that the channel choices you make send a message before a word is spoken.”
The full report can be downloaded here.
