Communicating by email can cause friction and anger in business, according to a new survey.

Electronic mail could often create the wrong impression and give unintended offence, according to a survey carried out by recruitment agency Stopgap.

The majority of the 100 company directors questioned said they would prefer business complaints to be dealt with by letter, with 75 per cent agreeing with this method.

Only 20 per cent said they would deal with complaints about business by email.

However, 66 per cent said they would prefer to deal with business queries by email, with only 24 per cent saying they would deal with queries by letter.

For contact reports after meetings, 88 per cent said they would prefer to use email.

CVs from job applicants were preferred by letter (62 per cent) and company information was also preferred in the post (58 per cent), the survey found.

Claire Owen, managing director of Stopgap, said: "Email is all too frequently misinterpreted and the intended message is sometimes totally misread.

"We tend to be brief and clipped on email which some may assume to be rudeness."