What one missed call really costs a service business
It’s easy to shrug off a call you couldn’t take. Here’s a simple way to put a number on it, using your own figures.
Every service business misses calls. You’re on a job, driving, with a customer or simply closed. Most owners know it happens; very few know what it adds up to. The math is simple, and it’s worth doing once with your own numbers.
The four numbers you need
- Missed calls a week from people who aren’t already customers. Your phone’s call log or carrier portal will show missed calls; count the unfamiliar numbers.
- How many of those would have turned into a job if you had answered. Use your normal close rate on inbound calls, and be conservative.
- Your average job value.
- How often a new customer comes back or refers someone. Many trades see repeat work; if you do, count it.
A worked example
These numbers are an illustration, not a benchmark. Say you miss four calls a week from new people, you’d normally book one in three of them, and your average job is $400. That’s roughly one lost job a week, or about $20,000 a year, before counting repeat work or referrals.
Change the numbers to yours. Even if the answer is a quarter of that, it usually costs more than the tools that would have caught those calls.
Why a voicemail doesn’t fix it
Many callers don’t leave a message. Someone with a problem that can’t wait just calls the next business on the list. The call isn’t lost because you missed it; it’s lost because nothing happened next.
What catching it looks like
- A text from your business number within moments of the missed call, saying you saw it and how you’ll get back to them.
- An alert to you with the caller’s number, so you can call back when you’re free.
- The caller added to one list with a follow-up date, so a busy day doesn’t bury them.
None of this replaces answering the phone. It covers the moments when you can’t. If you want to see how your own business handles a missed call, our free Snapshot can include an after-hours call test.