What A Missed Call Actually Costs A Contractor
Most contractors know they miss calls. Very few have ever put a number on it. Here's how to calculate what yours are costing you, using your own job values — the figure is usually worse than you'd guess.
Ask a contractor whether they miss calls and they'll say yes, sure, sometimes. Ask what that costs them a month and you'll get a shrug. It's the largest untracked line item in most home service businesses, and it's entirely knowable.
The arithmetic
You need four numbers, and you probably already know three of them.
- 01Inbound calls per month. Your phone bill or Google Business Profile insights will tell you. Most single-crew contractors land somewhere between 40 and 120.
- 02The share you don't answer. Invoca's 2024 research puts unanswered calls to local businesses at around 27%. Use that if you don't know yours; if you work with your hands all day, assume it's higher.
- 03The share of missed calls that were real jobs. Not every call is a customer. A third is a fair, conservative starting point once you strip out suppliers and spam.
- 04Your average job value. You know this one.
Multiply them together and you have your monthly number.
A plumber
80 calls a month × 27% missed = 21.6 missed calls. A third are real jobs = 7.2 jobs. At $450 average = $3,240 a month, or just under $39,000 a year.
A roofer
50 calls a month × 27% = 13.5 missed. A third are real = 4.5 jobs. But a roofer doesn't close every quote, so apply a 30% close rate: 1.35 jobs. At $9,000 average = $12,150 a month.
A cleaning company
60 calls × 27% = 16.2 missed. A third real = 5.4 jobs. But cleaning is recurring — a $150 fortnightly client retained for a year is worth around $3,900, not $150. That's the number that should go in the calculation, and it changes the answer dramatically.
The costs that don't show up in that calculation
The direct revenue loss is only part of it.
- The reviews you never got. Every job you didn't do is a review you didn't earn — and review count is one of the strongest local ranking signals there is.
- The referrals that didn't happen. A satisfied customer tells their neighbour. That chain never starts.
- The competitor you strengthened. Your missed call became somebody else's customer, review and referral chain.
- The advertising you wasted. If you spend anything on Google Ads or Local Services Ads, you paid for that click. Missing the call means paying for a lead and then throwing it away.
Why contractors miss calls (it isn't laziness)
It's worth being clear about this, because the usual advice — "just answer the phone" — is useless. You miss calls because:
- You are physically doing skilled work with both hands.
- You're on another call, often with a customer.
- You're driving between jobs.
- It's after hours, and you're allowed a life.
- The site is loud enough that you didn't hear it.
None of these are fixable by trying harder. They're fixable by having something answer when you can't.
Three ways to stop losing them, cheapest first
1. Missed call text back
An automatic SMS from your business number within thirty seconds of the call ringing out. Cheapest, fastest to deploy, and it works while you're asleep. It converts a lost call into a text conversation you pick up when you're free. Full detail in the complete guide.
2. An answering service
A real human takes a message. Better than voicemail, but expensive per call, frequently off-brand, and the caller still has to wait for you to ring back — which puts you back outside the decision window.
3. Hiring someone to answer the phone
The best experience by a distance, and the only option that costs more than the problem for most small contractors. Worth it once you're carrying several crews; hard to justify before that.
What to do this week
Run the calculation on your own numbers. If the answer is more than a few hundred dollars a month — and for most contractors it's several thousand — then the fix is not a big strategic project. It's one automation, and it can be live in a couple of days.