Every tradie knows they miss calls. Almost none of them know what it costs, because a missed call is the only kind of business loss that leaves no trace. It does not appear in your job list. It does not show up in your invoicing. It never produces a complaint, because the person on the other end never became your customer.
You cannot compare the month you answered everything against the month you did not, because there has never been a month where you answered everything. So the loss runs quietly for years, and any fix looks optional right up until somebody actually does the arithmetic.
This is that arithmetic. It takes about five minutes and you do it with your own numbers, not ours. We have deliberately not put an industry statistic at the top of this article, because the internet is full of missed-call figures quoted by companies selling missed-call solutions, and a tradie is right to be sceptical of all of them, including ours.
Do the Maths on Your Own Phone
Get your phone out. You need three numbers, and you already have two of them.
Count the dead calls from last week
Open your call log and count the missed calls and unreturned voicemails from one full working week. Not the ones you rang back and won. The ones that went nowhere. Most sole operators and small crews land somewhere between five and fifteen. Write it down.
Work out your ordinary job value
Not your best job. Your ordinary one: the fault call, the small repair, the extra socket, the tap replacement. Take the call-out fee plus an hour or two of labour, and use what you actually invoice rather than what you wish you invoiced.
Be harsh about conversion
What share of those missed callers would genuinely have become jobs? Be hard on yourself rather than generous. A quarter is a defensible figure for people who rang a specific tradesperson about a specific problem, and it is low enough that you cannot accuse the result of being marketing.
The calculation
Dead calls per week × ordinary job value × conversion share = what you lost that week
Take a middling case to see the shape of it. Eight dead calls a week, an ordinary job worth 350 dollars, one in four converting:
8 × $350 × 0.25 = $700 per week
$700 × 48 working weeks = $33,600 per year
That is from the ordinary small jobs alone. It does not count the rewire, the bathroom renovation, the switchboard upgrade or the commercial maintenance contract that arrived once as an unanswered call and went to a competitor. Those are the ones that actually hurt, and they are not in the number above.
The figures in that example are illustrative, chosen to be unremarkable rather than impressive. The only number that matters is the one you get from your own call log. If yours comes out small, you do not have a missed-call problem and you should spend the money elsewhere.
The Calls Arrive When You Cannot Take Them
The reason this problem resists effort is that missed calls are not spread evenly through your day. They cluster precisely where you are least able to answer.
Mid-morning, you are under a house or in a switchboard with your hands full and a saw running. Late afternoon, people get home and discover the problem: no hot water, half the power out, a leak under the sink. After five, you are driving, or you have finally stopped, and the phone is the last thing you want. At the weekend, homeowners finally have time to think about the renovation, and they ring three builders in one sitting.
Every one of those windows is a time when a caller has an urgent problem and no patience. Someone with water coming through a ceiling is not going to leave a voicemail and wait for you. They are working down the list, and the job goes to whoever picks up first. Trying harder does not fix this, because the constraint is not your work ethic. It is that you cannot hold a fitting in place and a phone at the same time.
Four Options, Honestly Compared
We sell one of these. Here is the case against it as well as for it.
Voicemail
FreeMost callers will not leave one. They ring the next name on the list.
Answering service
Per call or per minuteTakes a message. Cannot quote your rates or book the job, and a busy month costs you more.
Part-time office person
Wages, plus managing themWorks properly, within the hours you pay for. Not at 7pm, not on Saturday, not on leave.
AI receptionist
Flat monthly by call volumeAnswers every call at once, quotes your rates, books the job. Needs proper setup to be any good.
The honest summary is that an office person is the best answer if you can afford one and only need business hours covered. Voicemail is the worst answer at any price. An answering service solves the answering and not the booking. An AI receptionist covers the hours nobody else will and can actually book the job, but it is only as good as the information you give it. A badly set up one is worse than voicemail, because it answers confidently and wrongly.
What To Do This Week
Run the calculation above on last week. One number, five minutes. Whatever you decide afterwards, you will at least be deciding with the figure in front of you instead of a feeling.
Pick your single worst window. For most plumbers and electricians it is after five. For most builders it is Saturday morning. You do not have to solve the whole phone at once, and starting with one window makes the result easy to read.
Whatever you try, measure it against that window for a month. Count the jobs that came from calls you would previously have missed. If the number does not clear what you paid, stop.
Be sceptical of anyone, including us, who leads with a percentage instead of asking about your business. The only figure that means anything is the one from your own call log.
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