Missed calls: what they cost and how to stop losing work

For most small businesses the phone is still where the best work starts. Someone with a leak, a toothache or a house to sell doesn't fill in a form and wait: they ring, and if nobody answers they ring the next name on the list. A missed call is rarely a lost caller. It's a customer who went to someone else.

In short: small businesses miss calls while they're working, driving or closed, and each one can be a lost job. Multiply your missed calls by the share that would book and your average job value to see the cost. Fix it with a better voicemail, fast call-backs, shared answering or an AI receptionist.

Why calls get missed

Calls aren't missed because nobody cares. They're missed because the people who'd answer are busy doing the work:

• On the job. Under a sink, up a ladder, with a client in the chair or a patient on the couch.
• On the road. Driving between jobs or viewings, when picking up isn't safe.
• Peak times. Monday mornings, the first cold snap, the week before Christmas: everyone rings at once.
• After hours. Evenings and weekends, when people finally have time to sort things out.
• Reception is stretched. One person checking someone in while the phone and the door both go.

What a missed call costs

Work it out for your own business rather than trusting someone else's average:

1. Count the calls you miss in a normal week from numbers you don't know.
2. Estimate how many of those would have become work. Be cautious: not every caller is a customer.
3. Multiply by what an average job or booking is worth to you, and by how many customers come back.

Our missed call cost calculator does the sums for a month and a year. Even a cautious answer is usually more than the cost of fixing it.

Five ways to answer more calls

1. Make voicemail work harder

Most callers hang up on voicemail. If you use it, keep the greeting short, say when you'll call back, and offer another way to reach you, like a text or your website. The voicemail greeting generator writes one for you.

2. Call back fast

The sooner you ring back, the more likely the caller hasn't found someone else. Block a few minutes between jobs to return missed calls, newest first.

3. Share the phone

If there's more than one of you, route calls so they ring the person who's free: a shared number, a call queue, or simply agreeing who covers the phone each day.

4. Use an answering service

A human answering service takes messages in your business name. It costs more as calls go up, and messages still need a call back.

5. Use an AI receptionist

An AI receptionist answers every call, any time, in your business name. It asks the questions you would, takes the caller's details, books call-backs and appointments into your diary, and sends you a summary straight away. You call back with everything in front of you, instead of a voicemail that just says "call me".

Sam's AI receptionist does this, and comes with your website and invoice reminders in one place.

Track it

Whatever you choose, keep counting missed calls for a month. If the number doesn't fall, try the next option on the list.