Intel Archive
Published
Voice AI Service Business Revenue

How Much Missed Calls Cost Service Businesses

A practical framework to estimate lost revenue from missed calls and slow callbacks in local service businesses.

Key Takeaways

  • 01 Missed calls are not just missed conversations, they are missed booked jobs.
  • 02 Estimate leakage by multiplying missed-call volume by average booking value and close rate.
  • 03 Speed-to-first-response is one of the highest-leverage metrics for owner-operators.

Most service businesses track ad spend and lead count, but they do not track response leakage.

If a call goes unanswered and no one follows up quickly, that lead often goes to the next provider.

A Simple Revenue Leak Formula

Use this monthly estimate:

Missed Calls x Contact Rate x Close Rate x Average Job Value

Example:

  • 120 missed calls
  • 45% contacts recovered
  • 35% close rate
  • $450 average job value

Potential recovered revenue: $8,505/month

Why This Happens

  • Teams are in the field and cannot answer
  • After-hours calls go to voicemail
  • No consistent text-back or callback workflow
  • Lead details are incomplete when callbacks happen

What to Measure Weekly

  • Missed calls
  • First-response time
  • Recovery contact rate
  • Booking conversion from recovered calls

These four metrics show whether your communication workflow is helping or hurting growth.

Ready to improve your call flow?

Book a demo and see where automation can recover more leads.