Missed call cost calculator
Put in your own call numbers and see the revenue at risk each month. Nothing in here is an industry average, and every figure is yours to change.
Revenue at risk each month
$4,160
An upper bound, on your numbers. Some of those callers call back.
- Calls missed a week
- 12
- Of those, about new work
- 6
- Jobs you would have won
- 2.4
- At risk each week
- $960
- At risk each year
- $49,920
A month is 52 weeks divided by 12, so about 4.33 weeks. That is why the monthly figure is a little more than four times the weekly one.
What it works out
A missed call only costs you money when three things line up. The caller wanted new work, you would have won it, and they never tried you again. This calculator multiplies through the first two and leaves the third to your judgment.
You give it five numbers. How many calls come in each week, what share go unanswered, and what share of those were about new work. Then what an average job is worth, and how often you win the job when you do pick up.
Back comes the revenue at risk for a week, a month and a year. We say "at risk" on purpose. It's the most you could be losing on those inputs, and the true figure sits somewhere under it.
The formula, in plain words
For a month, multiply the weekly figure by 52 and divide by 12. That works out to about 4.33 weeks, which is fairer than pretending a month has four. For a year, multiply the week by 52.
Each share goes in as a percentage, so 20% is typed as 20. There's no weighting, no seasonal curve and no hidden multiplier. If you can do the sum on a napkin, you can check our work.
A worked example
These are the numbers the calculator opens with.
Find the missed calls
60 calls a week with 20% unanswered is 12 missed calls.
Keep the ones about new work
50% of 12 is 6 callers who wanted a quote or a booking.
Apply your close rate
You win 40% of those when you answer, so 6 calls is 2.4 jobs.
Turn jobs into dollars
2.4 jobs at $400 each is $960 a week. Times 52 and divided by 12, that's $4,160 a month, or $49,920 a year.
Those opening numbers are made up so the form isn't empty. They describe no real business and no trade average. Swap in yours before you read anything into the result.
Read this before you quote the number
Where to find your own numbers
Your phone system already holds most of this. Nearly every business phone provider keeps a call log with answered, missed and voicemail counts by day. Export a normal month, skip your busiest one, and divide by the weeks in it.
The new-work share takes more effort. For two weeks, return every missed call and keep a tally: new customer, existing customer, supplier, junk. It's dull, and it's the only way to get a number you can trust.
Job value and close rate come from your books and your quotes. Use the average, and leave out the one huge job from last spring. If you don't track a close rate, count the quotes you sent last quarter and the ones that became invoices.
Once you have a figure, set it beside the cost of having every call answered. Our plans start at $49 a month for 200 calls, and the plan picker shows which one fits your volume.
Questions about missed call math
How do I calculate the cost of a missed call?
Multiply your weekly calls by the share you miss, then by the share of those about new work, your close rate and your average job value. That gives revenue at risk per week. Multiply by 52 and divide by 12 for a month.
What is a normal missed call rate for a small business?
We don't publish one, because we have no source we'd stand behind. Figures quoted around the web rarely name a sample or a year. Your own call log is better evidence than any average, and it takes ten minutes to pull.
Does every missed call cost money?
No. Suppliers, existing customers, wrong numbers and robocalls all show up as missed calls, and none of them is a lost sale. That's why the calculator asks what share were about new work.
Should I count calls that went to voicemail?
Count them as missed unless you know you returned the call and won the job. A caller who hangs up at the beep leaves nothing in your mailbox, so a voicemail count alone understates who tried to reach you.
Is the result what GreetKeeper would earn me?
No. It's the ceiling on what unanswered calls could be costing you. We can't tell you how much of it any answering service wins back, and GreetKeeper is new, so there are no customer results to quote. Run a month and measure it.
Hear what an answered call sounds like
Two minutes, your own scenario, no card.