How Much Are Missed Calls Actually Costing Your Business? (We Did the Maths)

Here's a question that'll keep you up tonight: How many calls did your business miss this week?

Not how many you sent to voicemail. Not how many you called back. How many people dialled your number, didn't get an answer, and called your competitor instead?

You don't know. And that's the problem.

The Numbers Nobody Talks About

Let's start with the research:

• 62% of calls to small businesses go unanswered (BIA/Kelsey)
• 80% of callers won't leave a voicemail — they'll call the next business instead (Forbes)
• 85% of people whose calls aren't answered won't call back (Aircall)
• The average small business misses 6-8 calls per week during business hours alone

These aren't stats from the 2000s. This is current data. And it's probably worse for trades and service businesses where the owner is physically unable to answer — they're on a roof, under a car, in a consultation.

The Calculator

Here's the dead-simple version:

Missed calls per week: _____ (if you don't know, start with 6)
× Average job value: $_____ (plumber: $200-500, electrician: $150-400, dentist: $200-800)
× 50 weeks
= Your annual cost of missed calls: $_____

Some real examples:

These numbers look crazy until you think about it. If you're a plumber getting 8 calls a week that you can't answer, and even half of those were real jobs at $350... that's $72,800 a year. Walking out the door. To your competitor. Because you were on a job.

Wait... that's not right. Every call is a potential $350 job.

"But I Call Them Back"

Sure. Sometimes. And sometimes it works.

But here's what the data says about callbacks:

• 59% of customers expect a callback within 30 minutes (HubSpot)
• After 5 minutes, the odds of qualifying a lead drop by 80% (InsideSales)
• 67% of callers who hang up frustrated will not call back even if you return the call (Vonage)

The window between "customer has a problem" and "customer hires someone else" is shrinking every year. In emergency services (plumbing, electrical, HVAC), it's basically zero. They're calling the next Google result before you've finished wiping your hands.

Why Voicemail Is Dead

"Leave a message after the beep" worked in 2005. Here's why it's useless in 2026:

1. Nobody leaves voicemails anymore. The number varies by study, but 80-90% of callers won't leave one. They'll Google the next option.

2. Voicemail is a dead end. The customer's problem doesn't get solved. No appointment booked, no quote given, no information exchanged. Just a recording sitting in a mailbox.

3. You probably don't check it anyway. Be honest — when was the last time you listened to every voicemail on the same day?

4. It signals "unavailable." Sending a customer to voicemail tells them "we're too busy for you." Not the message you want to send.

What Actually Works

The businesses that don't lose money to missed calls have one thing in common: something answers the phone.

Whether that's:

• A full-time receptionist ($50,000+/year)
• A virtual receptionist service ($235-680/month)
• An AI phone agent ($49/month)
• A family member (free, but comes with strings)

The specific solution matters less than the fact that someone — or something — picks up the phone and handles the call.

The economics are simple: if your average job is worth $200+, then spending $49/month to never miss a call again is the single best ROI decision you'll make this year.

Try the Calculator Live

We built an interactive version of this calculator at infercall.com. Plug in your numbers and see exactly what missed calls are costing your business.

While you're there, paste your website URL and talk to an AI phone agent trained on your business. Takes 60 seconds, costs nothing, and you'll hear exactly what your customers would hear when they call.

Calculate your missed call cost → — it takes 10 seconds.

Try the free AI demo → — paste your URL, hear your AI in 60 seconds.