Loading
Most small businesses answer fewer than 4 in 10 calls live — and each missed call can mean a lost job, patient, client, or listing. Here's exactly what missed calls cost service businesses in 2026, a simple formula to calculate your own number, and how to plug the leak.
Last updated: June 2026. Every owner knows missed calls are bad. Almost none know the number. So here it is, with the math shown: a widely-cited 2024 study by 411 Locals tracked 85 small businesses across 58 industries for 30 days and found they answered just 37.8% of inbound calls with a live person — meaning roughly two of every three callers never reached a human. This guide breaks down what those calls actually cost, gives you a formula to calculate your own loss, and shows what each industry leaves on the table in 2026.
Key takeaways
- Small businesses answer only 37.8% of calls with a live person — about 62% of callers don't reach anyone (411 Locals, 2024).
- Speed decides the deal: you're 21× more likely to qualify a lead when you respond within 5 minutes versus 30 (Lead Response Management Study, MIT / Prof. James Oldroyd).
- A single won customer is worth hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars — so even 10 missed opportunities a month adds up to five or six figures a year.
- The fix isn't "answer faster." It's making sure every call is answered, instantly, around the clock.
A missed call costs you the entire value of the customer it represented — not the price of one transaction, but everything that customer would have spent. With small businesses answering only 37.8% of calls live (411 Locals, 2024), the real cost isn't a few dollars per call. It's measured in lost jobs, lost patients, and lost listings.
Here's why the number is bigger than it looks. A phone call to a service business is rarely a casual question. It's a buying signal — someone with a broken furnace, a toothache, a legal problem, or a house to sell. Miss it, and you don't lose a call. You lose the job, the repeat business, and every referral that customer would have sent.
So the honest answer to "what does a missed call cost?" is: take the average value of a won customer in your business, multiply by the share of missed calls that were real opportunities, and multiply again by how often you'd have closed them. For most service businesses, that lands between $200 and $1,200 per missed call — and far more in high-ticket trades.
Most miss more than half. The 2024 411 Locals study found that across 85 businesses in 58 industries, only 37.8% of inbound calls were answered by a live person. Another 37.8% went to voicemail, and 24.3% got no response at all — no answer, no voicemail, nothing.
Think about what that means during a normal week. Calls pile up while you're on a job, with a patient, in court, or showing a property. They come in after 5 p.m., on weekends, and over holidays — exactly when your front desk is gone but customers are home and ready to buy.
And voicemail rarely saves the call. Most people who hit a recording simply hang up and dial the next business on the list. When only 37.8% of calls reach a person, the competitor who picks up wins the customer by default — not because they're better, but because they were available.
Because buyers reward whoever answers first. The landmark Harvard Business Review study "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" (Oldroyd, McElheran, and Elkington, 2011) found that firms contacting a lead within an hour were nearly 7× more likely to qualify it than those who waited longer than an hour — and 60× more likely than firms that waited 24 hours.
"Our research shows that most companies are not responding nearly fast enough." — Oldroyd, McElheran & Elkington, Harvard Business Review
Speed matters even at the scale of minutes. The Lead Response Management Study (MIT / Prof. James Oldroyd, with InsideSales.com) analyzed more than 15,000 leads and found you're 21× more likely to qualify a lead when you respond within 5 minutes instead of 30, and 100× more likely to even reach the person. A voicemail returned the next morning is competing against a business that already booked the job.
Usually, yes — and quickly. When a call goes unanswered, most callers don't leave a voicemail and wait for a callback; they hang up and dial the next name on the list. With only 37.8% of calls answered live (411 Locals, 2024), the business that picks up wins the customer by default.
In our deployments, the calls that leak revenue cluster in two windows: the morning rush, when every line rings at once, and after 5 p.m., when the front desk has gone home but customers are finally free to call. Those are precisely the calls a 9-to-5 team can't catch — and the ones an always-on system recovers. The lesson isn't that your staff is slow; it's that human availability has hard limits, and your competitors' phones don't keep your office hours.
You don't need a study to find your number — you need five inputs and one formula. Most owners are shocked because they've never multiplied it out. Here's the calculation we use with service businesses, built to stay conservative on purpose.
Annual lost revenue = Monthly calls × Missed-call rate × % that are real opportunities × Close rate × Average customer value × 12
Walk through a plumbing company as an example, using deliberately cautious numbers:
That's 10 × $450 = $4,500 a month, or $54,000 a year — and that ignores repeat visits, system replacements, and referrals. Bump the missed-call rate to the real-world 50% and the loss roughly doubles. This is the part owners feel in their gut once they see it written down: the leak is rarely a rounding error.
For more on weighing that loss against the cost of a fix, see our guide to how much an AI receptionist costs.
It depends entirely on what one customer is worth — and in service businesses, that's a lot. Industry estimates put the lifetime value of a single residential HVAC customer around $15,340 (Mediagistic), and a single law-firm client at roughly $50,000 across all their matters (Clio). Against numbers like those, a missed call is an expensive mistake.
The table below uses illustrative industry estimates for the value of one won customer, then shows the monthly damage from just 10 missed opportunities. Plug in your own figures — these are ranges to anchor the math, not guarantees.
| Industry | Est. value of one won customer (illustrative) | Cost of 10 missed opportunities/month |
|---|---|---|
| HVAC & plumbing | $450 per job; ~$15,340 lifetime | $4,500+/mo |
| Dental & medical | $1,000–$2,000 first-year (est.) | $10,000+/mo |
| Law firms | $1,500–$3,000 per matter; ~$50K/client | $15,000–$30,000/mo |
| Real estate | Thousands in commission per closing | Tens of thousands/mo |
| Property management | Recurring monthly fee × lease term | Compounds every month |
| Contractors | $5,000–$50,000 per project | $50,000+/mo |
See how the recovery plays out for your trade: HVAC & plumbing, dental clinics, law firms, real estate, property management, and contractors.
Only the option that answers every call, instantly, at every hour. Voicemail converts almost nobody — callers hang up and move on. A traditional answering service helps but bills by the call or minute and still puts people on hold. An AI receptionist answers in under 3 seconds, 24/7, and books the appointment on the spot.
| Option | Answer rate | After-hours | Books appointments | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | ~0% recovered | Yes (but ignored) | No | "Free" — costs you the lead |
| Human front desk | ~38% of calls | No | Yes, when present | $35K–$70K/yr salary |
| Answering service | Varies; holds common | Sometimes | Limited | Per-call / per-minute |
| AI receptionist (AIEmply) | 100% answered | Yes, 24/7/365 | Yes, automatically | From $149/mo, flat |
For a deeper side-by-side, read AI receptionist vs virtual receptionist or compare your options in the best AI receptionist for small business.
It removes the one variable behind every missed call: human availability. AIEmply answers 100% of calls (versus roughly 60% handled manually), picks up in under 3 seconds, and works nights, weekends, and holidays. It qualifies the caller, books the appointment into your calendar, and updates your CRM — automatically.
It's more than a phone bot. It's a trained virtual employee customized to your business, fluent in 50+ languages, handling unlimited simultaneous calls with an instant warm handoff to a human when a call needs one. It connects to the tools you already run — GoHighLevel, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Follow Up Boss, Google Calendar, Outlook, and many more.
Now run the comparison the other way. If recovering even a handful of those 10 missed jobs covers the entire monthly cost, the math gets easy. Plans start at $149/mo, billing starts only after your AI Employee is live, and if the first month delivers no measurable result, the next month is free.
100% Answer Rate • Ready in 1–2 Weeks • Performance Guarantee. See exact plans on the pricing page, watch it work on the live demo, or book a 15-minute consultation to get your own missed-call number.
For most service businesses, a missed call costs $200–$1,200 in lost revenue, and far more in high-ticket trades. The exact figure equals your average customer value multiplied by the odds that the call was a real, closeable opportunity. With only 37.8% of calls answered live (411 Locals, 2024), those costs add up fast.
Most miss the majority. A 2024 study by 411 Locals across 85 businesses in 58 industries found only 37.8% of inbound calls reached a live person. Another 37.8% went to voicemail and 24.3% got no response at all — meaning roughly 62% of callers never connected with anyone.
Because buyers hire whoever answers first. The Lead Response Management Study (MIT / Prof. James Oldroyd) found you're 21× more likely to qualify a lead within 5 minutes than at 30. Harvard Business Review found firms that wait 24 hours are up to 60× less likely to qualify the lead at all.
Usually, yes. Most callers who hit voicemail hang up and dial the next business rather than wait for a callback. With only 37.8% of calls answered live (411 Locals, 2024), the competitor who picks up wins the customer by default — often simply because they were the one available.
The reliable fix is answering every call automatically. An AI receptionist like AIEmply answers 100% of calls in under 3 seconds, 24/7, qualifies the lead, and books the appointment — versus the roughly 60% handled manually. Plans start at $149/mo with a performance guarantee, so recovering a few jobs pays for it.
For most service businesses, yes. If a single won HVAC customer is worth ~$15,340 (Mediagistic) and a law-firm client ~$50,000 (Clio), recovering even one or two missed opportunities a month far exceeds the $149/mo starting cost. AIEmply also starts billing only after your AI Employee is live.
Missed calls aren't a phone problem — they're a revenue problem hiding in plain sight. When only 37.8% of calls reach a live person and buyers reward whoever answers first, the business that's always available wins. Run your own number with the formula above, then decide how long you can afford to keep paying for silence.
Ready to see your missed-call cost and plug the leak? Book a 15-minute consultation, explore pricing, or see how it works.