The True Cost of Missed Calls for Contractors

Here's a number that should keep every contractor up at night: the average trade business misses 40-60% of incoming calls during work hours. After hours? That number jumps to 100% for businesses without answering services.

But the real question isn't how many calls you're missing. It's how much money each one of those missed calls represents.

Calculating Your Cost Per Missed Call

Let's work through the math with a realistic example. Say you're a plumbing company with these numbers:

• Average job value: $800
• Monthly marketing spend: $2,500 (Angi, Thumbtack, Google Ads)
• Leads generated per month: 80
• Calls missed per month: 35 (44% miss rate)
• Conversion rate on answered calls: 30%
• Conversion rate on returned calls (30+ min later): 8%

Here's how we get that number: 35 missed calls × 30% conversion rate × $800 average job = $8,400 you should have earned. Instead, you recovered maybe 8% by calling back later, netting only $2,240. The gap: $6,160 in lost revenue every single month.

The Hidden Costs You're Not Counting

The direct revenue loss is just the beginning. Missed calls create a cascading effect that compounds over time:

1. 1Wasted marketing spend — You paid $31.25 per lead ($2,500 / 80 leads). Every missed call wastes that investment.
2. 2Lost lifetime value — That $800 plumbing job? The average customer comes back 2.3 times over 5 years and refers 1.5 new customers. A single missed call costs you $3,000+ in lifetime value.
3. 3Reputation damage — 85% of people who can't reach you won't call back. Many will leave negative reviews about being unable to get through.
4. 4Competitor advantage — Every lead you miss goes straight to your competitor. You're literally funding their growth with your marketing budget.
5. 5Team morale — When callbacks don't convert, your team feels like leads are "low quality." The leads aren't bad — you're just calling too late.

The After-Hours Black Hole

The biggest chunk of missed revenue comes from after-hours leads. Our data shows that 35% of service requests come in between 6 PM and 8 AM. For emergency services like plumbing and HVAC, that number climbs to 45%.

Think about it from the homeowner's perspective. Their AC breaks at 9 PM on a Saturday. They're uncomfortable, stressed, and searching for help. They submit requests on Angi and Thumbtack. The contractor who responds at 9:01 PM gets the job. The contractors who call back Monday morning get voicemail.

How to Plug the Leak

The good news: this is one of the most solvable problems in the trades industry. Here are your options, from simple to comprehensive:

Option 1: Hire a Receptionist ($3,000-$4,000/month)

Covers business hours only. No after-hours, weekends, or holiday coverage. They also can't monitor Angi, Thumbtack, and email leads simultaneously. For most small shops, this is too expensive for partial coverage.

Option 2: Answering Service ($200-$500/month)

Handles phone calls only. Doesn't cover digital leads from Angi, Thumbtack, email, or website forms. Operators are generic and can't qualify leads or discuss your services knowledgeably.

Option 3: AI-Powered Lead Response ($497-$997/month)

Monitors all lead sources 24/7, responds in under 60 seconds, qualifies leads with AI, and sends personalized text messages. Works while you sleep, handles weekends and holidays, and actually improves over time. This is what Vertos AI provides.

Start With the Math

Before you do anything else, calculate your own cost of missed calls. Take your average job value, multiply by your miss rate, and multiply by your normal conversion rate. That's the monthly revenue sitting on the table.

For most contractors we talk to, the number is somewhere between $5,000 and $20,000 per month. Once you see that number, the ROI on any solution that captures even a fraction of those leads becomes obvious.