Trade firms answer 66% of calls and believe it's 97%. The gap is your margin.
industry study
The short answer: about a third of your calls go unanswered, while most owners think they answer almost all of them
A study of 1,000 recorded calls to 94 US home-service firms measured a 66% answer rate. Owners estimated 97%. In the trades, a missed call is a job that goes to whoever picked up. Only 42% of calls become booked jobs, and 24% at shops with fewer than five technicians.
You were on the roof at 14:00. The phone was in the van. By the time you called back, they had hired someone else. What follows is an industry analysis, not a client result.
The 34% you never hear about
Almost every owner believes the phone is covered. The recordings say otherwise.
97% believed · 66% measured
A missed call is a missed job. Nobody rings back twice when three other numbers sit under yours in the search results.
42% · 24%
And customers would pay more for help at any hour.
72%
Put your own week in and watch the number move.
What do unanswered calls cost you?
≈ €19,500 a month walks away.
Estimate. Model: assumes 1 in 4 missed callers books elsewhere, industry studies put the miss rate higher. Your real numbers replace it on the call.
"We'll call you back tomorrow"
Tomorrow is a different market. The customer who wrote to you at lunch has three quotes by evening and a favourite by breakfast.
~60×
The first reply does not need to be perfect. It needs to arrive while they are still on your website.
The quote that went quiet
You priced it, sent it, and heard nothing. Chasing feels awkward, so it happens late or never, and the job goes to whoever followed up.
The machine follows up on a schedule that matches the quote size. Politely and persistently, without anyone having to remember on a Friday afternoon.