Missed-Call Cost Calculator for Trade Businesses
This calculator does one small job. You type in four numbers from your own business, and it shows a rough estimate of what unanswered calls might be worth to you each week and each month. Nothing is sent anywhere; the math runs in your browser.
It doesn't know anything about your company except what you enter, so the result is only as good as your inputs. Treat it as a way to think the question through, not as a forecast.
Your numbers
Estimate from your inputs
The starting values in the boxes are placeholders so the page shows something. They are not averages or benchmarks from any real business. Replace every one of them with your own figures.
How the estimate is worked out
The calculator multiplies your weekly calls by the share you said go unanswered to get missed calls per week. It then applies your own hiring rate to those missed calls, on the assumption that a missed caller would have hired you as often as the callers you do reach. Finally it multiplies by your average job value. The monthly figure uses an average month of a little over four weeks.
Where the estimate can be wrong
- Some missed callers call back or leave a voicemail. Those calls aren't really lost, so the estimate can run high.
- Some missed calls aren't customers at all. Sales calls, wrong numbers and vendors show up in the same list.
- Urgent callers can behave differently. Someone with an emergency may be more likely to hire whoever answers, which can push the real figure either way.
- A text-back won't win all of them back. Replying to a missed call gives the caller a reason to wait for you, but some will still choose someone else.
Getting better inputs
The quickest source is your own phone. Scroll back through a normal week of recent calls and count the missed ones from numbers you don't recognize. For the hiring rate, think about the last several new callers you actually spoke with and how many turned into paid work. Your invoices or job software will give you an average job value that's closer to reality than a guess.
If the estimate comes out small, that's a useful answer: you may not need anything for missed calls. If it's larger than you expected, it may be worth looking at how calls are handled when nobody can pick up.
For a closer look at how this plays out in specific trades, the worked examples linked below walk through the same arithmetic for different kinds of businesses.
Related reading
Missed-Call Text-Back is a text-back tool: it replies to the calls you can't pick up, and it doesn't answer calls for you. It's $49/mo list, or $39/mo at the founding rate while founding spots last, billed monthly with no contract. If it sounds like a fit, see how Missed-Call Text-Back works.