What are missed calls costing your business?
Put in your own numbers and see what the calls nobody answers cost you in a month and a year. Every step of the math is shown. Every default is either from a source you can check or labeled as our assumption.
a year, or $7,600 a month
- Missed calls a month35.1
- Callers who don't try again17.6
- Of those, real jobs8.2
- Jobs lost a month2.39
- Jobs lost a year28.7
Want to be cautious? Cut it in half: $45,610 a year.
At a $3,178 average job, one extra job every 10 months covers the Basic plan ($297 a month).
The math, step by step
- 30 calls a week × 52 ÷ 12 = 130 calls a month
- 130 × 27% missed = 35.1 missed calls
- 35.1 × 50% who don't try again = 17.6 callers gone
- 17.6 × 47% real jobs = 8.2 lost prospects
- 8.2 × 29% close rate = 2.39 jobs a month
- 2.39 × $3,178 = about $7,600 a month, $91,220 a year
How the math works
The calculator multiplies six numbers together:
Calls a week becomes calls a month by multiplying by 52 and dividing by 12 (about 4.33 weeks a month). Money is rounded to the nearest $10 so the result doesn't pretend to be more precise than the inputs.
Each step removes callers who weren't going to be work anyway. Callers who ring back later are taken out. So are spam, vendors and wrong numbers. So are the prospects you wouldn't have won even if you'd answered. What's left is the work you would have won at your normal close rate if someone had picked up.
For the long version with a worked example and where the calls actually get lost, read how much a missed call costs a contractor.
Where the defaults come from
| Input | Default | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Calls a week | 30 | An example only. Use your own. |
| Share unanswered | 27% | Invoca, "How Many Phone Calls Are You Missing?" (home services). Plumbing & Mechanical reports Invoca's all-business figure as about 26%. |
| Never try again | 50% | Our assumption. We couldn't find a reliable study, so we picked a middle number and labeled it. |
| Real jobs | 47% | Invoca: 47% of home-services calls are leads. |
| Close rate | 29% | Invoca: 29% of those leads convert. |
| Average job | Depends on trade | Angi 2026 cost guides, below. |
Trade presets
These are national averages for what homeowners paid, checked in September 2026. Your prices, your market and your mix of jobs will differ, so treat them as a starting point.
| Trade | Preset | What Angi measured |
|---|---|---|
| Painting | $3,178 | Angi: exterior house painting |
| Roofing | $9,609 | Angi: a roof replacement |
| HVAC | $7,500 | Angi: an HVAC system replacement |
| Plumbing | $341 | Angi: a plumbing repair |
| Electrical | $351 | Angi: an electrician visit |
| Remodeling | $12,151 | Angi: a bathroom remodel |
| Landscaping | $3,516 | Angi: a landscaping project |
| Fencing | $3,276 | Angi: a fence installation |
| Junk removal | $241 | Angi: a junk removal job |
| Window cleaning | $221 | Angi: a window cleaning visit |
| Pressure washing | $312 | Angi: pressure washing a house |
| House cleaning | $178 (middle of $118 to $238) | Angi: a standard house cleaning |
| Pest control | $172 | Angi: a pest control visit |
For house cleaning, window cleaning and pest control, one visit understates what a customer is worth when they book on a schedule. Use what one customer pays you in a year instead.
What this calculator leaves out
It counts one job per lost caller. It doesn't count the repeat work, referrals and reviews a customer brings over the years, which would make the number bigger. It also assumes your miss rate is the same all year, when for most trades it spikes in busy season, which is exactly when the calls are worth the most. If you want a harder number, pull a month of your call log and a month of your jobs, and put those in.
AI Front Desk Helper answers every call, day or night. On Pro and Elite it also books the estimate on your calendar and follows up on quotes that go quiet. Plans start at $297 a month with 500 call minutes included.
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Questions people ask
How much does a missed call cost a contractor?
It depends on your numbers, which is why this calculator asks for them. The formula is calls per month × share missed × share who never try again × share that were real jobs × close rate × average job. With the example defaults (a painting company taking 30 calls a week) it comes to about $7,600 a month, or $91,220 a year.
What percentage of calls do home-service companies miss?
Invoca's call-tracking data puts home-services companies at 27% of inbound calls missed, and most industries at close to a quarter. Your own call log is the better number: export it from your phone provider and count the missed, no-answer and voicemail rows for a month.
Where do the average job values come from?
Each trade preset is the national average (or, for house cleaning, the middle of the national range) from Angi's 2026 cost guides, checked in September 2026. They are national figures for homeowners, not your prices, so replace them with your own average job from your books.
Why assume only half of missed callers never try again?
Because nobody has a trustworthy number for this. Many marketing sites claim 85%, a figure we could not trace to a solid study, so we start at 50% and let you change it. If you keep a callback log, use what it shows.
Does an AI receptionist get all of that money back?
No tool closes every call. What it changes is that the call gets answered, so the caller is handled the way your answered calls are, and your normal close rate applies. The calculator already applies your close rate, so the result is the work you would win at your usual rate, not every caller.
Related: what a missed call costs, worked through, missed-call text-back explained, after-hours emergency calls, and the best AI receptionists for contractors, compared.