Missed call cost calculator

This calculator takes four numbers you already have, or can dig up in an afternoon, and multiplies them into what unanswered calls could be costing you in a month and in a year. It doesn't fill anything in for you. An industry average for close rate or job size would tell you about somebody else's business, so every box starts empty. The math runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us.

The calculator needs JavaScript, which looks to be off. The formula below is the same math, and it works just as well with a pencil.

The missed call cost formula, in words

1. Missed calls a week × the share that were real customers × your close rate = jobs a week you didn't get.
2. Those jobs × your average job = what a week of missed calls costs.
3. A week × 52 = a year. A year ÷ 12 = a month.

Turn the two percentages into decimals before you multiply by hand: 40% is 0.4, and 5% is 0.05.

Here it is with made-up numbers, only to show the arithmetic. Say you miss 8 calls in a normal week, half of them were real customers, and you win 1 in 4 of the new customers you talk to. That's 8 × 0.5 × 0.25, or 1 job a week you didn't get, and 52 in a year. Multiply 52 by your own average job and you have the yearly figure.

Where to find each number

Missed calls in a normal week

Scroll back through a week of your call history and count the calls you didn't pick up. Pick an ordinary week, not a holiday or your slowest month. If you called someone back and still got the job, leave that call out; it wasn't lost. If you called back and heard "we already got someone," it counts.

Share that were real customers

Go down that week's missed numbers one at a time. Robocalls, spam, wrong numbers, vendors and existing customers with a quick question don't count toward this one. What's left is people who might have hired you. Divide that by the total and multiply by 100 for the percent: 4 out of 8 is 50.

Your close rate

Of the new customers you actually get on the phone, how many end up hiring you? If you quoted ten jobs last month and won four, that's 40%. A rough number is fine, as long as it's yours.

Average job

Add up what customers paid you over the last few months and divide by the number of jobs. That gives you revenue. If you'd rather see the cost in profit, use what you keep from a typical job instead, and the calculator will show lost profit.

What the estimate leaves out

It counts only the first job from each caller you lost, because anything past that would be a guess. Some things sit on top of that number, and you can weigh them for yourself:

• Repeat work. A caller who hired someone else now has that company's number saved instead of yours for the next job.
• Referrals and reviews. Neighbors ask who fixed it, and reviews come from jobs you did. A call that went to someone else gets you neither.
• What you paid to make the phone ring. If an ad or a directory listing brought the call in, you paid for that advertising whether anybody answered or not.

It can also run high. A caller who leaves a voicemail and waits for you is a missed call you can still win, which is why the first box asks you to leave those out once you've won them back.

What VettedCalls does with a call you miss

We can't tell you what share of your missed calls you'd win back, and we won't guess at it. What we can tell you is what happens to each call:

• Your cell forwards every call to us first. Numbers you've marked as spam, and numbers on the spam registry we share across every customer, are blocked before they reach you.
• Priority Passthrough lets customers who say one of your selected priority words ring straight through to you, regardless of the time of day. They skip the text question, and your phone rings for up to 40 seconds.
• On Pro, a caller you miss can leave a voicemail, and you get a text alert and an email with the transcript (attorney accounts get the recording without one).
• If that caller pressed 1 to get texts, we text them in your name with "sorry I missed your call," a short reason like "on a job," and the number you'll call back from.
• On Receptionist, a missed call goes to the AI receptionist instead, except priority calls and saved contacts, which go to voicemail. It gets the caller's name and reason, confirms their callback number, asks what days work, and tells them someone from your team will reach out.

Plan prices are on the pricing page. For the texts on their own, see missed call text back. And if your callers still reach a voicemail box you recorded yourself, the voicemail greeting generator will write you a new one.