What are missed calls actually costing your shop?
Three sliders, one dollar field, and arithmetic you can check: missed calls × real jobs × average ticket, minus the ones you win back. Every default is an adjustable assumption — put in your real week and see your number.
What does a missed call cost a trades shop?
Roughly this: missed calls per week × the share that were real jobs × your average ticket, minus the callers you win back later. There is no honest universal number, so every figure in the calculator below is an adjustable assumption you replace with your own week — not a claimed statistic.
That framing matters because most “cost of a missed call” numbers floating around are marketing, not math. Whether you're asking what a missed call actually costs a plumber, an HVAC tech, or an electrician, the answer is the same arithmetic with different inputs — and the only inputs that count are yours.
Starting points — put in your real week. These defaults are deliberately conservative guesses, not industry statistics. Your phone log knows better than any average.
Your assumptions, your arithmetic — a month here is 52 ÷ 12 ≈ 4.33 weeks. Dollar figures are rounded to whole dollars.
How does the math work?
The calculator multiplies four assumptions: missed calls per week, the share of those that were real jobs, the share you win back by calling back, and your average ticket. Lost jobs per week × average ticket is weekly revenue at risk; a month is counted as 52 ÷ 12 ≈ 4.33 weeks.
Written out with the default starting points:
- 5 missed calls a week × 50% real jobs = 2.5 real jobs in the missed pile.
- You win 25% of those back on callback anyway, leaving about 1.9 lost jobs a week.
- 1.9 lost jobs × $350 average ticket ≈ $656 a week — roughly $2,850 a month and about $34,000 over a year.
Nothing in there is a survey result or an industry benchmark — it's multiplication you can redo on the back of an invoice. If the fix you're weighing is a human answering service, we lay out that architecture honestly in Rivet vs. an answering service and in what an answering service actually costs a contractor.
How many calls does a small shop actually miss?
It varies too much for a single honest number — by trade, season, and whether you can answer from a crawlspace. The calculator's default of five missed calls a week is a deliberately conservative starting point: pull up your phone log for one real week and use your own count instead.
How many calls does an HVAC shop miss in a July heat wave versus a slow March? Nobody publishing a blanket average knows your answer. What you can know in five minutes: open your call log, count the calls you didn't pick up in the last seven days — including after-hours calls and the ones that rang while you were on another job — and put that number in the first slider. Thursday, 4:50pm, three calls while you're in a crawlspace: that's the scenario this tool is priced in, not a persona.
We walk through one full worked example in what one missed call costs an HVAC shop. And if you're counting missed calls because you just left an employer and the phone is suddenly all yours, start with the going-independent guide.
Common questions
Is this calculator based on industry averages?
No. Every input is an adjustable assumption, and the defaults are conservative starting points — not statistics we're claiming about your trade. The output is plain multiplication you can verify yourself: your missed calls, your real-job share, your average ticket, your callback recovery rate.
What does a missed call actually cost a plumber?
The same arithmetic with plumbing inputs: missed calls × the share that were real jobs × your average ticket, minus win-backs. Plumbing tickets and call volume vary too widely for one honest number, so put a real week from your own phone log into the calculator above.
How do I count how many calls my shop misses?
Open your phone's call log for the last seven days and count the calls you didn't answer — including after-hours calls and calls that came in while you were on another line or on the tools. That one-week count is a better calculator input than any published average.
Does Rivet stop calls from being missed?
Rivet answers the calls you can't and turns each one into a typed proposal — a booking, a quote, a reply — that waits for your approval. Nothing sends without your yes, a second AI checks every proposal, and there's a full audit trail with one-tap undo. It's in early access today.
Put Rivet on the calls you can't answer
Rivet picks up when you're on the tools, turns the call into a typed proposal, and waits for your yes. Early access — flat monthly price, no per-truck pricing.