Why do I keep missing calls, and what does it cost me?

You keep missing calls because you are on the tools, driving, or with another customer, and the phone is in your pocket. The cost is not the call itself — it is the job that caller books with the next person who picks up. Most people who ring a tradesperson want an answer now, and if they do not get one they move on within a few minutes.

How many calls do you actually miss in a week?

Start by counting them honestly. Look back over your phone log for the last month and mark every call from a number you did not recognise that you never rang back. That number is usually higher than people think, because a missed call leaves no job behind to remind you it happened.

What is one missed call worth in pounds?

Work it out from your own prices, not a guess. Take what one average job brings in, and treat every missed call as a job that walked. Not every missed call would have become a job, but enough of them do that the maths is uncomfortable once you see it on paper.

• Write down what one average job is worth to you, in pounds.
• Multiply it by the missed calls you counted in a week.
• Take roughly half of that as a fair estimate of what you lost — not every call converts.
• Multiply by 52 to see it across a year.

Why do callers not leave a voicemail?

Because voicemail feels slow and most people assume nobody listens to it. A caller who is already ringing around will not wait for you to ring back hours later — they will keep dialling down the list until someone answers. The job goes to the business that picked up first, not the one with the best reviews.

What is the cheapest fix to start with?

The cheapest fix is a text back within a minute of the missed call. It tells the caller you saw their call, you are on a job, and you will be in touch — and it buys you the time to ring them back properly. Most people will wait once they know they have been seen. After that, the next step is having the call answered in the first place, so it never becomes a missed call.

How do you know if it is working?

You count the calls answered, the jobs booked, and the money that came in from them, every month. If you cannot see the number, you cannot tell whether the fix earned its keep. A plain monthly report that shows calls, bookings and pounds brought in is the only honest way to judge it.