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What missed calls cost an HVAC, plumbing or electrical contractor.

A contractor taking 25 calls a day, missing one in five while the crew is on a job and all of the after-hours calls, loses about $380,000 a year in jobs booked by whoever picked up first.

Jeff Weinberg, JRW · Updated 22 October 2026

You take 25 calls a day, with 20% not answered live and 40% arriving after hours. About 135 calls a week reach no one, which costs you $381,972 a year in 979 jobs that never get booked.

$381,972 Revenue lost to unanswered calls, per year
  • The same, per month: $31,831
  • Calls not answered live, per year: 7,010
  • Of those, after hours: 5,200
  • Callers who never come back, per year: 4,731
  • Jobs lost, per year: 979
  • Share of all calls answered live: 46%
  • Recovered by answering nearly every call, per year: $365,098

How the number is worked out.

Not every missed call is a lost job. The model counts only the callers who never get through, and only those who wanted to book.

  1. 01Calls in. Calls per open day times open days a year, plus after-hours calls as a share of the total. A contractor roundup puts 25% to 40% of calls outside standard hours. At 40%, a shop with 7,800 daytime calls a year gets another 5,200 at night and on weekends.
  2. 02Calls not answered live. CallRail’s lead data puts home services at 14% missed. A contractor roundup puts it near 27% of all inbound calls. The default sits between them. Each after-hours call counts unless a person or an agent answers it.
  3. 03Callers who come back. Some leave a voicemail and get a callback. Some try again. Both are subtracted, at lower rates than for a medical practice. A homeowner with no heat often calls the next number on the list.
  4. 04What a lost caller was worth. Only calls that wanted to book count, and only the share that would have booked. A first job is valued at $450, well under Housecall Pro’s $1,205 average HVAC repair ticket. A repeat job is $300.
  5. 05What answering nearly every call would recover. The model reruns the same shop with 3% missed, 1% lost on hold and after-hours calls answered, and takes the difference.

The defaults.

Dials you change are marked in colour. The last column says where each default comes from and what kind of source it is.

DialYoursDefaultWhere the default comes from
Calls per day, open hours2525JRW, 2026 Our default
Days open per week66JRW, 2026 Our default
Not answered live20%20%JRW, between CallRail and HiGrovi, 2026 Our default
Answered, then lost on hold4%4%JRW, 2026 Our default
After-hours share of all calls40%40%AnswerConnect, 2026 Measured, vendor data
After-hours calls answered live0%0%JRW, 2026 Our default
Leave a voicemail25%25%Invoca, Hiya and others, via vendor roundups, 2024 Vendor figure
Voicemails that turn into a booking40%40%JRW, 2026 Our default
Hang up, then get through later30%30%JRW, 2026 Our default
Calls that want to book a job45%45%JRW, 2026 Our default
Of those, booked when answered live46%46%HiGrovi, 2026 Vendor figure
New customers, of those60%60%JRW, 2026 Our default
Value of a first job$450$450JRW, below Housecall Pro, 2026 Our default
Value of a repeat job$300$300JRW, 2026 Our default

Sources.

The measured figures are vendor platform data: CallRail’s 1.1 million leads and Housecall Pro’s 2 million tagged HVAC jobs. Contractor roundups quote higher miss rates without naming a source. We list them but don’t use them.

Our defaults. The job value is below every published ticket average we found. Replace any default with your dispatch and invoicing numbers. How we set defaults.

  1. JRW default. JRW, 2026. No public benchmark we trust. The number is a round figure in the range we see in engagements, chosen so the headline errs low. Replace it with your own. Source
  2. Missed rate for home services, set between the measured figures. JRW, between CallRail and HiGrovi, 2026. CallRail's lead-level data puts home services at 14% missed; a contractor roundup puts it near 27% of all inbound calls. 20% sits between them. Source
  3. 47% of business calls occur after hours. AnswerConnect, 2026. US call logs, 5,906,476 minutes, April to June 2026: 47% of calls arrived outside Monday to Friday working hours or on weekends, across all industries. An answering service's own customers, who skew toward businesses that already get after-hours calls, so the defaults here sit well below 47%. Source
  4. Callers who reach a business voicemail and hang up. Invoca, Hiya and others, via vendor roundups, 2024. Figures from 67% to 86% circulate for service businesses; none traces to a primary report. We default to 70% hanging up. Source
  5. Contractor missed-call roundup. HiGrovi, 2026. About 27% of inbound calls to home-service contractors unanswered, 25% to 40% arriving outside standard hours, 46% of answered phone leads booked. A compilation of unnamed call-tracking sources. Source
  6. Value of a first job, set below the measured figure. JRW, below Housecall Pro, 2026. Housecall Pro's platform data puts average HVAC repair revenue per job at $1,205 in 2025; other roundups put a blended residential ticket at $460 to $560. $450 is set below both. Replace it with your own average ticket. Source

Also consulted

  1. Missed-call rate by industry, 1.1 million tracked leads. CallRail, via Plumber Magazine, 2025. Call-tracking platform data, January 2025: healthcare 32% of leads missed, legal 28%, home services 14%, real estate 9%. Lead-level, marketing-generated calls only, so it understates total call volume and overstates how many were new business. Source
  2. HVAC industry trends: repair revenue per job. Housecall Pro, 2026. Platform data from about 2 million tagged HVAC jobs, 2021 to 2025: average repair revenue per job rose from $818 to $1,205. The vendor calls its findings directional. Source

Where the calls go.

  • The crew is on a roof

    Most daytime misses happen because the person who answers is the person doing the work. A voice agent answers, quotes the service-call fee you set and books the slot on your dispatch board. How our voice agent answers for contractors.

  • After hours

    Up to two in five calls arrive after hours in the trades. The default assumes none are answered live. The business that answers at nine at night books the emergency.

  • Open estimates

    After missed calls, the next leak is the estimate you sent and never chased. An agent that follows up each open estimate on day two and day five closes some of them without anyone picking up the phone.

How booking, dispatch and invoicing connect.

Questions.

Is 20% missed realistic?
It sits between CallRail’s measured 14% for home services, which counts tracked marketing leads, and the 27% a contractor roundup reports for all calls. A one-truck shop in peak season misses more. Your phone system report has your own rate.
Why 40% after hours?
AnswerConnect’s logs put 47% of calls to US businesses outside Monday to Friday hours, across every industry. Contractor roundups put the trades at 25% to 40%. Emergency calls come in at night and on weekends.
Where does the job value come from?
Housecall Pro’s platform data puts average HVAC repair revenue per job at $1,205 in 2025. Other roundups put a blended residential ticket at $460 to $560. The default of $450 for a first job is below both. Replace it with your average ticket.
Why isn’t every missed call lost?
Some callers leave a message and get called back. Some try again. The model subtracts both, at lower rates than for a medical practice, because many homeowners book with the first business that answers.

“Copy a link” puts your dials in the address, and we store nothing. A browser agent that supports WebMCP can run this calculator as estimate_missed_calls_field_services_cost. How the calculators work.

Book the jobs while the crew is on the roof.

Bring your phone system report and tell us your dispatch software, and we’ll show you which calls a voice agent can book. Fixed price per automation. If the first one misses the scope we agreed, you don’t pay.

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Related: Missed call statistics · How to measure missed calls · What it costs to answer the phone · AI answering, booking and invoicing for field service