How much do missed calls cost your business? Do the 5-minute math.

The worksheet

Open your phone's call history and a notes app. Five numbers:

1. M — missed calls last week. Count missed calls during opening hours, then add calls that arrived after hours or on your day off. (If your week was unusual, count two weeks and halve it.)
2. N — the new-business share. Scan the numbers: how many were unknown callers rather than regulars, suppliers, or spam? If you can't tell, use 50%.
3. V — the value of a won caller. Your average sale or appointment. If new customers typically return, multiply by visits in the first year — a $60 cut that becomes a regular is not a $60 caller.
4. R — the rescue rate. The share you'd have won anyway: they rang back, left a voicemail you returned, or messaged instead. Be generous — say 40%.
5. W — your close rate on answered enquiries. When you do answer a new caller, how often do they book? Most service businesses close well over half, because a caller is already halfway decided.

The sum:

Weekly cost = M × N × (1 − R) × W × V

A worked example with modest numbers — 8 missed calls, half new business, 40% rescued, 60% close rate, $90 average value:

8 × 0.5 × 0.6 × 0.6 × $90 = $130 a week — about $6,700 a year, before repeat visits. A single missed Saturday colour appointment or one skipped emergency call-out can swing it far higher. But run your numbers — that's the whole point.

Reading your result honestly

• Under ~$1,000/year: missed calls are not your problem. Spend your energy on whatever brought you here instead — probably getting more calls in the first place.
• $1,000–5,000/year: worth fixing with cheap tools — text-back and tighter callback discipline pay for themselves several times over.
• Over $5,000/year: your phone line is quietly one of your biggest leaks. Fixing it likely beats any marketing spend of the same size, because these are customers who already chose you.

The fix ladder, cheapest first

1. Free: the callback hour. A fixed daily slot where you return every missed call, same day. Works if your callers are patient — fails for same-week bookings, where the caller booked elsewhere by 2pm.
2. Missed-call text-back. Every unanswered caller instantly gets a text: "Sorry we missed you — book here, or we'll call you back within the hour." This rescues the silent majority who won't leave voicemail but will tap a link. It's the highest-leverage cheap fix on this list.
3. Answering service. A human answers and takes a message. Better than voicemail; still ends in your callback queue, and per-call pricing punishes busy weeks.
4. Reception staff. The full fix during opening hours — at a salary. The math only works when reception is a fraction of a real job you already need done.
5. AI receptionist. Answers every call including after hours, books into your real calendar, texts back anyone it couldn't catch, and summarises every call — flat monthly pricing. This is the "fix it and stop thinking about it" tier; see how it compares to voicemail in detail.

Whichever rung you pick, measure it

Rerun the worksheet a month after changing anything. The two numbers that should move: M×N×(1−R) — lost new callers — should approach zero, and bookings from phone enquiries should rise to match. If they don't, the fix isn't working; change it. Your phone log never lies to you, which is more than can be said for statistics in blog posts — including this one.