Start with the measured numbers
Most of what is written about missed calls comes from companies selling a fix, so the first job is to separate what was measured from what was claimed. Invoca measured 70 million calls to home-service businesses in 2024. 27% were not answered, and fewer than 3% of callers pushed to voicemail left a message. A second Invoca report in 2026 put the share of inbound home-service calls answered by a person at 52%, with a range from 32% to 74% across nine segments.
The number that makes this industry different is the conversion rate. Phone leads in home services convert at 45 to 46% on the call, the highest of any industry Invoca measures. A missed call here is not a missed enquiry. It is, roughly half the time, a missed job.
What the caller does next
The caller does not wait. Homeowners submit to 3 to 4 companies at once and the first to respond wins 78% of the time (HomeAdvisor, via vendor compilations, so treat the precision loosely). In the trades that run on emergencies, the caller is working down a list, and whoever picks up gets the job. That line comes from Plumber Magazine, not a vendor.
After hours, the vendor figures run from 35 to 45% of calls, and one vendor claims 73%. The only measured series is ServiceTitan’s residential HVAC data, which shows 9.8 to 14.1% of inbound calls arriving off-hours across 2025. Quote the measured floor, not the vendor ceiling. It is still a lot of calls.
What it costs, by trade
The loss is the ticket behind the call, and it varies by trade. A plumbing service call is worth USD 300 to 500, a water heater USD 1,347, a repipe USD 6,750 to 11,250 (Brentwood Growth via PM magazine, HomeAdvisor 2026). A roofing leak repair averages USD 1,173 and the storm replacement claim behind it USD 17,631 (Angi 2026, Verisk 2025). A water damage job averages USD 3,868 and the claim USD 12,514 (HomeAdvisor 2025, insurer data). A garage door repair is USD 265, and the door behind it USD 1,231 to 4,672 (HomeAdvisor, Garage Door Marketers).
The trades also pay for the calls they miss. Google Local Services Ads run USD 25 to 58 a lead for garage door, USD 39 to 43 for electrical, USD 66 for plumbing, USD 107 for roofing and USD 215 for water damage (99 Calls, Searchlight, Valley Marketing 2026). An unanswered LSA call is a lead you paid for and then gave to the next name.
The arithmetic
Take your own missed calls a week, multiply by 52, by the share of those callers who would have booked, by your average job. That is the number the receptionist competes with. Our calculator on the home page does the multiplication with your inputs, and prints the formula, because a number for your business should never be a black box.