Plumber Missed Call Revenue Calculator
Put a monthly figure on the calls nobody answers: how many you miss, what they would have been worth once your close rate is applied, and how much of that is recoverable.
Inputs
Result
Planning estimate only. Replace assumptions with your real costs, contracts, taxes, and market conditions.
How it works
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Enter a month of calls and the share you miss
Inbound calls per month, and what percentage go unanswered. Both are monthly figures. Most trades guess low here, which is why it is worth pulling the real number rather than estimating it.
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Add your close rate and average job value
A missed call is not a lost job — it is a lost chance at one. Multiplying by the rate at which answered calls become work is what keeps the result from being a fantasy figure.
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Read the monthly figure, and what is recoverable
The headline is revenue at risk per month. The recoverable share is what you would expect to win back by calling people at the end of the day rather than never, and it is the honest number to weigh a fix against.
Who this is for
Deciding on an answering service
Compare the monthly cost of the service against the monthly recoverable figure, not against the headline. What matters is the calls it would actually convert.
Justifying a hire
Someone answering the phone pays for themselves faster than most people expect, and this is the arithmetic that shows it rather than asserts it.
Choosing hours
Work out what the calls outside your working hours are worth before deciding whether to extend them or route them elsewhere.
Reviewing marketing spend
Spending more on ads while missing a fifth of the calls is paying twice to lose the same customer. This tells you which of the two problems is larger.
Questions
- How do I find out how many calls I miss?
- Most mobile carriers and VoIP providers show missed-call counts in their app or portal. A week of real data beats a guess — multiply it up to a month, since that is what this asks for.
- Is the result monthly or annual?
- The headline is monthly, because the calls field is per month. The yearly figure for revenue at risk and for what is recoverable is shown beside it, and the annual view is usually the number that justifies doing something about it.
- What conversion rate should I use?
- For inbound calls to a trade business the caller usually already has the problem and wants it fixed, so conversion runs high — often well above other channels. Use your own figure if you have one, because this is the input the result is most sensitive to.
- Does a voicemail count as answered?
- Rarely, for urgent trades. Someone with a leak calls the next number on the list rather than leaving a message. Treat voicemail as missed unless you know otherwise.
- What does the recoverable share mean?
- The portion of at-risk revenue you would expect to save by returning calls promptly, rather than the ones that are gone the moment they ring out. At the default it is half; set it to what your own call-backs actually convert.
- Why is the figure lower than calls times job value?
- Because not every answered call becomes a job. The close rate is applied before the job value, so the result is what the missed calls were realistically worth rather than what they would be worth if every caller booked.
- Is this revenue or profit?
- Revenue. A missed call costs you the value of the job, not the profit on it, because the labor and materials you would have spent on that job are not subtracted. Multiply the figure by your gross margin for a rough idea of the profit you are giving up.