What do missed calls cost you?
Start from a typical profile, enter your own numbers and see the estimate update, then copy a text-back message and a plan for counting your real misses. Nothing to submit, and every assumption is yours to change.
What a typical new job, patient or client brings in: job price, first-year patient value, or your average commission.
Went to voicemail, came in after hours, or rang out while you were busy. Your phone's call log has the real number.
Of the new prospects you do speak to, what share become paying customers?
Assumptions you can change
These three are guesses, not measured facts, and each starting profile sets its own. Replace them with your own counts and the result updates.
The rest are existing customers, vendors, spam and wrong numbers. It differs a lot between businesses, so each starting profile has its own guess.
Some leave a message or try again; this is the share who go to someone else.
Not every caller can be booked, even when someone picks up. The ones you keep then close at your close rate above.
Estimated revenue lost to missed calls each year
$40,560
About $3,380 a month
520
Missed calls a year
260
Of those, real inquiries
50% assumed
50.7
Customers lost a year
after close rate
On these assumptions an average missed call costs you about $78, so each call a week you stop missing is worth about $4,056 a year.
What you could win back
$24,336 a year
If a 24/7 answering setup (a person, a service or an AI voice agent) reached and kept 60% of the callers who would otherwise go elsewhere, and they closed at your usual rate, that is about 30.4 extra customers a year.
Would it earn back its cost?
Enter what the coverage you are weighing would cost, and compare it with the win-back above.
A receptionist, an answering service or an AI voice agent: what would it cost each month? No price is assumed for you. Leave 0 to skip.
Enter a monthly cost above to see how many extra customers it needs. We do not assume a price for you.
Your Monday-morning kit
Three things to use this week, written from your numbers. The first two go to your customers; the third is for you.
Optional. It only fills in the text below, stays in this browser tab, and is never added to the link you share.
Missed-call text-back message
Send it within a minute of a missed call, one message per call. Check your phone provider's rules for automatic texts first. Fill in the [brackets].
Hi, this is [Your business name]. Sorry we missed your call. Reply with what you need and a good time to reach you, and we will call you back by [time]. Reply STOP to opt out.
Voicemail greeting
About fifteen seconds. It tells the caller what happens next, and that texting works too.
You have reached [Your business name]. We are helping other customers right now. Please leave your name, your number and what you need, and we will call you back by [time]. You can also text this number at any time.
One-week plan to count your real misses
Your estimate rests on two guesses. This replaces them with your own counts in a week.
ONE-WEEK MISSED-CALL PLAN: [Your business name] What the calculator assumed - 10 missed calls a week, of which 50% are real new-customer inquiries and 65% of those never call back. - Those two shares are starting guesses. This week replaces them with counts. - On those assumptions an average missed call costs you about $78. Monday - Switch on the text-back message on your business number. Check your phone provider's rules for automatic texts first, and send one message per missed call, no more. - Put a sheet next to the phone with four columns: date and time, new customer or existing, reached on callback (yes or no), outcome. Tuesday to Friday - Log every missed call. The text-back goes out within a minute; call back as soon as you can. Next Monday: replace the guesses with counts - Missed calls this week: ___ (the calculator assumed 10) - Of those, new-customer inquiries: ___ (assumed about 5) - Of those, never reached even after the text and a callback: ___ (assumed about 3.3) - Put your counts into the calculator at omii.agency/tools/missed-revenue-calculator/ and trust the count over the guess.
How to read this: it is a planning estimate, built from your inputs and the assumptions above, not a prediction. The biggest swing factors are the share of missed calls that are real inquiries and how many callers never call back. Count last week's missed calls, note which were genuine new-customer inquiries, and rerun it with those numbers.
Even at half this, $12,168 a year is worth a conversation
A free call takes about 15 minutes. We will check your numbers and tell you honestly whether an AI voice agent would earn back its cost in your case.
Save or share this result
The link holds only the numbers you entered, nothing about you.
Optional: have our team review these numbers with you
How this is calculated
The estimate is one chain of multiplications, from the calls you miss to the revenue they were worth. Nothing in it is an industry average: where a step needs a share you cannot know, the calculator uses a labelled starting guess that you can change.
- Missed calls a year. calls you miss a week, times 52.
- Real inquiries. missed calls a year, times the share that are genuine new-customer inquiries (not existing customers, vendors, spam or wrong numbers).
- Callers lost. real inquiries, times the share who never call back.
- Customers lost. callers lost, times your close rate.
- Revenue lost a year. customers lost, times the value of a new customer.
- Win-back. revenue lost, times the share of those callers an always-answered phone would reach and keep. They then close at your close rate, which is why the share applies to revenue.
Worked example: Other service business
The starting numbers on this page produce the figures below, so you can check the arithmetic by hand before entering your own.
| 10 missed calls a week × 52 | 520 calls a year |
|---|---|
| × 50% real new-customer inquiries | 260 calls |
| × 65% never call back | 169 callers |
| × 30% close rate | 50.7 customers |
| × $800 per new customer | $40,560 lost a year |
| × 60% reached and kept | $24,336 won back a year |
| Expected cost of one missed call | $78 |
How much the guesses matter
Any of the three assumptions could be wrong in either direction. This table moves each one by 20 points (your close rate by 10) and shows the yearly win-back at both ends, using your current numbers.
| If this is different | Lower | Your number | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missed calls that are real inquiries | 30%$14,602 | 50%$24,336 | 70%$34,070 |
| Of those, callers who never call back | 45%$16,848 | 65%$24,336 | 85%$31,824 |
| Of those, callers you reach and keep | 40%$16,224 | 60%$24,336 | 80%$32,448 |
| Your close rate | 20%$16,224 | 30%$24,336 | 40%$32,448 |
Each row changes one input and holds the rest. The result in every cell is the yearly win-back.
Where the numbers come from
No published benchmark sits behind any number on this page. The shares are our own starting guesses, set per profile for the reasons in the table below, and the numbers you type (calls, close rate, customer value) are yours. Figures such as "most callers who reach voicemail never call back" circulate widely online; the sources we found for them were vendor blogs, not a study we could open and check, so we do not use them. When we find a primary source we can open, it will appear here with a link.
| Profile | Real inquiries | Never call back | Reached and kept | Why we guess this |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real estate | 50% | 65% | 55% | Callers often ring several agents and want to speak to a person, so we assume fewer are won back. |
| HVAC | 60% | 75% | 65% | Urgent problems: callers rarely wait for a callback, and many missed calls are existing customers. |
| Plumbing | 60% | 75% | 65% | Urgent problems: callers rarely wait for a callback, and many missed calls are existing customers. |
| Electrical | 60% | 75% | 65% | Urgent problems: callers rarely wait for a callback, and many missed calls are existing customers. |
| Roofing | 60% | 60% | 60% | Planned work: people collect several quotes, so more of them will wait for a callback. |
| General contractor | 60% | 60% | 60% | Planned work: people collect several quotes, so more of them will wait for a callback. |
| Med spa | 50% | 65% | 60% | New callers often compare providers and ask about price before booking. |
| Dental practice | 30% | 65% | 60% | We assume most calls to a practice come from existing patients rescheduling or confirming, so only a minority are new-patient inquiries. |
| Other service business | 50% | 65% | 60% | A middle-of-the-road starting point for businesses that fit none of the others. |
To replace the guesses with your own, use the call log on your phone or phone system: count a fortnight of missed calls, mark which were new customers, and note how many you reached on a callback. The one-week plan in your Monday-morning kit walks through it.
Questions people ask
How do I find out how many calls I miss a week?
Open your phone's call log, or your phone system's call report, and count the calls marked missed or sent to voicemail over two full weeks, including after hours. Divide by two. If you forward calls between phones, check the log on the phone that finally rings out.
Why does the same calculator give such different answers by industry?
Mostly because each profile starts from different numbers: what a new customer is worth, how many calls are missed, how often you close, and the three assumptions above. A dental practice starts with fewer real inquiries among its missed calls, a roofing company with a much larger job value. None of these are measured industry averages, so replace them.
Is revenue lost the same as profit lost?
No. The value of a new customer is revenue, so the estimate is revenue. If you keep only part of each job as profit, the profit at stake is smaller by that share. The break-even check makes the same point: it compares revenue with cost, so the true break-even sits higher.
What would an answering setup have to do to win these calls back?
Whether it is a person, an answering service or an AI voice agent, a call is only recovered if the caller gets what they came for: an answer, a booking or a callback they can rely on. The "reached and kept" share is your estimate of how often that happens. Nothing here promises a result for any particular service.
Can I send an automatic text after a missed call?
Many business phone systems and CRMs can send one; if yours cannot, you can send the message by hand. Keep it to one message per missed call, include a way to opt out, and check your phone provider's rules for automatic texts. For a dental or med spa business, keep health details out of texts entirely, as the templates here do.
Does the link I share include my numbers?
Yes, only the numbers and the profile you picked, so whoever opens it sees the same result. Your business name, the text in the kit and anything you type into the optional follow-up form are never put in a link.
Methodology last reviewed 3 October 2026 · OMII AI
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