What a missed call actually costs
By JP, who runs Ralphio. Updated 1 October 2026.
Your average job, times the share of callers you'd normally win. Miss three calls a week on £400 jobs, win one in five, and that's about £960 a month. Nobody sends you an invoice for it, so it never feels like money. Your figures will be different, so try them in the calculator.
How is that worked out?
Missed calls a week, times four, times the share you'd normally win, times your average job.
The win rate is where people go wrong, in both directions. A missed call isn't a lost job at full price, because you were never going to win them all: some callers were ringing round for the cheapest quote, and some were forty miles away. It isn't worth nothing either. If you don't know your own rate, one in five is a cautious place to start.
Do people ring back?
The ones who wanted you in particular usually do, and so do the ones who couldn't find anyone else.
Most move on to the next number. Someone with water coming through the ceiling isn't going to sit by the phone, and more than half of people say they won't even leave a voicemail when they can't get through (Moneypenny and Censuswide, 2,000 UK and US adults, 2023). You never find out about those calls, which is exactly why they're so easy to ignore.
What if you're on the tools?
Then you won't answer, and nobody sensible expects you to halfway up a ladder. In one survey, 60% of tradespeople said they struggle to answer the phone at work, and a third thought it had cost them jobs (Fix Radio, 220 UK tradespeople, 2022).
For the calls you do miss, there are three ways to handle them. Somebody else answers, which works until the caller asks for a price they can't give. You ring everyone back after work, which only catches the people still waiting. Or a text goes out the moment the call drops, asking what the job is and how soon.
Which of those is worth paying for depends on the figure in the calculator.