The real cost of a missed call — and the maths behind answering

Every unanswered call is a customer deciding what to do next. More often than not, they call the next business on the list — and you never know it happened.

Do the maths on your own numbers

You don’t need a study for this — just your own figures. Take your average booking value and multiply by the callable enquiries you miss in a week. If a booking is worth £150 and you miss ten a week, that’s £1,500 a week — around £78,000 a year — before you count the reviews you never earned and the referrals that never happened. Plug in your own numbers and the figure is usually sobering.

Why voicemail fails

Voicemail asks the caller to do the work: wait, listen, leave their details, and hope you ring back before they’ve booked elsewhere. It’s a message box, not a receptionist — and in a world of instant everything, most people won’t use it.

What answering actually requires

• Picks up in under a second, every time, day or night.
• Understands the request and answers common questions.
• Books, reschedules, or captures the lead — and confirms by text.
• Knows when to take a message or transfer to a person.

Get that right and the call that used to be lost quietly becomes a customer. That’s the whole point.