Here's the math nobody does, using numbers typical for a small BC trades company.
The simple version
Say you're a plumber. Your average job is worth $600 and you close around 40 percent of the people who actually reach you. Every answered call is therefore worth about $240 on average. Every missed call that doesn't call back costs you roughly the same.
Now count your missed calls honestly. Not the ones you remember missing. Look at your phone log for a week: calls that rang out, went to voicemail, or came in after 5 pm. For most owner-operators it's 15 to 30 a month. At 20 missed calls, that's around $4,800 a month in work that called you first and got someone else.
Why voicemail doesn't save you
The instinct is "they'll leave a message and I'll call back tonight." The data says otherwise. Most callers to a service business won't leave a voicemail at all. They hang up and dial the next company in the search results, because their problem is urgent to them even when it isn't to you. A dead furnace, a leaking tank, a stuck garage door: nobody waits politely until 7 pm.
By the time you return the call, the polite answer you usually get is "we found someone, thanks." The honest version is "someone answered and you didn't."
The part the math misses
The $240 figure is just the first job. A new customer who has a good experience calls you for the next problem, and the one after that. They mention you in the neighbourhood Facebook group. For trades, a single answered call regularly turns into years of repeat work. Which means a missed call doesn't cost one job. It costs a customer.
What to do about it
You have three honest options, covered in detail in our comparison of answering options: hire someone, contract an answering service, or run an automated answering system. They land at very different price points, and the right answer depends on your size.
What isn't an option, once you've done this math, is pretending voicemail is a plan.
If you want to hear what an automated answer sounds like, call our line at (604) 990-2791. It picks up every time, which is the whole point.