How many calls does my business miss, and what does each one cost me?
In Invoca's 2026 home-services benchmark, only 52% of callers reached a person; HVAC was lowest at 34% and plumbing highest at 74%. Fewer than 3% of callers who hit voicemail leave a message, and 82% of consumers say they would call a competitor instead. Your own rate is in last month's call log, and it takes about ten minutes to check.
What the studies measured
| Finding | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Callers to home-service businesses who reached a person | 52% | Invoca 2026 benchmark |
| Same, HVAC only | 34% | Invoca 2026 benchmark |
| Same, plumbing only | 74% | Invoca 2026 benchmark |
| Callers sent to voicemail who leave a message | under 3% | Invoca call data |
| Consumers who would call a competitor if nobody answers | 82% | CallRail 2025 survey of 1,000 US consumers |
| Consumers who have already dropped a business over an unanswered call | 78% | CallRail 2025 |
| Homeowners who say response time affects who they hire | 97% | Housecall Pro 2025 survey of 1,040 homeowners |
| Phone leads that book on the call when someone answers | 45% | Invoca 2026 |
Invoca's numbers come from its own customers' call tracking, not a census of every contractor. They are still the best measured figures available, because they count real calls.
Numbers to stop repeating
You will see "62% of calls go unanswered" and "85% of callers never call back" on a lot of vendor sites. Researchers who traced them found no primary study behind either. The second one goes back to an uncited vendor blog post from 2016. If someone selling you a phone product leads with those, ask for the source.
Measure your own missed calls
- Log in to your phone carrier, VoIP app or call-tracking tool and export the last 30 days of calls.
- Count calls with no answer and calls that went to voicemail. Divide by total calls. That is your miss rate.
- Split by time of day. Most shops find the misses bunch up at lunch, late afternoon, and after hours.
- Call back ten of the missed numbers. Ask what they needed and whether they found someone else.
Put a dollar figure on it
| Step | Your number |
|---|---|
| Missed calls last month | A |
| Share that were real job requests (from your callbacks) | B |
| Your booking rate on answered job calls | C |
| Your average ticket | D |
| Monthly revenue walking away | A x B x C x D |
The calls you miss are often the expensive ones. Evenings and weekends are when emergencies happen, and emergency jobs usually pay more than routine visits.
What to do with the number
If the monthly figure is small, a free fix may be enough: the text-back in your field-service software, or a better voicemail greeting that sends people a booking link. If it is in the thousands, it is worth paying to answer those calls. Tier 1, the Speed-to-Lead Front Desk, is $497/month with $0 setup. Tier 2, the Complete AI Front Desk + Custom Site, is $997/month with $1,500 setup and adds the live AI voice receptionist.
More questions home-service contractors ask
What percentage of calls do HVAC companies miss?
In Invoca's 2026 home-services benchmark, only 34% of HVAC calls reached a person, the lowest of the trades it measured. Some of the rest were short hang-ups or misdials, so check your own call log for your real rate.
Do people leave voicemails for contractors?
Very few. Invoca's call data shows fewer than 3% of callers who reach a home-service voicemail leave a message. Most simply call the next company.
Is the 62% missed-call statistic real?
We could not trace it to a primary study, and neither could other researchers. The best measured number is Invoca's 2026 finding that 52% of home-service callers reached a person.
How do I find out how many calls I miss?
Export the last 30 days from your phone carrier or call-tracking tool, count unanswered and voicemail calls, and divide by total calls. Then call back ten of them to see how many were real jobs.
Want a straight answer for your business?
Bring your missed-call number to a free 15-minute fit call and I will tell you whether it is worth fixing. See the front desk →