of home-services callers never reach a live person
Invoca 2025 home-services benchmark, from 70M+ analyzed calls.
The arithmetic the ads skip
What the calls you miss already cost you, in your numbers.
Every answering-service ad says “stop losing money.” None of them show the multiplication. Here it is, out loud: the calls that ring out, times the share you would have closed, times your average job. Our defaults carry their sources — HomeAdvisor and Housecall Pro averages for your trade — and the moment you type your own numbers, ours stop mattering.
Revenue dialing your number and ringing out, per month
$2,208
That is 22 missed calls a month; at your 30% close rate, 6 of them were jobs.
Recovering one average job covers the $99 month. The rest is yours.
Arithmetic, not a promise. The default job value carries its source above; the missed-call count and close rate are whatever you just set them to. Pilot verdicts use your real recovered jobs, not this page.
Why calls ring out at all
The industry numbers underneath the sliders.
of callers sent to voicemail leave a message
Invoca, 2024. Voicemail is where the job goes to die quietly.
better contact odds answering in 5 minutes versus 30
MIT/InsideSales study, 2007. Old study; the physics have not changed.
How the recovery side works, priced against the whole market: the comparison, with receipts · or the pitch for your trade: plumbers, HVAC, restoration, roofers.
Straight answers
The questions behind the number.
How much does a missed call cost a service business?
It depends on the trade's average ticket: about $340 for a plumbing job, $1,205 for an HVAC repair, and $3,868 for water damage restoration (HomeAdvisor / Housecall Pro, 2025–2026). Multiply the calls that ring out each week by your close rate and your average job to get the monthly number — the calculator on this page does it with sourced defaults.
How many callers give up instead of leaving a voicemail?
48% of home-services callers never reach a live person (Invoca, 2025, 70M+ analyzed calls), and fewer than 3% of callers sent to voicemail leave a message (Invoca, 2024). The missed call is usually silent — the caller just dials the next company.
How do I stop missing calls at my business?
Set one conditional-forwarding code on your existing line so unanswered and after-hours calls route to an answering service or AI receptionist while your team still rings first. An AI receptionist like RevenuePack answers those calls 24/7, captures the job details, and hands you the callback record by email and a push to your phone — $99/month flat, with a written guarantee that if it misses a forwarded call, the next month is credited.
Is an AI receptionist worth it for a small business?
If even one missed job a month is worth more than the subscription, yes. For a plumber whose average job is $340, recovering a single missed call more than covers a $99/month AI receptionist; for an HVAC or restoration company the math is far larger. The break-even is one recovered job. That is recovered revenue, not margin — but it is revenue you would otherwise have lost entirely.
The number above is monthly. It repeats.
$99 a month answers every one of those calls.
Managed for you, 250 minutes included, month to month — and any month it misses a forwarded call, the next month is credited. Or audition the robot first: (765) 200-9397.
Start my pilot — $99/month