Hook
Every missed-call product on the internet tells you that missed calls cost you money. Almost none of them show you the math for your business — because the vendor's incentive is to make the number feel big enough to justify the subscription. Here's the formula and the pre-computed table. Run your own numbers in two minutes; the honest answer is often "yes, you have a real problem" and sometimes it's "you don't need to buy anything yet."
The Formula
There are three numbers, all of which you already have:
Missed calls per week — pull last month's call log from your phone app or carrier bill. Count calls that rang out or hit voicemail with no message. Most service businesses land between 3 and 15.
Share who were real prospects — not every missed call was a buyer. Some were vendors, spam, or existing clients. A common planning range is 50–70%; use the low end if your spam volume is high. This is your assumption — the honest move is to pick it, not have a vendor pick it for you.
Average ticket — what one booked job or appointment is worth to you. A $60 blowout and a $1,200 AC install are very different leaks.
Monthly revenue at risk = missed calls/week × prospect share × average ticket × 4.33
Pre-Computed: Estimated Monthly Revenue at Risk
Assumes 60% of missed calls were real prospects. All figures are illustrative estimates — plug in your own numbers, because if the assumptions don't match your business the output won't either.
| Missed calls / week | Avg ticket $75 | Avg ticket $150 | Avg ticket $300 | Avg ticket $600 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | ~$585 a month | ~$1,170 a month | ~$2,339 a month | ~$4,677 a month |
| 5 | ~$974 a month | ~$1,949 a month | ~$3,897 a month | ~$7,794 a month |
| 8 | ~$1,559 a month | ~$3,118 a month | ~$6,235 a month | ~$12,470 a month |
| 12 | ~$2,338 a month | ~$4,676 a month | ~$9,353 a month | ~$18,706 a month |
| 20 | ~$3,897 a month | ~$7,794 a month | ~$15,588 a month | ~$31,176 a month |
Illustrative model, not a measurement: 60% prospect share, 4.33 weeks per month, no repeat-caller credit, no lifetime value counted. The real number for your business could be lower (high spam share) or much higher (high repeat-booking value).
What the Number Buys You
This table isn't a reason to panic — it's a comparison baseline. Missed-call text-back tools run roughly $15–25 per month (pricing checked 2026-10-14 across vendors: Quo $15 per user per month billed annually, Google Voice Starter $10 per user per month, Twilio pay-as-you-go). An AI receptionist runs $25–$300 a month for the automated products, more for human-staffed services.
Read the table like this:
- If your number is under ~$100 a month, you don't have a missed-call problem worth buying for — check your spam share assumption first.
- If it's a few hundred a month, a $15–25 auto-text-back pays for itself if it recovers even one or two bookings. That's the lowest-cost fix in the library and the right first move.
- If it's in the thousands, text-back is triage — you probably also need someone or something actually answering, which is when the AI-receptionist cost comparison starts making sense.
The Assumption That Moves the Answer Most
Prospect share. If half your missed calls are robocallers, the real leak is half the table's figure. Spend five minutes in your call log before you spend a dollar on software — most phone apps let you scroll last month and count. The number you write down is worth more than anything on this page.
ROI
Worked example, on purpose with round numbers: a solo operator missing 6 calls a week at a $200 average ticket is risking an estimated ~$3,100 a month. A $15 a month text-back that recovers one booking in five (~20% recovery — a modest outcome, not a promise) repays its cost many times over. The point of this page isn't to sell you on a fix — it's to give you the two minutes of math that tells you whether you have a $50 problem or a $5,000 one, before any vendor frames the number for you.