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What a missed call costs a small business

You know the feeling. The phone rings while you’re under a car, up a ladder or with a customer, and by the time you ring back they’ve booked someone else. Here is how to put a number on it.

Why There’s No Headline Figure Here

You’ll find plenty of claims online about how many calls small businesses miss. We couldn’t find one we’d stand behind for UK businesses, so we’re not going to quote one. The number that matters is yours, and it takes a week to find.

The Sum

Three numbers tell you what missed calls cost:

  1. How many calls and enquiries you miss in a week. A guess is fine to start with.
  2. Out of every 10 enquiries you answer, how many become work. You probably know this roughly already.
  3. What a typical job is worth to you.

Multiply them, then multiply by 52 for a year.

IN YOUR INDUSTRY

What Missed Calls Cost You

A guess is fine.
£650 is the average unexpected repair bill drivers reported to the RAC in 2025.

Fill in each box to see your number.

An estimate. Before we start, we count your real numbers for a week.

Here’s how it looks for a garage. The average unexpected repair bill drivers reported to the RAC in 2025 was £650. Say the workshop misses 5 calls a week, and 3 in 10 answered calls usually turn into a booking. That’s 5 × 3 ÷ 10 × £650 × 52 = £50,700 a year of work that rang someone else first.

It’s an estimate. Not every missed caller would have booked, and some will ring back. But even a fraction of that is real money, and the table below shows how fast it moves.

Missed calls a week1 in 103 in 105 in 10
2£6,760£20,280£33,800
5£16,900£50,700£84,500
10£33,800£101,400£169,000

Illustration at the RAC’s £650 average repair bill. Your figures will differ.

Count Your Week

For the next seven days, keep a tally. Every missed call, every voicemail, every web form or portal enquiry that waited more than an hour for a reply. Your phone’s call log has most of it already. At the end of the week you’ll have the first number for the sum.

  1. Monday0
  2. Tuesday0
  3. Wednesday0
  4. Thursday0
  5. Friday0
  6. Saturday0
  7. Sunday0

Total 0

Nothing you enter is saved or sent.

Where the Call Goes

A caller who gets no answer can ring the next business on the list in seconds. Whoever picks up first, or replies first, has the best chance of the job.

The journey for answering every enquiry in a garages and car servicing business. Today: 1 steps you do and 3 times it waits. With the fix: 1 and 0.

Garages and Car Servicing: “under a car”; booking slot.

Today

  1. Waiting: The phone rings while you’re on a job.
  2. Waiting: Voicemail, and most callers don’t leave one.
  3. You: That evening you ring back the ones you can.
  4. Waiting: They’ve already booked someone else.
Steps You Do
1
Times It Waits
3

With the Fix

  1. Runs on its own: A missed call gets a text back within minutes.
  2. Runs on its own: The enquiry is answered with the basics and a next step.
  3. Runs on its own: A time is offered from your diary.
  4. You: Enquiries that look like good work come straight to you.
  5. Runs on its own: Anyone who goes quiet gets a follow-up.
Steps You Do
1
Times It Waits
0

Illustrative example. After the fix: “Missed call from [number] at [time]. Text sent: ‘Sorry we missed you. What does your car need?’ Reply: ‘[Make] making a noise from the [area].’ Booked in for [date].”.

Illustrative. Your business carries your own details.

Five Things to Try This Week, With or Without Us

  1. Change your voicemail to say when you’ll ring back, and keep to it.
  2. Text back every missed call within minutes, even if it’s only “Sorry we missed you, we’ll ring back by 4pm.”
  3. Put your hours and typical prices on your website, so some callers get their answer without ringing.
  4. Divert the phone at busy times to someone who can take details.
  5. Count your missed calls for a week, so you know what the problem is worth before you spend anything on it.

Or Let Every Call Get a Reply

That’s the fix we build: every call, form, email and portal enquiry lands in one list and gets a reply within minutes, evenings and weekends included. A missed call gets a text straight back, and the good enquiries come straight to you. Callers are always told when they’re speaking to an automated assistant. Before we start, we count your real numbers for a week, so we both know what changed.

Sources

  • RAC Report on Motoring 2025
  • No UK missed-call figure with a published method was found (searched 9 October 2026)

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