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Missed-call cost · Roofers
A roof leak during weather does not wait for a callback on the next dry day. The caller wants someone who answered. This page runs the missed-call cost math for a roofing company. The studies underneath are not roofing studies. They are the traceable public numbers we use, and the notes say so. The starting job value is a $1,500 example, closer to a repair than a full replacement. If your work is replacements, put that number in. The math follows it.
Monthly lost revenue = calls per week × 4.33 × missed calls × the share who never come back × the share that are new jobs × your close rate × average job value. The link is shareable. Plumbing is the product we are building first. This page is the same calculator with roofers copy.
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Defaults are starting points. The quality notes are part of the calculator, not a footnote we hope you skip. If a figure is not listed here, we are not using it.
411 Locals monitored calls to 85 businesses in 58 industries for 30 days and published the results on January 18, 2016. They reported 37.8% of calls answered, 37.8% forwarded to voicemail, and 24.3% with no response at all. 37.8 + 24.3 = 62.1, which they published as 62% of calls left unattended. The calculator toggle uses 24.3% for “rang out unanswered” and 62% for “including voicemail.”
Quality note. Small sample, not limited to plumbing, and about a decade old. The write-up is a blog post from a company that sells local SEO, not a methods paper. Fair to use as a published benchmark. Not fair to treat as your shop’s miss rate.
CallRail’s 2025 survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, published on their blog, says that when a business doesn’t answer: 42% leave a voicemail, 24% turn to online chat instead, and 21% immediately call another business. The same post says 78% have abandoned a business after an unanswered call. We do not put 78% into the formula. The default never-return rate is 58%, which is 100 minus the 42% who said they leave a voicemail. CallRail did not print “58%.” The conservative case is the 21% who said they call another business right away.
CallRail, survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers (2025)
Quality note. This is what people say they do, not a recording of plumbing calls. CallRail sells call tracking. The post does not say whether someone could pick more than one answer, so 42%, 24%, and 21% should not be added together. Not leaving a voicemail is also not the same thing as never calling back later. 58% is the closest published-adjacent figure we will use, and you should replace it if you know your own callback rate.
Answering-service marketing often says 80% of callers don’t leave voicemail. We could not find a study that measured it. It does not appear in the 411 Locals post or the CallRail survey above, and it is not an input here.
Quality note. No traceable sample, year, or dataset. If a source turns up, it belongs on this page with the same kind of note. Until then, ignore it.
The defaults are 50% new jobs, a 40% close rate, and a job value that starts at $450 on the plumbing calculator (other trades use a different example). None of those three numbers come from a study. They are on the page so it is not blank.
Quality note. Replace them. A shop that mostly does repeat maintenance, or one that closes half of new leads, will get a nonsense total if it leaves the examples in place.
Monthly calls = calls per week × 4.33. A year is that monthly dollar figure × 12. We do not switch to 52 weeks for the yearly number, because 4.33 × 12 is 51.96. Using both would mix two calendars.
Quality note. 4.33 is 52 ÷ 12 rounded to the hundredth, which is what the formula specifies. It is a calendar convention, not a research finding.