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What a missed call actually costs a UK trade
Work it out on your own numbers, not on somebody else's statistic.
There are plenty of scary percentages flying around about missed calls. We are not going to quote any of them at you, because we cannot stand behind a number we did not measure, and because your own figure is the only one that decides anything.
The arithmetic
Four numbers, and you already know three of them:
- How many calls you miss in a week. This is the one most people guess at, and most people guess low.
- How many of those would have been a job — not every missed call is work. Some are suppliers, some are sales calls, some are wrong numbers.
- What a job is worth to you on average. You know this one to the pound.
- How many of those callers come back. Be honest here. Somebody with water coming through a ceiling does not ring you again tomorrow.
Multiply the first three, discount by the fourth, and you have your weekly number. Put £59 a month next to it — about £13.60 a week — and the decision usually makes itself in one direction or the other within about a minute.
Stop guessing at number one
The whole calculation turns on how many calls you actually miss, and that is the number nobody knows. So we measure it for you, free: we ring your mobile and text you back exactly what happened — answered, voicemail, or rang out. It takes a minute, there is no card and there is no sales call afterwards.
The part the arithmetic misses
Two things the sum above does not capture, and they both run in the same direction.
The caller is not waiting. Somebody ringing about an emergency is working down a list. You are not competing on price or reviews at that moment, you are competing on who picks up. A firm that answers beats a better firm that does not, every time, and the customer never learns what they missed.
It compounds through the trade customers. A letting agent, a main contractor or a site manager places repeat work with whoever is easy to deal with. The first missed call does not cost you one EICR or one programme, it costs you the portfolio that would have followed. That one does not show up in a weekly sum at all.
Where the cheap fixes fall down
| Voicemail | Records the calls you lost rather than catching them. Most urgent callers hang up rather than leave one. |
|---|---|
| Ringing them back later | Works if nobody else answered. On an emergency call somebody else usually did, within the hour. |
| A mate or a family member | Genuinely good, and free, until they are on holiday or at work. The gap is unpredictable, which is the worst shape for a gap to be. |
| Divert to a second mobile | Only helps if the second phone is in a quieter pair of hands. Often it is in the same van. |
| Answering service on call volume | Works, and the bill goes up in exactly the weeks the phone goes mad. See the comparison. |
What we would actually suggest
In this order, because it costs you nothing until the last step:
- Get the free missed-call check so number one in the sum is a fact.
- Ring the demo line below and judge Aria on a real call.
- If the arithmetic works, start on the 14 days free. From £59 a month after that, no contract.
- If it does not work, do not buy it. A page that talked you into £59 a month you cannot justify is no use to either of us.
Questions about working out what missed calls cost you
How do I work out what missed calls cost my business?
Four numbers. Multiply how many calls you miss in a week by the share of those that would have been a job, then by what a job is worth to you on average, then discount by how many of those callers come back. That is your weekly figure. Put £59 a month next to it — about £13.60 a week — and the decision usually makes itself in one direction or the other within about a minute.
How can I find out how many calls I actually miss?
That is the number the whole sum turns on, and the one nobody knows, so we measure it for you free. The missed-call check rings your mobile and texts you back exactly what happened — answered, voicemail, or rang out. It takes a minute, there is no card and there is no sales call afterwards.
Do missed callers just ring back later?
Usually not, if the job is urgent. Somebody with water coming through a ceiling is working down a list of firms, and at that moment they are not comparing on price or on reviews, they are comparing on who picks up. A firm that answers beats a better firm that does not, and the customer never learns what they missed.
What is £59 a month in weekly terms?
About £13.60 a week. That is the figure worth holding next to your own weekly number from the sum above, because a month is too long a unit to think about a single missed call in.
Is voicemail enough?
Voicemail records the calls you lost rather than catching them, because most people with an urgent job hang up rather than leave one. Ringing them back later has the same problem the other way round: it only works if nobody else answered, and on an emergency call somebody usually did, within the hour.
What does the arithmetic leave out?
Two things, and they both run in the same direction. The caller is not waiting — they are already working down the list while your phone rings out. And it compounds through trade customers: a letting agent, a main contractor or a site manager places repeat work with whoever is easy to deal with, so the first missed call can cost you the work that would have followed rather than one job. Neither of those shows up in a weekly sum.
Don’t take our word for it — hear her.
Ring the demo line and talk to Aria the way one of your customers would. Describe a leak, a dead boiler, whatever you like.
07888 862 247 Tap to ring — she says in the greeting that she is an AI and that the firm is a demonstrationRather she rang you? Put your mobile in on the homepage and the line calls you straight back. Not sure you miss enough calls to bother? Get a free missed-call check first — no card, no sales call.
Want those calls answered? You can pick a plan and start now, and Aria answers the next one.
Start 14 days free — Aria from £59 a month → 14 days free before the first payment. No setup fee and no minimum term.