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How Much Revenue Do Missed Calls Cost HVAC Companies?
Use your own average ticket and close rate to put a real monthly number on unanswered calls.
5 min read
Most owners have a feeling about missed calls. Very few have a number. The number is easy to produce and usually larger than the guess.
The formula
Missed calls per week x close rate x average ticket x 4.3 = lost revenue per month.
Example: 10 missed calls a week, a 45% close rate on calls you do answer, and a $450 average ticket gives 10 x 0.45 x 450 x 4.3, or about $8,700 a month. Run it with your own three numbers before you argue with it.
Where to find your inputs
- Missed calls: your phone provider's call log shows unanswered and abandoned calls. Pull a full month, not a quiet week.
- Close rate: booked jobs divided by answered calls over the same period.
- Average ticket: total revenue divided by completed jobs. Use the service average, not the install average, unless installs come through the phone too.
The costs the formula misses
- Lifetime value. A first-time repair customer often becomes a maintenance agreement and, eventually, a system replacement. A missed call can forfeit years of work, not one ticket.
- Paid leads. If the call came from Google Ads or LSA, you already paid for it. An unanswered paid call is a double loss.
- Reviews and referrals. The customer your competitor answered writes their review, not yours.
- Seasonality. Misses cluster on the hottest and coldest days — the days with the highest-value emergency work.
What to do with the number
Compare it to the cost of coverage. If unanswered calls are costing several thousand dollars a month, almost any reliable way of answering them pays for itself inside the first week of the season.