Missed-call math for appliance repair companies
A worked example with every assumption on the table, so you can replace it with your own numbers.
Illustrative numbers. The figures here are example assumptions to show the arithmetic. They are not measured results. Replace them with your own call records.
When a refrigerator stops cooling or a washer floods the laundry room, the caller wants a technician soon. Many will call several companies in a row and book with whichever one picks up. A voicemail greeting loses to a live answer.
Here is one way to price a missed call. These are example assumptions, not measured results. Replace them with numbers from your own phone records.
Example assumptions
- 35 inbound calls in a typical week.
- 20% go unanswered (technicians on a job, lunch, or after hours). That is 7 calls.
- 40% of those callers would have booked a visit if someone had answered.
- An average booked job of $220.
The arithmetic
7 missed calls x 40% = 2.8 jobs a week. 2.8 jobs x $220 = $616 a week. Over 50 working weeks, that is $30,800 a year.
Change the inputs and the answer moves:
- Low case: 7 missed, 30% would book, $150 job = $315 a week.
- Base case: 7 missed, 40% would book, $220 job = $616 a week.
- High case: 7 missed, 50% would book, $300 job = $1,050 a week.
What the math leaves out
It counts one visit. A caller you help with a dryer today may call you for a dishwasher next year, and may tell a neighbor. None of that is in the numbers.
It also overcounts if some missed calls were wrong numbers, parts vendors, or customers already waiting on a part. Sort the log first.
How to get your own numbers
Pull a month of call records and count the calls no person answered. Look at when they came in. Many shops find the misses cluster when every technician is out and the office is covered by one person.
Then work out your real booking rate among the callers you did reach, and use it instead of 40%. Take your average job from invoices, and decide whether to include the service call fee.
Where appliance repair differs
Most calls are bookings. A few involve danger: a gas smell near a stove or dryer, smoke or burning from an appliance, or water actively flooding out of one. For those, the agent reads a fixed safety script and alerts you, or rings your on-call technician if live routing is on. It does not diagnose, does not say an appliance is safe to keep using, and does not promise an arrival time. If anyone is in danger, the answer is 911.