Missed-call math for electricians: small calls, big jobs
Electrical work mixes $300 service calls with $3,000 installs. Here is how to price a missed call when tickets vary that much.
Illustrative numbers. The figures here are example assumptions to show the arithmetic. They are not measured results. Replace them with your own call records.
An electrician's phone brings in two kinds of calls. Some are small: a dead outlet, a breaker that will not reset, a light fixture. Some are large: a panel upgrade, an EV charger, a rewire. They arrive through the same number, and the caller usually cannot tell you which kind they are until you ask a few questions.
That makes a simple average ticket misleading. Here is a way to handle it. Everything below is an example assumption, not a measured result.
Example assumptions
- 25 inbound calls in a typical week.
- 16% go unanswered. That is 4 calls.
- 50% of those callers would have booked if someone had picked up. That is 2 jobs.
- Of booked jobs, 9 in 10 are $300 service visits and 1 in 10 is a $3,000 install or panel job.
The blended ticket
Nine jobs at $300 plus one job at $3,000 is $5,700. Divide by ten jobs and the blended ticket is $570.
Two missed bookings a week at $570 is $1,140 a week. Over 50 working weeks, that is $57,000 a year.
Now see how sensitive it is. If the install share is 1 in 20 instead of 1 in 10, the blended ticket is (19 x $300 + $3,000) / 20 = $435, and the same two jobs a week are worth $870.
Why the big jobs matter more than the numbers suggest
Large installs are often bought after the homeowner calls a few shops. The shop that answers, asks sensible questions and books an estimate window gets the visit. A shop that sends them to voicemail may never find out the call was a $3,000 job.
That is also why intake matters. A good phone process asks what is happening, where, and whether anything is hot, sparking or smells burnt. It does not ask the caller to diagnose their own panel.
What this leaves out
- Callers who were already your customers and would have called back anyway.
- Calls that were not jobs at all: wrong numbers, utility questions, sales calls.
- Estimates that do not close. A booked estimate is not a sold job.
Adjust for each. If you close one estimate in three, cut the install side of the blended ticket accordingly.
Use your own records
Pull a month of call history. Count unanswered calls. Then look at your last 20 booked jobs and sort them into small and large. Those two counts replace the assumptions above.
Electrical emergencies deserve separate handling, and we cover them in a separate post. A sparking outlet or a burning smell is not a booking question. It is a safety script first.