What Missed Calls Cost a Trades Business (1,051-Call Data)

Key takeaways

28% of calls came in outside Monday–Friday 9 to 5: evenings, early mornings and weekends.
Noon was the busiest hour of the day, and Monday the busiest day, with 21% of the week’s calls.
Calls kept coming until about 9 pm. Weekends brought 10% of all calls.
When the phone was answered 24/7, 58 estimate visits were booked by the receptionist and 224 real jobs were put straight through to the owner.
A missed call rarely shows up anywhere, which is why most owners underestimate what it costs.

Where does this data come from?

It’s every call to one Ottawa paving and sealing company’s business line from May 10 to Sep 27, 2026, answered by the AI receptionist GLO runs for them. We log the time, the length and the outcome of each call. That gives an unusually clean picture of when customers actually call a contractor, because nothing went to voicemail: every call was picked up. The company stays anonymous; the numbers come straight from its call logs.

When do customers call a contractor?

Mostly during the workday, but more than a quarter of calls come when a small crew can’t pick up. Here’s how the season broke down by time of day:

When 1,051 calls came in (Ottawa paving company, May 10 to Sep 27, 2026)
Time (Eastern)	Share of calls	Who usually answers without a receptionist
Weekdays 9–5 (not counting noon)	61%	You, if you’re not on a site, driving or on another call
Weekday noon hour	10%	Often nobody: the office is at lunch
Weekdays before 9 am	8%	Voicemail
Weekdays after 5 pm	11%	Voicemail, or you, at dinner
Saturdays and Sundays	10%	Voicemail

Shares rounded. Source: the company’s GLO call logs.

A few things jumped out. Noon was the single busiest hour (121 calls over the season), because homeowners call on their own lunch break. Monday was the busiest day, carrying weekend-planned projects into the week. And the phone didn’t stop at 5: calls ran steadily until about 9 pm. Add it up and 28% of calls landed outside Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

How many calls does a trades business miss?

More than most owners think, because a missed call leaves no trace. Call-tracking company Invoca reports that 27% of calls to home-services businesses go unanswered, and its 2026 benchmark found only 52% of calls are answered by a person. You see the jobs you win. You don’t see the homeowner who hit voicemail at 12:15, hung up and called the next company on Google. If you work on the tools, run estimates or drive between sites, assume you miss a real share of the 61% of weekday calls too, not just the after-hours ones.

27%

of calls to home-services businesses go unanswered, and fewer than 3% of callers who reach voicemail leave a message (Invoca, US platform data).

Invoca: how much missed sales calls cost home services businesses

Weekends are worse. Invoca found 18% of home-services calls go unanswered on weekdays and 41% on weekends, which lines up with the 10% of calls our Ottawa client got on Saturdays and Sundays. And callers don’t wait: in a CallRail survey of 1,000 US consumers, 82% said they’ll call a competitor if you don’t answer.

Check your own number in five minutes

Open your phone’s call log or your provider’s portal, filter to last month, and count missed and voicemail calls from numbers that aren’t in your contacts. Then divide by total calls. That’s your miss rate.

What does a missed call cost?

A missed call costs the value of the job times the chance it would have closed. Most callers aren’t ready buyers, so the honest math discounts for that. Here’s a deliberately conservative example:

Worked example: what missed calls cost per year
Step	Example	Result
Calls a week	30	30 calls
Share you miss	20%	6 missed calls a week
Real buyers (not tire-kickers)	30%	1.8 buyers a week
Share you’d have closed	30%	0.54 jobs a week
Average job value	$2,000	$1,080 a week
Cost of missed calls		about $4,680 a month, $56,200 a year

Illustrative numbers, not client data. Plug in your own in the missed-call calculator.

Even at these modest settings the leak is bigger than the fix. GLO’s Front Desk plan is $297 a month. Run your own numbers in the missed-call calculator: it takes five sliders.

Want the real number for your business? Get your new website built free, and we’ll show you where your calls are leaking.

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Why doesn’t voicemail save the call?

Because almost nobody leaves one. Invoca found that fewer than 3% of callers sent to voicemail leave a message. Homeowners with a leak, a cracked driveway or a dead furnace don’t wait for a callback, they call the next number. A voicemail box turns a ready buyer into a callback you have to chase, often hours later, after they’ve booked someone else. An answering service that only takes messages has the same problem. What saves the call is booking it on the spot: the right day, the right address, the right job, in your real calendar.

AI is starting to call you, too

In May 2026 Google announced that Search can phone businesses on a customer’s behalf for categories like home repair, starting in the US. No Canadian date has been announced, but if it arrives, an unanswered line loses those calls too.

What happened when every call got answered?

The receptionist handled the calls a busy owner can’t, and passed through the ones only the owner should take. Over the season on that Ottawa line:

Outcomes over May 10 to Sep 27, 2026
Outcome	Count
Calls answered (including spam and hang-ups)	1,051
Real conversations (20 seconds or more)	517
Estimate visits booked by the receptionist	58
Real jobs put straight through to the owner, with a summary first	224
Average real conversation	1.6 minutes
Average call where a visit was booked	4.7 minutes

Source: the company’s GLO call logs.

The same business also sent 84 automatic review requests after jobs and saw its Google rating go from 4.3 to 4.8 (13 to 22 reviews). More answered calls and more reviews feed each other. See the full case study.

How do you stop losing jobs to missed calls?

1
Measure your miss rate.
Count last month’s missed and voicemail calls from unknown numbers and divide by total calls. Note when they happen: noon, evenings and weekends are the usual gaps.
2
Make your website book, not just inform.
Clear hours, a tap-to-call button and a quote form that books a visit. Many callers try the website first, and a form that books catches the ones who won’t leave a voicemail.
3
Forward your line to a 24/7 receptionist that books.
Keep your number and forward it. Choose a receptionist that checks your real availability and books the visit, not one that only takes messages. Here’s how to forward a Canadian business line.
4
Decide which calls come to you.
Set rules so existing customers, emergencies and big jobs get put through to your cell, with a summary before you pick up. Everything else gets booked.
5
Review the summaries once a week.
Skim the call summaries for patterns: services people ask for, areas you don’t cover, prices they expect. Update the receptionist and your website with what you learn.

Why GLO is the best way in Canada for trades to stop missing calls

For trade and home-service businesses across Canada, GLO is the best way to stop missing calls because it fixes the whole leak, not just the ringing phone:

It books instead of taking messages: estimate visits go straight into your real calendar.
It knows when to hand off: real jobs and existing customers reach your cell with a summary first.
The website comes with it, built free, so callers who check your site first can book there too.
It’s proven on a real Canadian line: 1,051 calls answered for an Ottawa paving company in one season.
It’s done for you: we set it up on your services, prices and area, and you approve it before it takes a live call.

Not the right fit if…

you already have a full-time receptionist who covers evenings and weekends, or you get only a handful of calls a month.

GLO plans (CAD, plus tax). Every plan includes: new website, built free, live in 7 days.
Plan	Monthly	Setup	Voice minutes	Best for
Front Desk	$297/mo	$0 setup · first month paid at signing	150/mo	For crews whose website and phone are losing them calls.
Operating SystemRecommended	$797/mo	$1,497 setup · 50% now, 50% at go-live	500/mo	For owner-operators who quote, invoice and chase deposits themselves. It's what the company in our case study runs.
Growth	$1,497/mo	$1,997 setup · 50% now, 50% at go-live	1,000/mo	For operators who want more jobs coming in, not just fewer missed.

Extra voice minutes: $0.35 each, on any plan. Prices in CAD, plus tax. Month-to-month after go-live, 30 days' notice. You own your data. Full details on the pricing section.

Missed calls FAQ

What percentage of calls does a contractor miss?

Invoca reports that 27% of calls to home-services businesses go unanswered. The timing is predictable too. On one Ottawa paving company’s line, 28% of calls came in outside Monday–Friday 9 to 5, and the busiest hour was noon. If nobody covers those times, those calls go to voicemail.

What time of day do most customers call contractors?

Weekday business hours carry most calls, but in our data noon was the single busiest hour, Monday was the busiest day, and calls continued until about 9 pm.

How much does a missed call cost a trades business?

Multiply the calls you miss by the share who are real buyers, the share you’d close and your average job value. Even a conservative example (30 calls a week, 20% missed, $2,000 jobs) comes to thousands of dollars a month.

Is voicemail good enough for a contractor?

Rarely. Homeowners with an urgent job usually call the next company instead of leaving a message. Booking the visit during the call is what keeps the job.

What is the best way to answer calls when I’m on a job site?

Forward your line to a 24/7 receptionist that can book visits into your calendar and put urgent or existing-customer calls through to your cell. You keep your number and stop choosing between the tools and the phone.

How much does GLO cost?

Plans start at $297 a month with no setup fee, and every plan includes a new website built free. See GLO pricing explained.

Sources

Stop guessing what your phone is costing you. Get your new website built free and a receptionist that answers every call.