When you're up a ladder or under a sink, answering the phone isn't always possible. But the financial cost of those missed calls adds up faster than most tradespeople realise.
Fix Radio surveyed over 220 tradespeople and found that 34% believe they have lost work specifically because they couldn't answer the phone, with 60% saying they regularly struggle to answer calls while on the job. An Everreach survey found 72% of tradesmen worry about losing work from missed calls and perhaps more concerningly, 4 in 5 admitted being tempted to answer in unsafe situations. No job is worth that risk.
The problem is compounded by what happens after a missed call. Moneypenny analysed data from 10,000 UK businesses and found 69% of callers sent to voicemail simply hang up without leaving a message. Forbes puts that figure even higher at 80%. Most won't try again. BT Business research found customers will call a maximum of twice before taking their business elsewhere, with 20% of new prospects never calling back at all.
What does this actually cost you?
A 2022 estimate put the total cost of missed calls to UK businesses at £30 billion per year. That's a big number. Here's a more personal one.
Take a plumber with an average job value of £200. Miss one job per month and that's £2,400 a year in lost revenue. Miss two or three jobs a month and you're looking at £4,800 to £7,200 annually. Over a 20 year career, missing just one job per month amounts to £48,000 in lost revenue. Three jobs a month? £144,000.
What can you do about it?
Soteriaa is an AI phone agent built for tradespeople. It answers every call you can't, capturing the customer's name, number, email, job description and ideal start date, saving it directly to your CRM so you can follow up when you're off the tools.
No missed calls. No lost jobs. No answering the phone up a ladder.
Find out more at soteriaa.com
