What missed calls cost a plumbing business, worked out

For one missed call from a new customer:

Cost of one missed call = your average job value × the share of new enquiries you normally win.

For a year:

Missed new-customer calls a week × the share you'd win × your average job value × 52 weeks.

That's the formula our calculator uses. Nothing is rounded up along the way, and it only counts the first job, not repeat work or referrals.

Your own invoices are the best guide. If you don't have an average to hand, Checkatrade's June 2026 cost guide gives these UK averages for common plumbing work (Checkatrade):

These are consumer price guides, so they show what customers typically pay, before your costs. Bigger jobs, such as a bathroom refit, are worth far more, and one of those from a missed call changes the sum completely.

Example call counts and win rates. Swap in your own.

You can open any of these in the calculator and change the numbers, for example 3 calls, 30% and £150. The calculator's own starting figures are 10 calls, 30% and £250, which comes to £39,000 a year, so don't compare the two; use your own.

The biggest lever is the job value. Missing the same three calls a week on £350 jobs instead of £150 jobs more than doubles the figure.

1. 1Missed calls: look at your phone's call log, or your provider's online account, for two normal weeks.
2. 2New customers only: cross out numbers already in your contacts, suppliers and obvious spam. Existing customers usually ring back.
3. 3Your win rate: of the last 20 new enquiries you did answer, how many turned into a job?
4. 4Your job value: take your average invoice over the last few months.

Put those into the missed call calculator. If the yearly figure is small, the free fixes in our guide to how to stop missing business calls are where to start.

Survey figures are a useful sense check, but they're estimates, not measurements of your business.

• A 2026 BT Business survey of UK small businesses put the average yearly loss to missed calls at £1,597 for businesses with 1 to 9 employees, based on owners' own estimates (BT Business, 2026).
• In the same survey, 67% of small businesses said they miss at least one call on an average day that they believe loses them business.
• In a survey of 2,000 UK adults published alongside it, 75% said they'd give a business three call attempts before giving up, and 58% said they'd tell friends and family to avoid a business that didn't pick up.

BT sells its own AI receptionist, and the survey describes its estimate as indicative. Our guide to what a missed call costs a UK trade explains how those figures were worked out.

The sum counts one job per call. A new plumbing customer can also bring:

• Repeat work, such as the next repair or a bigger job later.
• Referrals to neighbours, friends and family.
• Reviews that help the next customer choose you.

If you advertise on Google Local Services Ads, Google's help pages say that missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness, which is one of the factors in how those ads are ranked (Google Local Services Help). That applies to Local Services Ads, not ordinary search results.

We've left these out of the worked examples because they're hard to put a figure on. Treat your answer as a floor, not a ceiling.

Compare your yearly figure with what cover costs. Using Ringzel's prices as an example: the Basic plan is £99 a month, or £1,188 a year paid monthly. At £150 a job, that's covered by 8 extra jobs a year, which is fewer than one a month.

Professional, at £179 a month or £2,148 a year, adds bookings into your calendar, call transfers and team routing. At £150 a job, it's covered by 15 extra jobs a year.

If your own numbers come out well below the cost of any paid option, don't buy one. A clear voicemail greeting and fast callbacks may be enough. Our guide to plumber answering service vs voicemail vs a receptionist compares the options, and out-of-hours and emergency calls for plumbers covers evenings and emergencies.