Independent studies show home-services businesses answer fewer than 4 in 10 calls live. New deployment data shows what that leak actually costs — and why voicemail doesn't plug it.
Analysis by Legacy Business Partners · Combines independent research with first-party deployment data · Last updated July 1, 2026
This report covers the pattern across service businesses. If you want your own number instead, the calculator prices what unanswered calls cost your practice — six inputs, ten minutes.
37.8%
The share of inbound business calls answered by a live person. The rest reach voicemail or get no response at all.
411 Locals call-monitoring study, 85 businesses across 58 industries, 2024
Why the phone still decides everything
In home services, the phone is the highest-intent channel there is. A caller with a burst pipe or a broken furnace has already decided to hire someone; they are choosing who picks up. Industry surveys consistently show that roughly 68% of consumers prefer to call a business for high-stakes purchases (Invoca, BrightLocal). The moment that call goes unanswered, the economics collapse — the caller moves on to the next name on the search results page.
The speed-to-lead cliff
Response speed doesn't just improve conversion — it dictates it. Landmark studies from MIT and Harvard Business Review found that lead quality drops off a cliff within minutes, and that most businesses respond far too slowly, if at all.
21×
More likely a lead qualifies when contacted at 5 minutes vs. 30.
MIT / InsideSales Lead Response Management Study, 2007
42 hrs
The average business's lead response time.
Harvard Business Review, 2011
23%
Of businesses never respond to a lead at all.
Harvard Business Review, 2011
A voicemail callback isn't a save. By the time it happens, the job is usually already booked with whoever picked up first.
First-Party Data
What the call logs show
Beyond the published research, we analyzed live inbound call logs from home-services deployments. The pattern held: [X]% of calls went unanswered, and most missed calls came in outside standard business hours.
[X]%
of inbound calls went unanswered
[Z]%
of missed calls came in after standard business hours
[N]
home-services deployments analyzed
Measured from live call logs over a [14]-day window, not estimated. [If N is small, this line must read: "an initial analysis of [N] deployments; figures are directional."]
The conservative cost model
Rather than repeat inflated figures, here is a deliberately cautious model — every input stated, every input below commonly cited averages.
Missed Calls × Booking Rate × Average Job Value = Revenue Exposure
Inbound calls per month
~660 (30/day × 22 days)
Conservative miss rate
40% (below the 62% many cite)
Missed calls
~264
Booking rate on missed calls
20% (conservative)
Lost jobs per month
~53
Average job value
$250 (modest)
Monthly revenue exposure
~$13,000
The exact figure isn't the point. Even at cautious inputs, the leak is structural. Adjust any input to your own numbers.
Where the leak concentrates
After-hours
Field trades have no coverage when the office closes, yet high-intent emergency calls still come in.
Peak-demand congestion
When everyone is already on a call or a job, ready-to-buy customers hit a busy line.
Share this research
Free to republish with attribution to Legacy Business Partners.
This report combines two methods: a synthesis of independent published research and a first-party analysis of live deployment call logs. "Missed call" is defined differently across sources, so cross-study figures are directional rather than universal benchmarks.
Legacy Business Partners analyzes call-handling and lead-response performance for home-services businesses. This report combines independent published research with first-party deployment data; public figures are attributed to their original sources. Data inquiries: james@legacybusinessinc.com
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