The one-week missed-call leak test tells you how many new customers tried to reach you and gave up. You need five working days, your phone's call history or provider report, and a simple sheet. At the end you'll have a weekly dollar figure that tells you whether missed calls are your most expensive problem.
Why "missed calls" is the wrong number
Missed calls overstate some problems and hide others. A regular customer who rings three times in ten minutes counts as three missed calls but costs you nothing if you call back. A new caller who rings once, hits voicemail and never tries again counts as one missed call but may cost you a job.
So this test counts callers lost: new callers who never reached a person and never received a reply. That is the number that turns into money.
Three definitions to keep straight:
- New caller: a number not already in your contacts or customer records.
- Reached: a person at your business spoke to them, either on the first call or on a callback.
- Lost: they were not reached within one business day and did not call again.
What you need
Before Monday, gather these:
- Your call data. Most VoIP and business phone services have a call log in the web portal that shows time, number and whether the call was answered. Mobile phones show recent calls in the phone app. If several staff phones are involved, you need all of them.
- A sheet. A spreadsheet or a printed page with six columns: date and time, number (last four digits is enough), new or existing, answered (yes or no), called back (yes, no, time), outcome.
- One person responsible. Someone who fills in the sheet at the end of each day. Doing it once daily from the call log takes ten minutes.
Keep only what you need: the last four digits identify a call without storing more personal information than the test requires.
Running the test, day by day
Monday to Friday. At the end of each day, go through the call log and add every call from a number that isn't in your contacts. Mark whether it was answered. If it wasn't, check whether anyone called back and when. Don't change anything about how you handle calls this week; the point is to measure normal.
Callbacks count only if they connect. Leaving a voicemail on a callback doesn't count as reaching the caller. Mark it "callback attempted" and check the following day whether they called back.
After-hours calls. Record them, but in a separate group. Evening and weekend callers behave differently, and the fix for them is different too.
The following Monday. Close the week by checking any callers still marked "attempted". If they never connected, mark them lost.
Turning the count into a dollar figure
Now do the arithmetic. Here is a worked example with illustrative numbers for a small Coquitlam plumbing company:
| Line | Example | Your week |
|---|---|---|
| New callers during business hours | 32 | ____ |
| Not answered on first call | 11 | ____ |
| Reached by callback within a day | 4 | ____ |
| Callers lost | 7 | ____ |
| Share of reached new callers who become paid work | 40% | ____ |
| Average first job value | $450 | ____ |
| Weekly value of lost work (7 × 0.40 × $450) | $1,260 | ____ |
Over a year of 48 working weeks, that example business is leaving roughly $60,000 of first jobs on the table, before counting repeat work from those customers. Your figures will be different, but the method holds.
Be honest about the close rate. If you don't know it, use a conservative estimate, such as the share of answered new callers last month who booked anything. Overstating it makes the leak look bigger than it is.
Reading the result
Use these rough decision rules:
- Callers lost: 0–1 a week. Your phone handling is not the main problem. Look at quote speed or visibility next. The same-day quotes guide is a good next test.
- Callers lost: 2–5 a week. Worth fixing, usually with simple routing changes and a callback routine. Many owners can do this themselves.
- Callers lost: more than 5 a week. This is likely your most expensive leak. Fix it before spending more on ads or search, because more enquiries would only enlarge it.
Also look at when the losses happen. If most of them cluster between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the problem is staff being busy with customers or jobs. If they cluster at lunch or after 4 p.m., it may be a coverage gap you can close by shifting a break.
Fixes you can try yourself
If the test shows a leak, start with these before buying anything:
- Ring group. Have the main line ring a second phone after four or five rings, rather than going straight to voicemail.
- Honest voicemail greeting. Say when you'll call back, for example "within two hours on weekdays", and keep that promise.
- Fixed callback times. Choose two or three times a day when someone returns every missed new caller, and protect those times.
- A text reply. Many phone services can send a short automatic text to missed callers. Keep it factual: your business name, that you'll call back and when. Commercial texts fall under Canada's anti-spam law, which the federal CASL overview introduces; confirm your wording with your own adviser.
Then run the test again for one week and compare.
Common mistakes when running the test
- Changing behaviour during the measurement week. If everyone answers more carefully because they know they are being counted, the baseline will be too low. Tell staff the week is about the system, not about them, and keep it normal.
- Counting only one phone. If the owner's mobile takes overflow calls, include it.
- Ignoring texts. Some customers text the business number instead of calling. If your line accepts texts, count unanswered first texts the same way.
- Skipping the dollar figure. A count of seven lost callers feels small. Seven times a realistic close rate and job value usually doesn't.
When to bring in help
If the leak is large, involves several staff phones, or your team has tried simple fixes that didn't stick, that's when a structured engagement helps. Our missed-call recovery service starts from exactly this kind of baseline and adds routing, text-back and a callback routine with weekly checks.
Bring your completed sheet to the consultation and we can skip the first week. The contact page explains what to send, and the guides overview lists the other two tests.
Frequently asked questions
Why only count unknown numbers?
Existing customers usually call back or text if they miss you. New callers are the ones most likely to try someone else, so they are the leak worth measuring.
What if our phone provider has no call report?
Use a paper or spreadsheet tally next to the phone for one week. It is less precise, but even a rough count is far better than a guess.
Is one week enough?
It's enough to see whether there is a problem. If the week was unusual, such as a holiday or a heat wave, repeat it the following week.
What's a reasonable target?
It depends on the business, but if more than one or two new callers a week never get a person or a reply, the leak is usually worth fixing before spending more on advertising.