How this is calculated
Four numbers, multiplied:
- Calls a month — your daily call volume across the working days you set.
- Unanswered — the share nobody picks up: after hours, during lunch, while the line is already busy.
- Would have converted — of those unanswered callers, the share that would have become customers had someone answered.
- Average deal value — what one of those customers is worth to you.
The result is what those calls are worth in revenue you did not get a chance to win.
Getting the inputs right
Call volume is usually available from your phone provider or CRM. Estimating from memory tends to undercount, because the calls you remember are the ones you answered.
The unanswered share is the number most businesses guess badly. If you have never measured it, look at a single busy Monday rather than a monthly average — most missed calls cluster into the hours when you were already busy, which is exactly when the caller was ready to buy.
The conversion share should be your realistic rate for answered enquiries, not your best month. If half the people who reach you become customers, use half. A caller who could not reach you is not less interested than one who could — they simply called someone else.
What the number does and does not mean
It is an estimate of missed opportunity, not a bill. Some of those callers rang back. Some were not real prospects. Some would have been lost anyway.
It is still worth calculating, because the figure is almost always larger than people expect, and because it makes a decision concrete that was previously a feeling. If the monthly figure comfortably exceeds what a system to answer those calls would cost, the decision answers itself. If it does not, you have saved yourself a project.
What to do about it
A call that is answered in twenty seconds by a system that can book, qualify or route is worth more than one that goes to voicemail — voicemail conversion is very low, because a caller who wanted an answer now will usually try the next number instead.
The realistic options are more staff on the phones, an answering service, or a voice system that handles the predictable calls and hands the rest to a person. Which one makes sense depends on your volume and how much of it is genuinely repetitive.
Questions
- What counts as a missed call?
- Any call nobody spoke to: rang out, went to voicemail, hit a busy line, or came in after hours. If the caller did not reach a person or a system that could help them, count it.
- Is my data stored?
- No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and nothing is recorded — you can check that in your browser's network tab.
- What if I do not know my numbers?
- Estimate, and estimate conservatively. The purpose is to find out whether the figure is in the thousands or the lakhs, which decides whether this is worth acting on. Precision beyond that does not change the decision.
- Do voicemails not convert?
- Some do, but far fewer than most businesses assume. A caller with an immediate need usually rings the next number on the list rather than waiting for a call back, which is why speed of answer matters more than the quality of the callback.
Now you have the number, the useful question is what to do about it. That is one call.
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