Field notes

What a missed call really costs a one-chair shop (and how to work it out with your own numbers)

Most owners guess. Some guess high and panic; most guess low and shrug. Neither helps. Here's a way to put a real number on it in about ten minutes, using nothing but your phone and your price list.

Step 1: count your missed calls for one week

Open your phone's recent calls and filter for missed calls, or just scroll. Count every missed call from a number that isn't saved in your contacts, for one normal week. Skip spam and robocalls if you can tell. Write the number down. That's your missed calls a week.

If you don't trust one week, do two and take the average.

Step 2: decide how many of those were real customers

Not every missed call is a booking. Some are vendors, wrong numbers, or people who'll try again. Be cautious: assume only 1 in 4 would have booked. If you know your shop better than that, use your own number.

Step 3: use your own average ticket

Take your most common service and its price. For a barbershop that might be a regular cut; for a salon, a cut and style. Don't use your best ticket. Use the ordinary one.

Step 4: run the formula

Missed calls a week × share who would book × your average ticket × weeks you're open = possible yearly revenue at stake.

A worked example (made-up numbers)

A one-chair shop misses 6 calls a week from unknown numbers. It assumes 25% would have booked, its regular cut is $28, and it's open 50 weeks a year.

6 × 0.25 × $28 × 50 = $2,100 a year

That's before repeat visits. A new customer who likes you comes back, often every few weeks. We leave repeat visits out on purpose, so the number stays honest and on the low side.

What the number does and doesn't tell you

It tells you whether the phone is worth fixing. If your number is small, you have better things to do, and that's a fine result. If it's bigger than a month's rent, it deserves an hour of your time.

It doesn't tell you why calls are missed. That's what a test call is for: calling your own shop at a busy hour, counting the rings, and listening to your voicemail as a stranger would.

Three fixes that cost nothing

1. Fix your Google hours. If Google says you're open and you're not, or the other way round, you lose people at the door and on the phone. Make Google, your booking page and your Facebook page say the same thing.
2. Rewrite your voicemail. Say your shop's name, your hours, that you'll call back today, and where to book online if you take bookings. Twenty seconds, no music.
3. Call back the same day. Block five minutes at lunch and at close to return every missed call from an unknown number. It's slow, but it works.

When it's time for help

If the number from step 4 is big and the free fixes aren't enough, that's when a missed-call text-back or a phone assistant earns its keep. We'll run the calls for you and send the math in a two-page report: the free Missed-Call Test. You can also see a sample report first.