The missed call playbook
for trades
12 things owner-operated plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing businesses do to stop losing jobs to a ringing phone. No fluff, no sales pitch — read it in five minutes and use it tomorrow.
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Know what one missed call is worth
Take your average job value and write it on the wall. Two missed calls a week at $450 a job is over $46,000 a year walking to the next name on the list.
Answer inside 30 seconds or expect a callback war
Most homeowners call three companies. The first one that picks up wins roughly 70% of the time. Speed beats polish.
Never send a new caller to voicemail
Under 20% of homeowners leave a voicemail for a trade. Treat voicemail as a lost lead, not a message system.
Text back every unanswered call within 5 minutes
A simple 'Sorry we missed you — we're on a job. What's the address and what's going on?' recovers a large share of drop-offs.
Ask the five questions that qualify any job
Name, callback number, address, what's happening, and how urgent. Anything else can wait until you're standing in the driveway.
Separate emergencies from everything else
Decide in advance what counts as an emergency for your trade and what that call-out costs. Say the price on the phone.
Price the call-out, not the job
Quoting the whole job blind loses money. Quote the diagnostic or call-out fee, then price properly on site.
Book while they're still on the line
'I can do Thursday morning or Friday afternoon' closes far better than 'I'll call you back to schedule.'
Send a confirmation the moment it's booked
A text with date, window, your name and the call-out fee kills most no-shows and most price arguments.
Cover after hours and weekends deliberately
Around a third of trade calls land outside business hours. Decide who answers them — a person, a service, or an AI — before the phone rings.
Log every call, including the ones you lost
You can't fix a leak you can't see. Track calls answered, missed, booked, and where they came from.
Follow up on quotes twice, then stop
Day 2 and day 7. Two polite texts recover jobs that were never really lost — just forgotten.
Or let Calleo do items 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 for you
Calleo answers on the first ring, qualifies the caller, texts back, books the job and sends you the details — days, nights and weekends. One recovered job usually covers months of it.