Should your plumbing shop pay for an answering service? Count your missed calls first, with a free checklist
An answering service picks up your calls; automation only counts what you missed. Which fits depends on your numbers, so count them first with our free checklist. It takes about 10 minutes.
What are my options for calls I can't pick up?
Three: an answering service, voicemail, or software that counts what you missed from your own data.
- Answering service
- A person at another company answers in your name, takes a message, and sometimes books or dispatches.
- Voicemail
- The caller leaves a message, or does not. You listen later.
- Automation built on your own data
- Software reads your call log and your field software, then reports which calls were missed and what happened to them. It does not answer anything.
How do they compare on cost, nights and booking?
An answering service costs per minute or per call and can take messages at night; voicemail is cheap but only catches callers who leave a message; our checklist is free and counts every missed call, but answers none.
What does it cost?
- Answering service
- Per minute or per call
- Voicemail
- Usually included with your phone plan
- Our checklist and reports
- Free checklist first, then a quoted build
Does it cover nights and weekends?
- Answering service
- Yes
- Voicemail
- Yes, but only if the caller leaves a message
- Our checklist and reports
- Counts those calls. It does not pick up the phone.
Does it book the job?
- Answering service
- Takes a message, sometimes books
- Voicemail
- No
- Our checklist and reports
- No. It counts and reports, you book
Does it tell you what you missed?
- Answering service
- Rarely
- Voicemail
- No, you hear only the callers who leave a message
- Our checklist and reports
- Yes, by hour and weekday
When is an answering service the right choice?
When you get more calls than your office can pick up, or a caller with a burst pipe needs a human voice right now.
- You get more calls than your office can pick up, and hiring another person is not realistic.
- Emergency work is a big part of the business, and a caller with a burst pipe needs a human voice right now.
- You want someone to take a message at 2 am and page the on-call tech.
- You, the owner, want every caller to hear a person, not a recording.
If that is you, a service does something automation cannot: it answers. We do not answer calls at all. Also check how a service handles your schedule: a person who does not know your service area or your on-call rota can only take a message, and you should price the service on that basis.
When is automation the better fit?
When you already pick up most calls and want to know about the ones you do not, with numbers instead of a hunch.
- You already pick up most calls and want to know about the ones you do not.
- You cannot say which calls became jobs, or which marketing brings booked work.
- Your phone log and your field software already hold the answer, and nobody has put them together.
- You would rather not pay per minute for a problem you have not measured yet.
- You want a record that gets better over time, so you can compare this quarter with the last one.
Automation does not answer a single call. If a missed call is costing you jobs tonight, it will not help tonight. It helps you decide what to do about the missed calls, with numbers instead of a hunch.
Cost matters too, but compare it fairly. A per-minute service is cheap in a quiet month and expensive in a busy one. A build is the reverse: a fixed amount once, then a small running cost. Ask each vendor for a worked example using your own call volume.
The two are not rivals. Some shops run a service for nights and use reports built from their own software to see how it performs. To see what that looks like in practice, read the case study.
What should I do first?
Count what you miss. Our free checklist works with or without an answering service.
How many calls, at which hours, and how many of those callers never became customers. That number tells you which option fits and how much to spend.
Our missed-call checklist is free and sends us nothing. It works with or without an answering service. If you already use a service, a full audit can check whether the calls it takes still end up as booked jobs, which is something many shops never look at.
Questions about the comparison
Can I keep my answering service and still count my missed calls?
Yes. The checklist counts calls that reached your phone and went unanswered. If your service keeps its own call history, add it to your count.
Do you replace my answering service?
No. We count and report. We do not answer calls, take messages or book jobs.
Does automation book the job?
No. It shows you which calls were missed and what happened to them. You or your office book the work.
Count your missed calls first
Use the free checklist with your own phone system. Nothing is sent to us. Want help reading the numbers? Book a 15-minute call.
Or email [email protected] and we'll call you back.