How Many Calls Is Your Garage Missing? (The Number Will Shock You)

We asked 25 independent garage owners the same question: "How many calls do you think you miss per week?"

The average guess was 4-5. The actual average, measured over 30 days using call tracking software? 18 missed calls per week.

That's not a typo. Most garage owners dramatically underestimate how many calls go unanswered, because they only notice the calls they pick up.

Where Do the Missed Calls Go?

When a potential customer calls your garage and nobody answers, one of three things happens:

1. They call a competitor (68%). The most common outcome. They found your number on Google, but they also found three other garages. If you don't answer, they just tap the next number.
2. They leave a voicemail (22%). But here's the catch - 80% of callers who leave voicemails expect a callback within an hour. Most garages call back at the end of the day, by which point the customer has already booked elsewhere.
3. They give up entirely (10%). They decide to postpone the service or handle it themselves. You'll never know they existed.

The Real Cost: $186 Per Missed Call

Let's break down the maths. The average job value for an independent garage is $186. That includes MOTs, routine servicing, brake work, diagnostics, and other common jobs.

Not every phone call converts to a booking - the industry average is around 35%. But that means for every 3 missed calls, you're losing roughly one booked job worth $186.

Here's how it compounds:

• 18 missed calls/week × 35% conversion rate = 6.3 lost jobs/week
• 6.3 lost jobs × $186 average value = $1,172/week
• $1,172 × 52 weeks = $60,944/year in lost revenue

And that's using conservative numbers. Some of our clients were missing 25+ calls per week, putting their annual missed revenue well above $90,000.

When Are Calls Being Missed?

We broke down the data by time of day and found three peak windows for missed calls:

• 8:30am - 10:00am (34% of missed calls). The morning rush. Mechanics are starting jobs, the phone is ringing off the hook, and nobody's free to answer. This is when MOT and service bookings peak.
• 12:00pm - 1:30pm (21% of missed calls). Lunch breaks. Even if you have a receptionist, they're eating lunch. But customers are using their own lunch break to make calls.
• 4:30pm - 6:00pm (18% of missed calls). End of day. Your team is wrapping up, but people leaving work are calling to book for the next day.

The remaining 27% are scattered throughout the day - calls that come in while your team is mid-job, handling another customer, or simply away from the phone.

The Fix: Dedicated Call Answering

There are three ways to solve this problem, ranked from cheapest to most effective:

Option 1: Train a team member to prioritise calls

Cost: Free. Effectiveness: Low. Reality: you've probably tried this. The problem is that mechanics are mechanics, not receptionists. Asking someone to drop a brake job every time the phone rings doesn't work.

Option 2: Hire a full-time receptionist

Cost: $28,000-$35,000/year. Effectiveness: Medium. A dedicated receptionist answers calls during their working hours, but you're still missing calls during lunch, holidays, and sick days. Plus, they can only handle one call at a time.

Option 3: Virtual receptionist service

Cost: $4,000-$6,000/year. Effectiveness: High. A trained virtual receptionist answers your phone during business hours, books appointments, and qualifies leads. They know your services, your pricing, and your availability. If they're busy with another call, a backup picks up. No holidays, no sick days, no missed calls.

The ROI calculation is simple. If a virtual receptionist captures even 5 extra jobs per week that would have been missed - that's $930/week in recovered revenue against a cost of roughly $100/week. That's a 9x return from day one.

What You Can Do Right Now

Before investing in any solution, measure the problem. Set up a simple call tracking number (many services offer free trials) and track your missed calls for two weeks. The data will make the business case for you.

If you're missing more than 10 calls per week, you're losing enough revenue to fund a complete digital marketing overhaul. The question isn't whether you can afford to fix it - it's how long you can afford not to.