A WildRun AI article, AI Receptionist Cost Savings for HVAC and Plumbing Companies, dated 7 July 2026, says Invoca's research on home-services calls found that roughly 27 percent of inbound calls go unanswered, and that fewer than 3 percent of callers who reach voicemail leave a message. The same article says Invoca's contractor data puts average annual losses from missed calls at $45,000 to $120,000 for a typical small contracting business.
On job value, WildRun attributes these figures to ServiceTitan: a home-service call converts at 30 to 40 percent when a person answers, and under 5 percent once the caller is sent to voicemail. WildRun then says ServiceTitan estimates about $350 for a missed plumbing call and closer to $450 for HVAC, before any repeat business or maintenance plan.
What this page is not
Serath did not download Invoca's or ServiceTitan's original tables on this sweep. The sentences above are WildRun's account of those sources. Treat them as a vendor's reading until you open the underlying report. Other 2026 blogs print much larger "per missed call" numbers. When two commercial pages disagree, the disagreement is the finding.
The useful part for a one-truck shop is the shape, not the headline dollar: most of the loss is the call that never becomes a conversation, and voicemail is not a conversation. Serath's own prices are a different object. Text-Back is $500 plus $250 a month. Front Desk is $750 plus $400 a month. Those figures are on the studio section, not in the WildRun article.
References
- WildRun AI, "AI Receptionist Cost Savings for HVAC and Plumbing Companies," 7 July 2026. The 27 percent, voicemail, annual-loss, conversion, and $350 / $450 sentences. Opened 24 September 2026.
- What the 62 percent figure actually measured, for a different and older missed-call study that marketing pages still repeat.