411 Locals published a page titled "SMBs Don't Answer 62% Of Phone Calls." The method sentence on that page says they monitored the phone calls of 85 businesses, operating in 58 industries, for 30 days. The page does not print a year. Later roundups often date the work to 2016. This post does not upgrade that date, because the study page itself does not state one.
The split they print is specific:
- 37.8 percent of calls were answered by a person.
- 37.8 percent were forwarded to voicemail.
- 24.3 percent got no response.
Add the last two and you get about 62 percent of calls that did not reach a live person. That is the figure. It is not a count of home-service contractors in 2026, and it is not a measure of after-hours only. It is one company's look at 85 businesses across 58 industries over a month.
What this is worth to a shop in Hillsboro
It is a reason to time your own phone for a week. It is not a reason to put "$126,000 a year" on a proposal. That larger dollar figure shows up on vendor blogs. It was not on the 411 Locals page this sweep read, so it is not used here.
If you run an HVAC, plumbing, or dental office, write down answered, voicemail, and dead air for seven days. Use your ticket and your close rate. The 411 Locals split is a hypothesis, not your P&L.
References
- 411 Locals, "SMBs Don't Answer 62% Of Phone Calls." Method and the 37.8 / 37.8 / 24.3 split are stated on that page. Opened 24 September 2026.