Last updated 2026-05-04 · verification by independent web research

Methodology & Sources

Every default value, every leak rate, every per-trade ticket size in Safigo's missed call revenue calculator — with primary-source links and the formulas they feed.

1. The core formula

For each leak cause (on-job, busy, after-hours, weekend, language, holiday) the calculator computes:

missed_calls   = base_calls × leak_share × loss_rate
revenue_lost   = missed_calls × conversion_rate × ticket_size
total_lost     = sum(revenue_lost across all leak causes)
period_total   = total_lost × period_multiplier

Where:

• base_calls is the calls-per-week falling into that time window (weekend, after-hours, weekday-day) or all calls if the leak is time-window-independent (language barrier, statutory holiday).
• leak_share is the percentage of those calls lost under your current coverage (solo / receptionist / receptionist + Saturday morning).
• loss_rate is 0.45 for time-window leaks (per Invoca 2025: only 55% of inbound business callers actually speak with a person, so ~45% don't connect) and 1.0 for language and holiday-closure leaks (no voicemail callback path).
• conversion_rate defaults to 46% (Invoca 2025 home-services benchmark across 60M+ calls), editable per business.
• ticket_size is mix-weighted across all job types this trade does (service + repair + install combined), editable per business.
• period_multiplier is 1 for week, 4.33 for month, 52 for year, and 52 × LTV_years for lifetime.

The weekend intent multiplier (the calculator-category claim that "weekend leads convert higher") is set to 1.0 — verification research could not find primary support, and for plumbing specifically demand peaks Mon-Tue. We removed it.

2. Universal stats (apply to all trades)

3. Per-trade ticket-size defaults

Every trade default is mix-weighted across the trade's typical service mix (service call + repair + install + upgrade), not just a single service-call fee. Each is editable on the calculator with a slider.

4. Coverage-gap stats (the receptionist tax)

"Even with a receptionist, you're missing calls" is the central insight of the calculator. The leak rates per coverage scenario are sourced as follows:

5. Weekend and after-hours patterns

Per AgentZap industry data, peak call windows by trade are:

• Plumbing: Saturday mornings
• HVAC: 6pm-midnight
• Painting / remodel intent: Sunday evenings
• Monday-morning post-weekend surge: +340% vs Friday PM

For healthcare/wellness verticals (massage, spa, chiro, physio), per Matik 24/7 Medical Answering data, ~40% of appointment-booking calls arrive outside business hours. We use this as the after-hours baseline for the wellness verticals.

6. Language-barrier and stat-holiday leak factors

Two leak categories in the calculator are not bound to a time window — they apply to total calls regardless of weekday/weekend/after-hours:

• Language barrier: Per the 2021 Canadian Census (Statistics Canada), 23% of British Columbia residents have a non-English mother tongue (Mandarin, Punjabi, Cantonese, Tagalog, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese, Hindi, etc.). Without multilingual coverage, roughly half of these callers hang up rather than persist through a language mismatch. Default leak factor: 10% of all calls. Set to 0 if your market is monolingual.
• Stat-holiday + sick-day closure: Canadian SMBs lose ~10-12 working days/year to holidays + owner sickness (Stats Can Table 14-10-0196-01). 12/365 ≈ 3% of calls land on closed days and hit voicemail with no human callback path.

7. What we deliberately do NOT claim

The AI-receptionist category is full of viral statistics that don't survive scrutiny. We list the ones we removed because they aren't supported by primary research:

• "85% of voicemail callers never call back" — widely repeated in the category but traces to a vendor (PATLive), not peer-reviewed research. We use Invoca 2025's verified 55%-speak-with-a-person figure instead.
• "78% hire whoever picks up first" — originally from MIT/InsideSales 2007 about B2B sales leads, repeated as if it were home-services research. We cite the Service Direct 2022 finding (35% say "answering the initial call" is most important) instead.
• "$126,000/year missed-call cost" — traces to AMBS Call Center (vendor), not academic. Our calculator computes from your specific inputs instead.
• "Weekend leads convert at higher rates" — verification research could not find primary support. For some trades (plumbing, HVAC) Mon-Tue is actually the conversion peak. We removed the weekend conversion multiplier from the math.

8. Update history

• 2026-05-04: Methodology page published. 19 per-vertical calculator pages launched.
• 2026-05-03: Master calculator launched with 19 verticals, 4-cell triage selector, and footnoted defaults. Added language-barrier + holiday-closure leak factors.