You’re Probably Losing Jobs And Don’t Even Know It

Here’s something most contractors don’t realize until they really sit down and think about it. A lot of the jobs you lose are not jobs you bid on and lost. They’re jobs you never even knew existed in the first place.

What usually happens is pretty simple. Someone needs work done. Maybe it’s plumbing, electrical, remodeling, landscaping, flooring, painting, or general work around the house. They go on Google, search, and start calling companies.

They call the first one. No answer.

They call the second one. No answer.

They call the third one. Someone picks up.

Guess who gets the estimate?

If you want to see how some companies are making sure they answer every single call, you can see how that works here:

Services

Most Calls Come In When You’re Busy

Nobody calls when you’re sitting around with nothing to do. Calls come in when you’re:

• On a job
• Driving
• Talking to a customer
• Measuring for an estimate
• Picking up materials
• Eating lunch
• With your family
• Done for the day

So the phone rings, you can’t answer, and you tell yourself, “I’ll call them back later.” The problem is by the time you call them back, they’ve already talked to two other contractors and one of them is already scheduled to come out.

That’s how most small jobs and a lot of big jobs get distributed. It often just goes to whoever answers first and can get out there the fastest.

Let’s Put Real Numbers On This

Let’s say your average job is $1,500. Some are smaller, some are bigger, but let’s just use $1,500 as an average.

Now imagine you miss just:

• 4 calls per week
• And only 1 of those turns into a job

That’s 1 job per week you didn’t get.

That’s about 4 jobs per month.

4 jobs × $1,500 = $6,000 per month.

That’s $72,000 per year.

From calls you never answered.

And that’s a pretty conservative example. Some of those calls could be $5,000 jobs, $10,000 jobs, or full remodels.

This is why answering the phone is not just office work. It’s directly tied to how much money the business makes.

The Real Problem Isn’t Marketing Most Of The Time

A lot of contractors think they need:

• More ads
• Better SEO
• More yard signs
• More leads
• More marketing

But a lot of the time, the real problem is not leads. The phone is already ringing. The problem is nobody is consistently answering it.

So you end up in this weird situation where you’re busy, but you also feel like you could be busier. You know there’s more work out there, but the schedule isn’t as full as it should be. A lot of that comes down to missed calls and slow follow-up.

If you fix the phone and the follow-up, a lot of businesses grow without changing anything else.

What Happens When Someone Actually Answers Every Time

Think about the companies you know that are always busy. A lot of them have someone answering the phone all the time. During the day, after hours, weekends, it doesn’t matter. When someone calls, someone answers and gets them on the schedule.

Because they answer:

• They book more estimates
• They go on more estimates
• They close more jobs
• Their schedule fills up faster
• They grow faster

It’s not always that they’re better at the work. A lot of the time, they’re just better at capturing the opportunity when it comes in.

What An AI Receptionist Actually Does For A Contractor

When someone calls your business, the AI receptionist answers the phone like a normal receptionist would. It talks to the customer, asks what kind of work they need, gets their information, and helps schedule an estimate or a call back.

So instead of the call going to voicemail, it turns into:

• A name
• A phone number
• A job type
• A location
• And a scheduled estimate

From the customer’s point of view, they reached your company, someone answered, and they’re now on your schedule. That’s all they really wanted.

You can see what that looks like and how it works here:

This Is Usually The Breaking Point For Owners

Most contractors hit a point where they say something like:

• “I know we miss calls.”
• “People tell me they tried calling earlier.”
• “I need someone to answer the phone.”
• “I’m busy, but I feel like we should be doing more jobs.”
• “I don’t have time to chase every lead.”

That’s usually the stage where putting a system in place to answer calls and schedule estimates starts to make a lot of sense. Because at that point, the problem is not your work. The problem is time and communication.

If You Answer More Calls, You Usually Book More Jobs

This is not complicated, but it’s very real. More answered calls usually leads to:

• More estimates
• More jobs
• A fuller schedule
• More consistent revenue
• Less stress about where the next job is coming from

Most contractors don’t have a lead problem. They have a lead handling problem.

If you want to see how this would work for your business and what it would look like if every call was answered and turned into an estimate opportunity, you can check that out here:

And if you want to see examples of businesses that are capturing more calls and booking more work because their phones are being answered all the time, you can see some examples here:

At the end of the day, a lot of jobs don’t go to the best contractor. They go to the contractor who answers the phone, shows up, and gives the estimate. If you make sure every call gets answered, you give yourself a lot more chances to be that contractor.