The 20-minute missed-call audit

Step 1. Pick one normal week

Use the last full week, Monday to Sunday, unless it was unusual (a holiday, a storm, you were away). You want a week that looks like most weeks. Not sure how fast you usually reply? The response time quiz takes a minute.

Step 2. Pull your incoming calls

Open your call history for that week. Where it lives depends on the phone:

• Mobile phone: the Phone app, under Recents. Most phones let you filter to missed calls.
• Business phone system or internet phone service: the call log or call history page in your account.
• Any line: your carrier's online account lists the calls for each billing period.

If calls come in on more than one line, do each line and add them up. There is more on finding call history in the questions below.

Step 3. Count three things

1. Incoming calls: every call that came in, answered or not.
2. Missed calls: every incoming call that no person picked up. A call that went to voicemail counts as missed.
3. Never reached: of the missed calls, how many did you never speak or text with afterwards? Check for a call back or a text to the same number later that day or the next.

Leave out numbers you recognise as suppliers, family and obvious spam. You are counting possible customers. The missed-call count is the first number the missed calls calculator asks for.

Step 4. Mark when each missed call happened

Put a tally mark for each missed call in one of four rows:

• During working hours, while you were on a job
• Lunch and the hour after closing
• Evenings and overnight
• Weekends

The row with the most marks tells you what kind of problem you have. Missed calls during the working day are a "hands full" problem. Evening and weekend calls are an "after hours" problem. They have different fixes.

Step 5. Work out two percentages

• Miss rate = missed calls ÷ incoming calls. If 12 of 40 calls were missed, that is 30%.
• Never-reached rate = never reached ÷ missed calls. If you never got back to 7 of those 12, that is 58%.

The second number is the one to act on. A missed call you returned within the hour is usually fine. A caller who never heard from you has probably called someone else.

Step 6. Pick one fix

Match the fix to the row with the most tally marks:

• On a job: set two fixed call-back times a day (for example noon and 4 PM) and say so on your voicemail greeting, so callers know when to expect you.
• Lunch and just after closing: move the lunch break or forward the line to a second person for that hour.
• Evenings, overnight and weekends: make sure the voicemail greeting says when you open and when you'll call back, and return those calls first thing.
• Any of them: reply to a missed call with a short text the same day, saying who you are and asking what they need. If you text customers, only text people who contacted you first, always tell them how to stop, and keep it to daytime hours. Rules on business texting vary by state; this guide is not legal advice.

Step 7. Do it again in four weeks

Count the same three things for one week next month. If the never-reached number hasn't moved, the fix isn't working and it's time to try a different one. More guides are on the guides page.

Where NewFrontDesk fits

NewFrontDesk is being built to do the last part of step 6 for you: when you miss a call, the caller gets a text from your business number, and their reply lands in one inbox. It is in test mode today and cannot send a real text yet. The status board shows exactly what works. Nothing in this audit needs it.