Customers have always wanted someone to pick up. It doesn’t matter if someone is calling a plumber, five-star hotel, or pizza place. Why bother calling if you won’t get a response?
What has changed is that people move on faster. Loyalty doesn’t exist in the same way it used to. A homeowner with a burst pipe isn't calling you back tomorrow, they're scrolling down the “plumbers near me” list on Google until someone picks up.
People also care about who picks up. We surveyed 6,000 consumers for our Keep Service Human report and 85% said they prefer speaking to a real person when contacting a local service. When we asked what matters most in a customer service interaction, 73% said resolution. Your customers don't just want someone to answer, they want someone who is empathetic, asks the right questions, and gives them peace of mind.
The bar isn't just to pick up the phone (and that should be a given). It's the whole experience from your Google listing and website, booking, communication, tone of voice, and follow up. You're being judged from the second they search for a plumber to help them.
What are the Real Financial Impacts of Missed Calls?
More than most contractors realize. We’ve created a missed call calculator so you can see exactly how much revenue is walking out the door. On average 62% of callers won't leave a voicemail and 85% won't call back a second time. If you’re missing even 10 calls a week, that can add up to thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
And remember that emergency and after hour calls are your highest-margin jobs, and they're the most likely to be missed because they come in when you’re not as well staffed. If you’re not answering, someone else is.
Is There a Growing Frustration with Automated Answering Systems?
Yes: people are fed up. One in three consumers say they'd hang up immediately if they reached AI when calling a business (that's every third job lost). 83% have asked to speak to a real person instead of an AI agent and 69% have done it multiple times. That should settle the human vs. AI debate for most contractors.
The resource problem is also real and every contractor is feeling it, especially with the labor shortage across America due to a large number of retired workers and a lack of new talent. But, replacing people with automation on your front line isn’t the solution for your plumbing jobs, or your phones. This is when you risk losing the customers due to poor experiences.
The better answer is smart extensions of your team and introducing tools to help you manage bookings, payments and more. Our playbook would be to get real people on your phones (consider a live answering service specialized in plumbing), and a solid booking page and booking system where customers can book 24/7, get confirmations and make payments. That way, your non-urgent jobs are frictionless with customers booking themselves, and you have human support on the line for emergency calls where empathy matters.
When the person answering the phone can also book the job, you eliminate the gap where customers can shop around. An integrated system where the person on the phone can see your calendar and lock in the appointment on the spot means the customer goes from call to booked job.
Then a booked job becomes a five-star review, and a review becomes the next call—and that’s how real, measurable growth happens.
