Missed call statistics,with the sources attached

62.2%

of calls to small businesses went unanswered by a person

Across 85 small businesses in 58 industries, a live person picked up only 37.8% of the time. Another 37.8% of calls went to voicemail and 24.3% got no response at all — no answer, no voicemail, nothing.

24.3%

of calls got no response whatsoever

Almost a quarter of calls in the same study rang out with no human and no voicemail box to leave a message in. For the caller, that business simply does not exist at that moment.

100x

better odds of connecting when you respond in 5 minutes instead of 30

Across more than 15,000 leads and 100,000 call attempts, the odds of actually making contact were 100 times higher when the first response came within 5 minutes rather than 30 minutes.

21x

better odds of qualifying a lead at 5 minutes versus 30 minutes

The same study found the odds of qualifying a lead were 21 times higher at a 5-minute response than at 30 minutes. Response speed, not effort, was the dominant variable.

42 hours

average time companies took to respond to a web lead

In an audit of 2,241 US companies, the average first response to an online enquiry took 42 hours — well outside the window in which a prospect is still actively shopping.

23%

of companies never responded to the lead at all

Nearly one in four of the companies audited never responded to the enquiry. Only 37% responded within an hour.

7x

more likely to qualify a lead when contacted within the first hour

Companies that tried to contact a potential customer within an hour of receiving an enquiry were nearly 7 times more likely to have a meaningful conversation with a decision maker than those that waited even an hour longer.