The formula, in the open
No black box. The tool multiplies your inputs straight through:
missed calls per week × 4.33 weeks × new-client share × booking rate × signing rate = clients lost per monthclients lost per month × average fee = revenue at risk per month
This is arithmetic about your numbers, not a promise about ours. If your real booking rate is lower or your fee is higher, change the inputs; the point is to see the order of magnitude you are leaving on the table, using assumptions you believe.
What counts as a missed call
- Rings that end in voicemail, at any hour
- After hours and weekend calls with no live coverage
- Calls abandoned on hold or in a phone tree
- Overflow calls that hit a busy front desk and bounce
- Web form and text inquiries that wait until morning
If you have never measured it, pull one week of call logs from your phone system and count. Most firms find the number is higher than the one they would have guessed, and clustered exactly where nobody is watching: lunch, evenings, and weekends. The industry figures on the personal injury intake page suggest why that clustering is expensive.
How firms shrink the number
Three moves, in order of leverage:
- Extend coverage to all hours. The after hours block is usually the largest single slice. The options are compared honestly in the after hours answering guide.
- Answer faster during hours. Overflow coverage for the front desk's busy moments, so the fourth ring is not a coin flip.
- Book on the first call. Whoever answers should put the consultation on the calendar there and then. Callback promises leak signed clients; the legal intake guide covers why.
Whether the answer is staff, a human service, or an AI agent, compare them with your eyes open: answering service vs AI receptionist.
Questions about the calculator
Where do the default numbers come from?
The defaults are deliberately conservative round numbers meant to start the estimate, not industry claims. Replace them with your firm's actuals; the point of the tool is your numbers, not ours.
Which practice areas does this fit?
Any consumer practice with inbound calls: personal injury, family, criminal defense, immigration, estate planning. Contingency practices should use expected value per signed case for the fee input.
Is the revenue at risk really recoverable?
Not all of it. Some callers are unqualified and some would never sign. The qualification and signing rate inputs exist precisely so you can discount for that, as aggressively as you think honest.
Now hear what answering them sounds like.
The demo line is a live AI intake agent, the same kind we build for firms. It is the other side of the arithmetic above.
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