Skip to content
optniai

Free tool

What are missed calls costing your practice?

Two numbers you already know. No email, no signup, no result held hostage behind a form.

9

Includes rings-out during open hours, not just after close.

$450

Recoverable per month

$63,000

≈ 140 visits a month your front desk never got the chance to book

Estimate only: 26 business days × 60% of missed calls recovered. Your own numbers will differ — this is a sizing tool, not a forecast.

In short

To calculate what missed calls cost a medical practice, multiply missed calls per day by working days per month, by the share of callers who would have booked, by the average value of a patient. A practice missing nine calls a day, working 26 days, converting a conservative 60%, with a patient worth $450, is leaving roughly $63,000 a month on the table. The figure is invisible in normal reporting because an unanswered call generates no record — which is exactly why it goes unmanaged.

By practice type

What one booked patient is typically worth

Use these as a starting point if you are not sure what to enter. Your own figures are better.

Practice typeTypical patient value
Med Spas$600See how it works →
Chiropractic Practices$320See how it works →
Veterinary Clinics$280See how it works →
Dental Practices$450See how it works →
Optometry Practices$290See how it works →
Physical Therapy Clinics$240See how it works →
Dermatology Practices$380See how it works →
Plastic Surgery Practices$1,200See how it works →

Questions

About the maths

Multiply the number of calls you miss per day by your working days, by the share that would have booked, by what a patient is worth. For a practice missing nine calls a day with a $450 patient value, that is roughly $63,000 a month in opportunity — of which a conservative share is genuinely recoverable. The reason it feels invisible is that a missed call leaves no record anywhere in your reporting.

Industry research on service businesses consistently finds around 85% of people who reach voicemail never call back, and about 78% of customers hire whoever responds first. So the realistic assumption is not that they will try again later — it is that they are already talking to someone else.

Because claiming 100% would be dishonest. Some callers are wrong numbers, some are vendors, some were never going to book. Sixty percent is a deliberately conservative estimate of the share an always-available front desk converts — your own rate may be higher.

More than owners expect, because the count includes rings-out during open hours, not just after-hours calls. Research on service businesses has found roughly three quarters of inbound calls going unanswered. Your phone system's report on unanswered inbound calls is the place to check your own number.

Now hear the thing that fixes it

Ava answers every one of those calls. Thirty seconds on the phone with her and you will know whether the number above is recoverable.