A homeowner gets home from work at 5:30pm. They walk into the kitchen and step in a puddle. The dishwasher is leaking. They grab their phone, Google "plumber near me," and start calling. It's 5:45pm.
The first plumber's phone rings four times and goes to a voicemail that says "our office hours are 8am to 5pm." The second one does the same thing. The third one picks up, asks a few questions about the leak, and books a visit for the next morning. That plumber just captured a $300-$1,200 job. The first two didn't even know it was available.
This happens hundreds of thousands of times every evening across the country. The contractor's day ends at 5pm. The homeowner's day of noticing problems begins at 5pm. There's a massive gap between when contractors stop answering and when customers start calling, and it's leaking money.
When customers actually call contractors
Most contractors think of their phone volume as a 8am-5pm thing. The data tells a different story. Here's when calls actually come in for a typical home service business:
| Time Window | % of Total Calls | Typical Answer Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 8am - 12pm | 30% | 40-50% |
| 12pm - 5pm | 30% | 30-40% |
| 5pm - 9pm | 25% | 5-10% |
| 9pm - 8am | 10% | Under 5% |
| Weekends | 15-20% of weekly total | 10-15% |
Look at that 5pm-9pm window. A quarter of all calls come during those four hours. And the answer rate drops to single digits. That's not a small gap. That's a quarter of incoming business hitting a wall every single day.
Add in weekends and late-night emergency calls, and roughly 40-45% of all inbound calls arrive when nobody is answering the phone. Nearly half the demand for contractor services goes to voicemail.
Why so many calls come after hours
It's not random. There are specific, predictable reasons why customers call contractors in the evening:
1. They just got home from work
The majority of homeowners work 9-5 jobs. They can't call a plumber from their office during a meeting. They notice the problem in the morning, think about it during the day, and make the call when they get home. Peak calling time for non-emergency home service requests is 5:30-7:30pm.
2. The problem just became visible
Nobody notices a slow drain at 10am when they're at work. They notice it at 6pm when they're trying to cook dinner and the kitchen sink won't drain. Nobody feels the uneven heating at noon. They feel it at 8pm when the bedroom is freezing. Problems reveal themselves in the evening when people are actually using their homes.
3. Emergencies don't respect business hours
A pipe doesn't burst at a convenient time. A furnace doesn't die on a Tuesday at 2pm. The AC unit doesn't fail at 10am. These things happen at 11pm on a Friday, at 6am on a Sunday, at 2am on a Wednesday. Emergency calls are inherently after-hours events. And they're the highest-value calls a contractor can receive.
4. Online research happens at night
Google search data shows that home service searches peak between 7pm and 10pm. Homeowners research contractors, read reviews, look at pricing, and then pick up the phone. The entire decision-making process happens in the evening. By the time they're ready to call, most contractor offices are dark.
5. Couples make decisions together
One spouse notices the problem. They wait for the other to get home. They discuss it over dinner. They agree to call someone. It's now 7pm. Both people are involved in the decision, but the window when both are available is -- surprise -- after business hours.
The 5pm cliff. Call volume doesn't gradually taper off after 5pm. For most contractors, it stays strong through 8pm and then tapers. But the answer rate falls off a cliff at 5:01pm. That creates a 3-hour window where demand is high and supply is zero. That's prime revenue just evaporating.
What happens to after-hours calls that go unanswered
The assumption is that callers will leave a voicemail and the contractor can call them back in the morning. Here's what actually happens:
- 80-85% do NOT leave a voicemail. They hang up and call the next contractor on Google. The lead is gone in under 30 seconds.
- Of the 15-20% who do leave a voicemail, roughly half have already called and booked with someone else by the time the contractor calls back the next morning.
- Net result: A contractor who misses an after-hours call has roughly a 7-10% chance of ever converting that lead. The other 90% are gone permanently.
Think about what that means for a contractor who gets 8 calls after 5pm each weekday. That's 40 calls per week. At a 90% loss rate, 36 of those leads are gone forever. At an average job value of $400 (for a service call) to $8,000+ (for a replacement or major repair), even the conservative math is brutal.
The real cost by trade
The dollar impact varies by trade because job values vary. Here's what after-hours missed calls really cost, using conservative estimates of 6-10 missed after-hours calls per day:
| Trade | Avg Job Value | After-Hours Calls/Day | Monthly Revenue Lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC | $350 service / $8,000-$15,000 install | 8-12 | $8,000-$25,000+ |
| Plumbing | $250 service / $5,000-$20,000 repipe | 6-10 | $5,000-$18,000+ |
| Electrical | $200 service / $3,000-$10,000 panel | 5-8 | $4,000-$12,000+ |
| Roofing | $500 repair / $8,000-$25,000 replacement | 4-6 | $5,000-$20,000+ |
These aren't theoretical numbers. They're based on industry call volume data and average conversion rates. A busy HVAC company during summer can easily lose $25,000+ per month in after-hours calls that went to voicemail. That's $300,000 per year. For a company doing $1-2M in revenue, that's a 15-30% revenue increase they're leaving on the table.
The emergency call problem
After-hours calls fall into two categories, and they need different handling:
Non-emergency calls (70-80% of after-hours volume)
"I'd like to schedule a furnace tune-up." "Can I get a quote for a bathroom remodel?" "My outlet stopped working -- not urgent but I'd like someone to look at it this week."
These calls need someone to answer, have a brief conversation, and book an appointment. That's it. The caller doesn't need a tech dispatched right now. They just need to feel heard, get a time slot, and hang up knowing someone is coming.
Emergency calls (20-30% of after-hours volume)
"There's water coming through my ceiling." "I smell gas." "My heat is out and it's 15 degrees." "The power went out in half my house and I see sparking."
These calls need immediate action. Not a callback in the morning. Not a text. Not a voicemail. The homeowner needs a technician, and they need one now. These are also the highest-value calls -- emergency service rates are typically 1.5-2x standard rates, and they almost always lead to a larger repair or replacement.
Emergency calls after hours are gold. A plumber who responds to a midnight pipe burst is looking at $500-$1,500 for the emergency visit alone, plus $3,000-$15,000 for the repair work that follows. The homeowner will remember that response for years and refer friends, family, and neighbors. One emergency call properly handled can generate $10,000+ in lifetime customer value.
The challenge is that most after-hours solutions can't distinguish between these two categories. A voicemail treats a "schedule a tune-up" call the same as a "my basement is flooding" call. An answering service takes a message for both. Neither gets the response it needs.
After-hours options: what actually works
Here are the realistic options for handling after-hours calls, ranked from least effective to most effective:
Voicemail (what most contractors use now)
Cost: Free. Effectiveness: Terrible. You already know the stats. 80-85% of callers don't leave a message. The ones who do are likely to book with someone else before morning. Voicemail is not an after-hours strategy. It's the absence of one.
Missed call text back
Cost: $30-$100/month. Better than voicemail -- at least the caller gets an immediate response. But texting can't handle emergencies. Nobody is going to text back-and-forth about their flooded basement. And scheduling over text takes 5-10 messages, at which point many people drop off. Good supplement. Bad primary strategy.
Traditional answering service
Cost: $200-$1,000+/month. A real person answers, which is good. But they can't book appointments (they don't have access to the contractor's calendar). They can't dispatch techs for emergencies (they just relay a message). And per-minute pricing means those 8pm calls cost just as much as daytime calls. Better than voicemail. Worse than it should be for the price.
On-call rotation
Cost: Overtime pay ($30-$75/hour). Works for emergencies if you have a team large enough to rotate. But nobody wants to answer routine "can I schedule a tune-up" calls at 9pm on their night off. Burns out your techs fast. Only viable for actual emergencies, and only if you have 3+ techs who can rotate.
AI receptionist with after-hours capability
Cost: $29-$799/month depending on the provider. Answers every call 24/7 with a natural-sounding voice. The best ones can book appointments directly on your calendar during the call. Handles unlimited simultaneous calls. Trade-specific options understand HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing terminology.
The critical feature for after-hours: emergency dispatch. The top AI receptionists can identify an emergency, immediately call the on-call technician, and conference them with the homeowner -- all within 30 seconds. Non-emergency calls get an appointment booked for the next available slot. Emergency calls get a tech dispatched right now.
| Solution | Monthly Cost | Books Appointments | Emergency Dispatch | Answer Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | Free | No | No | 0% |
| Text back | $30-$100 | Over text (slow) | No | N/A (text) |
| Answering service | $200-$1,000+ | No (message) | Message relay | 90%+ |
| On-call rotation | $2,000-$5,000 | Sometimes | Yes | 60-80% |
| AI receptionist | $29-$799 | During the call | Yes (30 sec) | 100% |
The bottom line
The contractor business is one of the few industries where 40% of demand arrives after the business "closes." That's not a quirk. It's a structural feature of the market. Homeowners work during the day. They deal with home problems at night. This isn't going to change.
The contractors who recognize this and put something in place to answer after-hours calls are capturing revenue that the majority of their competitors are sending to voicemail. It doesn't require a huge investment. It doesn't require hiring a night shift. It requires acknowledging that the phone matters just as much at 7pm as it does at 10am -- and acting accordingly.
The math is straightforward. If a contractor misses 6-8 after-hours calls per day and each of those calls is worth $350-$8,000, even capturing 30-40% of those leads adds up to tens of thousands per month. Against a solution that costs $200-$800/month, the ROI is not a close call.
Every contractor has a daytime strategy, even if it's imperfect. Very few have an after-hours strategy. That gap is where the money is.
Hear how after-hours calls get handled.
Call Jessica right now -- even at 2am. Tell her your heat is out or your basement is flooding. See how she responds. That's what your customers get, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.