Missed Call Statistics UK (2026)
How much are missed calls costing UK businesses in 2026? Cited stats on missed call rates, average lost revenue and sector breakdowns for small and mid sized SMEs.
Updated . Refreshed each quarter. Citations welcome.
Key statistics
estimated annual cost of missed business calls to the UK economy.
of UK consumers will not leave a voicemail if a business does not answer.
of UK small businesses say missed calls are their single biggest source of lost revenue.
About this report
Missed calls cost United Kingdom businesses billions of pounds every year. This page collects the most cited UK specific figures on missed call rates, lost revenue and the impact on small business operators. Each statistic carries a source and a year so it can be quoted accurately.
Where comparable UK figures do not exist we have flagged the global or United States equivalent and noted it inline. Every figure is attributed to the organisation that published it.
Each figure below shows the publisher and the year of publication, and the definition we use for a missed call is set out in the methodology section at the foot of the page.
Journalists, bloggers and analysts are welcome to quote any statistic on this page. We ask only that you link back to the original source.
Headline UK figures
estimated annual cost of missed business calls to the UK economy.
of UK SMBs say missed calls are their biggest source of lost revenue.
of inbound calls to UK SMBs go unanswered on the first attempt.
of UK consumers refuse to leave voicemail.
Consumer behaviour in the UK
of UK consumers refuse to leave a voicemail.
of UK consumers expect a response from a business inside one hour.
of UK consumers say they will switch to a competitor after a single missed call.
What it costs UK businesses to fix the problem
average fully loaded cost of a single part time UK receptionist.
per minute charged by leading UK human virtual receptionist services.
Methodology and citations
Every UK figure on this page comes from a named third party publisher, quoted from the most recent public edition available at the time of the last refresh.
A missed call on this page means an inbound call to a business that is not answered by a person, including calls that ring out, divert to voicemail or are abandoned while on hold. Publishers define this slightly differently, so figures from different sources are not strictly comparable and should be quoted with their own source attached.
Any figure that we could not trace back to a named, publicly available publisher has been removed rather than restated. We do not publish internal Boafo Agent performance figures on this page.
Third party UK figures are quoted from the most recent public report available at publication, including Ofcom, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Institute of Customer Service and BT Business.
Citation block
Copy this and use it in your article, deck or report. Replace the figure with the statistic you want to quote.
According to Boafo Agent's Missed Call Statistics UK (2026) (updated 2026-08-13), [statistic here]. Source: https://boafoagent.com/missed-call-statistics-uk
Frequently asked questions
How much do missed calls cost the UK economy?
BT Business and YouGov estimated the annual cost at around 30 billion pounds in their most recent UK SMB survey.
What is a missed call worth for a UK trades business?
It depends entirely on your average job value, and we do not publish an invented average. Work it out from your own numbers using the missed call cost calculator, which uses your job value and your own miss rate.
Why do UK consumers refuse to leave voicemails?
Ofcom data shows 69% of UK consumers will not leave a voicemail. The most cited reasons are an expectation of immediate response and a preference for text or web chat alternatives.
Are these figures UK specific?
All headline figures on this page are UK specific. Where a UK figure does not exist we have flagged the global or United States equivalent inline.
Can I quote these statistics?
Yes. Please cite the original source listed next to each figure.
How often is this page updated?
Once per quarter. The Updated date at the top of the page is the most recent refresh.
Where can I find UK customer service statistics?
See our companion page at /customer-service-statistics-uk for cited UK customer service data.
Do you have a downloadable version?
Email hello@boafoagent.com and we will send a CSV with sources and links.
Need a custom data pull?
We can run sector or region specific cuts of our internal benchmark data for journalists, analysts and customers. Get in touch and we will share methodology and a CSV.