Solutions
The call you missed was a job.
Busy line, no answer, after hours — those rings don't have to end in voicemail. Heyline picks them up, books what she can, and writes down the rest.
No card · No setup · Keep your number · No website? Start here
What happens to the calls you don't answer?
A call you don't answer goes to voicemail, where it stops being a job. Heyline answers the ones you miss instead. She books into your Google Calendar, answers what your website already covers, or takes a message and opens a call-back to-do — so every ring ends somewhere you can see it.
Put a number on it. Across 3,000+ US/CA trade shops, ServiceTitan's 2022 platform data puts the typical booking rate at 42% of inbound calls — and at 24% once the shop has fewer than five technicians. That gap is mostly a phone nobody could reach: it rings while you're in a crawlspace or driving between jobs.
ServiceTitan priced the other direction too. In a shop of 5 to 14 technicians, each five-point rise in booking rate is worth roughly $100,000 a year (ServiceTitan, 2022). No pitch closes that gap. Being reachable does.
That isn't an argument for hiring a front desk. It's an argument for making sure the phone gets answered by someone who can see your calendar.
- 42%of inbound calls booked at a typical trade shop
- 24%booked at shops with fewer than five technicians
- 58%of a typical shop's calls never become booked jobs
2022 ServiceTitan benchmark across 3,000+ US/CA trade shops; 58% = 100% minus the 42% booking rate
Decide with your ears — not a sales deck.
Paste your website and talk to your own receptionist, free, in your browser.
Where does each answered call end up?
Three honest endings for a new caller, and one more for a caller who already has an appointment. Each leaves a written record you can open later.
| The call | What she does | What lands in your inbox |
|---|---|---|
| Someone wants an appointment | Checks your Google Calendar, offers two or three real openings, then reads back the day, time, name and callback number | The event in your own Google Calendar, plus a recap email |
| A question your site already answers | Answers from what she read on your website — services, hours, service area, and the pricing you gave her | A two-line summary and the full transcript, marked Answered |
| A question she doesn't have | Tells the caller she doesn't want to guess, then takes their name and number | A message, a call-back to-do, and an email |
| A caller who is already booked | Looks up that caller's own appointment and reschedules or cancels it | An email the moment the appointment changes |
Your call log tags every call Booked, Answered, Message or Missed.
How do the calls you miss reach her?
Two ways, and you pick. Publish your Heyline number and she answers everything, or keep your own number and forward only the rings you don't pick up. The per-carrier codes are in the call forwarding guide.
Get a dedicated number
Heyline provisions one the moment you go live. Nothing to type in, and nothing to buy from a carrier.
Forward busy and no-answer
Copy one short code from your carrier's list and dial it. Calls you answer stay yours; only a busy line or an unanswered ring passes to her.
Call your own line to check
Ring your business number from another phone. When that test call reaches her instead of your voicemail, you're live.
Then she's on the line
Going live starts a 14-day trial with a card on file and 60 minutes included, about 25 calls. Building her and testing her in your browser costs nothing.
What would those missed calls have been worth?
Arithmetic beats a hunch. Take the calls you miss in a week, the share of answered calls that turn into jobs, and what an average job is worth to you. The missed-call calculator multiplies it out and shows you the month.
Use your own booking rate if you track it. If you don't, the figures above are a fair stand-in — around 42% for a typical shop, nearer 24% for a two-technician outfit (ServiceTitan, 2022).
The result is not a forecast. It assumes a missed call would have booked at the same rate as an answered one, and it can't tell a serious caller from a price-fisher. Treat it as the size of the question, not the answer.
What she never does with a missed call
She never calls or texts the person back. No reminders, no follow-ups. The callback is yours, and it's waiting on your to-do list with the number and the whole message.
She never transfers a live caller to your cell. If the answer needs you, she says so plainly and takes a message instead.
She never gets ahead of you when you forward. With busy and no-answer forwarding on, your own phone rings first, and only the ring it can't finish reaches her. Publish her number instead and she takes every ring — that's the one time she answers before you.
A price you never gave her stays unquoted — she offers a free estimate instead. She also never books past 14 days out, and never inside the next hour.
Frequently asked questions
How many calls does a small shop actually miss?
Nobody publishes a clean miss rate, so use booking rate instead. What ServiceTitan measured in 2022, across 3,000-plus trade shops in the US and Canada, is a booking rate: 42% at the typical shop, 24% where there are fewer than five technicians. The rest ring out, reach voicemail, or end without a job.
Does she take calls I could have answered?
No — not unless you set it up that way. With forwarding on, the only rings she gets are the ones your handset couldn't take: a busy line, or a call that rang out. Anything you pick up stays an ordinary call between you and the customer, and never reaches Heyline.
What if I'm on the other line?
Busy forwarding covers that. While you're on one call, the next caller doesn't get a busy tone or your voicemail — the ring passes to Heyline and she answers within two rings. She can book that second caller into your Google Calendar while you are still talking to the first one.
Will I still see who called?
Yes. Every call arrives with the number that dialed you, a short summary, its outcome chip (Booked, Answered, Message, Missed) and the whole transcript, in your dashboard and in an email. Callers who have reached you before appear by name on your Contacts page, with their history in one place.
The next one doesn't have to ring out.
Paste your website, hear her take a call, and decide from there.
No card · No setup · Keep your number · No website? Start here
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