The calls that come when you're closed

Most small businesses are open somewhere around fifty hours a week. There are a hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week. That leaves roughly a hundred and eighteen hours where your phone still rings and nobody is there.

You cannot know how many of those calls happen, which is exactly the problem — a call nobody answers leaves no record. But you can reason about when they happen, and it is not random.

People book when they think of it, not when you're open

Somebody remembers on a Sunday evening that they need their car looked at before a trip. Somebody gets engaged on a Saturday night and starts ringing photographers. Somebody notices a leak at nine at night. None of those people are thinking about your opening hours; they are thinking about their problem, and they are working down a list.

Being second is the same as not existing

The uncomfortable part is that the list is short. Somebody with an urgent job rings until somebody picks up, and then stops ringing. The shop that answers is not usually the best one — it is the one that was available at the moment the person decided to act.

What you can actually do

Divert to a mobile out of hours, if you genuinely do not mind the phone going in the evening. Use an answering service, if the volume justifies the cost. Or use something automated that books straight into your calendar. What does not work is voicemail: it asks somebody who is already in a hurry to do extra work and wait longer.

The choice is yours. But those hundred and eighteen hours are real, and right now something is happening in them.