How much do missed calls cost a restaurant?
A simple way to work out what unanswered phone calls cost your restaurant each month, with a worked example using typical UK figures.
Every restaurant misses calls. The phone rings during the Friday rush, before you open, or after you've locked up, and nobody can get to it. Some of those callers leave a voicemail. Many don't. They ring the next place on their list.
The good news is that you don't need a consultant to work out what that costs. You need about a week of call history and four numbers.
The short answer
Missed bookings per month = missed calls a day × share that wanted a table × average bill × 30
For a typical independent restaurant missing two calls a day, where half of those callers wanted to book and a table spends £50, that's roughly £1,500 a month in bookings that went somewhere else.
Your numbers will be different, so here's how to find them.
Step 1: Count your missed calls
Most restaurants underestimate this, because a missed call leaves no trace unless you look for it.
- Landline: most providers show missed and unanswered calls in their app or online account. If you're on BT, look in the My BT app under your call history.
- Mobile: your phone's recent calls list shows missed calls with the time.
- Booking line through a VoIP or hosted system: there's usually a call report in the admin panel.
Count for a full week, including a weekend. Then divide by seven to get a daily figure. Note when the calls were missed, too. You'll usually find they bunch up at the same times: the start of service, peak hours, and after closing.
Step 2: Estimate how many wanted a table
Not every caller wants to book. Some are asking about opening hours, parking or whether you do gluten-free. A fair way to estimate is to think about the calls you do answer in a normal week and roughly what share are bookings or changes to bookings.
If you're not sure, 50% is a reasonable starting point for a restaurant that takes reservations. Calls during service and in the evening lean more towards bookings; calls in the morning lean more towards questions.
Step 3: Work out your average bill per booking
This is your average spend per head multiplied by your average party size.
Industry figures put average spend per head for UK casual dining somewhere in the £22 to £35 range, and lower outside London. A table of two at £25 a head gives £50 a booking. If you run a set menu, a steakhouse or a fine-dining room, use your own figures, as they'll be considerably higher.
Step 4: Put it together
Here's the worked example from above, laid out:
| Figure | |
|---|---|
| Missed calls a day | 2 |
| Share that wanted a table | 50% |
| Average bill per booking | £50 |
| Days in a month | about 30 |
| Missed bookings a month | about £1,500 |
You can play with your own numbers in the missed-call check on our home page. It does the same sum and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
The costs that don't show up in the sum
The calculation above only counts the first booking. In practice, a missed call often costs more:
- The customer who never comes back. If someone books elsewhere and has a good night, you may have lost a regular, not a single meal.
- Interruptions during service. When staff do answer, they're leaving a table, the pass or the bar. That has a cost in slower service, even if it's harder to measure.
- Voicemails nobody returns in time. A message left at 7pm asking for a table that night is usually worthless by the time someone listens to it.
What you can do about it
There are several options, and the right one depends on how many calls you're missing and when:
- A clear voicemail message that gives your opening hours and points people to online booking. Free, but many callers still hang up.
- Diverting calls to another phone when the main line isn't answered. We've written a guide on how to divert your restaurant's calls when you're busy.
- An answering service, where someone answers on your behalf. Read our comparison of AI receptionists, answering services and voicemail.
- An AI receptionist like Willeau, which answers every call in your restaurant's name and books tables straight into your diary.
If your missed bookings come to less than the cost of the fix, the honest answer is not to bother. That's true for us too: if your phone rarely rings, Willeau probably isn't worth it for you.