44% of midday calls to East Coast cleaning companies went to voicemail. Not one was answered by AI.
Research by Legacy Business Partners. Published November 2026. Calls made November 11, 2026, between 12 and 3 pm.
We reached 18 East Coast cleaning and related service companies between 12 and 3 pm on November 11, 2026. 8 of them (44%) sent the call to voicemail, and not one call was answered by an AI receptionist or an answering service. A live person answered the other 10 (56%).
- 44% went to voicemail (8 of 18)
- 0 answered by an AI receptionist or answering service (0 of 18)
- 56% answered by a live person (10 of 18)
Results
| Outcome | Calls | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | 8 | 44% |
| AI receptionist or answering service | 0 | 0% |
| Live person answered | 10 | 56% |
The picture is similar on the strictest reading. Among the 13 cleaning and janitorial companies alone, 5 went to voicemail (38%) and 8 were answered by a person (62%).
By company size
The three smallest companies all went to voicemail. Above 10 employees, about a third did.
| Employees | Called | Voicemail | Live person |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 11 to 25 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| 26 to 49 | 8 | 3 | 5 |
Groups this small show a direction at most.
Answered is not the same as handled
None of the 10 answered calls reached the owner. Seven were turned into a message or an email request.
| What happened after someone picked up | Calls |
|---|---|
| Took a message or a callback number | 6 |
| “Not interested” | 2 |
| “Send an email” | 1 |
| Said the person asked for no longer works there | 1 |
These were outreach calls, so that says nothing about how the same office treats a prospective client. What carries over is the pattern: the person who answers is not the person who can decide, so the call becomes a note on someone's desk.
What it means
Our reading
Every answered call cost a person's time, and when no person was free the call went to a mailbox. None of the companies we reached had anything picking up the overflow. Our reading: these offices are spending staff time on the phone and still losing more than four callers in ten. Cleaning companies could be getting more out of the staff they already have.
How the test was run
- Sample: 18 East Coast service companies with under 50 employees, across 7 states. 13 are cleaning and janitorial companies. 5 are related cleaning services: 2 disinfection, 1 laundry, 1 garment care, 1 exterior cleaning.
- One call per company to the listed number, on November 11, 2026, between 12 and 3 pm.
- One caller logged each outcome in plain words. Notes were sorted into two outcomes afterward.
- Excluded: 6 further numbers that did not connect when dialed, and 1 call that reached a wrong number.
- No business or person is named.
Limits of this test
- This is an 18-call snapshot. With 18 calls, one call moves the voicemail rate by more than five points.
- The calls were made between 12 and 3 pm, likely the weakest stretch for a staffed office. The result does not describe the whole day.
- One attempt per company.
- Calls came from a number the business would not recognize. A new client is also an unrecognized number, so the experience is comparable but not identical.
- 5 of the 18 are related services, not janitorial or house cleaning. The cleaning-only figures are given above.
- Six of the 18 numbers are toll-free, so some may not be the line a local client would dial.
- Outcomes come from one caller's written notes, not reviewed recordings.
Check your own company
- Call your main line from a phone your office will not recognize.
- If someone answers, ask for a quote on weekly cleaning for a small office. Note whether they can start the quote, or whether you get a message pad or an email address.
- If no one answers, leave a voicemail and time how long the callback takes.
About this research
This test was run by Legacy Business Partners, the company behind Keystone. Disclosure: Keystone sells call answering, so we have a commercial interest in this topic. That is why the method, sample and limits are stated in full, and why every figure is a count from our own call log.
Legacy Business Partners, "The Missed-Call Test: 18 East Coast Cleaning Companies," Keystone, November 2026. https://keystoneapp.io/research/cleaning-missed-call-test
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