We called 50 East Coast electrical businesses at lunchtime. 28 never picked up.
Research by Legacy Business Partners. Published November 2026.
We called the main line of 50 East Coast electrical businesses between 12 and 3 pm. At 28 of them (56%), nobody and nothing took the call: it went to voicemail, rang out, hit a full mailbox, or returned a busy signal.
- 56% reached nobody (28 of 50)
- 26% answered by a live person (13 of 50)
- 6% answered by an AI receptionist (3 of 50)
The other six calls were five pick-ups that disconnected without speaking and one number out of service.
Results
| Outcome | Calls | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reached nobody | 28 | 56% |
| Live person answered | 13 | 26% |
| Picked up, then disconnected without speaking | 5 | 10% |
| AI receptionist answered | 3 | 6% |
| Number not in service | 1 | 2% |
The 28 that reached nobody were 19 voicemails, 6 lines that rang out on both attempts, 2 full mailboxes and 1 busy signal. At the two full mailboxes, a caller could not even leave a message. Setting aside the dead number, the rate is 28 of 49 working lines (57%).
By shop size
The misses concentrated in the middle: shops big enough to have an office, not big enough to have a staffed dispatch desk.
| Employees | Called | Reached nobody | Miss rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | 13 | 7 | 54% |
| 11 to 25 | 14 | 10 | 71% |
| 26 to 50 | 11 | 8 | 73% |
| 51 to 99 | 12 | 3 | 25% |
Each group is only 11 to 14 calls. Read this as a direction, not a rate.
What the answered calls sounded like
Of the 13 calls a person answered, 5 could only take a message or point the caller elsewhere ("send an email," "I'm not the decision maker," "I'll forward your number"). At one larger company the person who answered said the main office was closed during the midday window. Three businesses answered with an AI receptionist; in one logged case it took down the caller's number.
How the test was run
- Sample: 50 companies from a contact list of East Coast electrical-category businesses with under 100 employees, across 11 states and DC.
- One call per business to the listed main line, between 12 and 3 pm. Lines that rang out with no voicemail were tried a second time.
- One caller logged each outcome in plain words. Notes were sorted into five outcomes afterward.
- "Reached nobody" means voicemail, rang out twice, mailbox full, or busy signal.
- The five pick-up-and-disconnect calls and the out-of-service number are not counted as misses.
- No business or person is named.
Limits of this test
- Lunch was chosen on purpose. It is likely the weakest stretch for a staffed office, so this does not describe the whole day.
- One attempt per business, except where a line rang out.
- Calls came from a number the business would not recognize. A new customer is also an unrecognized number, so the experience is comparable but not identical.
- By name and industry tag, about a dozen of the 50 are adjacent businesses such as lighting makers, building-supply retailers, flooring and security. Removing those 12 leaves 38 businesses, of which 23 reached nobody (61%).
- If the five pick-up-and-disconnect calls were counted as failures, the figure would be 33 of 50 (66%).
- Outcomes come from one caller's written notes, not reviewed recordings.
- This is a 50-call snapshot, not an industry rate.
Run this test on your own shop
- Call your main line at 12:30 from a phone your office will not recognize.
- If someone answers, ask to book a panel inspection. Note whether they can book it or only take a message.
- 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 Midday Missed-Call Test: 50 East Coast Electrical Businesses," Keystone, November 2026. https://keystoneapp.io/research/midday-missed-call-test
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