After 6 PM, Small Shops Book 9 Calls in 100

The 9-in-100 figure comes from ServiceTitan's analysis of call records at more than 3,000 US and Canadian trade businesses. Small shops book about 24 percent of inbound calls during the day. After 6 PM, that falls to 9 percent. Same phone, same town, same kinds of jobs. What changes at 6 PM is whether anything answers.

01

Where the 9-in-100 number comes from

This is a measured number, not a slogan. ServiceTitan pulled inbound call data from more than 3,000 trade businesses across the US and Canada and tracked how many calls became booked jobs. The typical shop booked 42 percent. Shops running fewer than five technicians booked 24 percent. And once the clock passed 6 PM, the small-shop rate fell to 9 in 100.

Sit with the shape of that for a second. It is the industry grading its own homework, at scale, off real phone records. Nobody surveyed owners about how they feel about their phones. The data is what the phones actually did.

One caution in the other direction, because honest numbers cut both ways: 24 percent and 9 percent are averages across thousands of shops. Your shop's evening rate might be better, especially if you are still forwarding to a cell and still picking up. The only way to know is your own call log, and the arithmetic below works the same whatever your number turns out to be.

02

What the daytime rate says the evening rate could be

The useful move is to read the two numbers against each other. The same small shops booking 9 in 100 evening calls book 24 in 100 during the day. Daytime is the control group. It tells you what those callers, those jobs, and that phone are worth when a person actually picks up.

So the evening gap is 15 jobs per 100 evening calls: work that demonstrably exists, called your number, and did not land. At HomeAdvisor's $350 average repair ticket, closing even that average-to-average gap is worth about $5,250 per 100 evening calls. Your phone may take a year to collect 100 evening calls or a season, but the rate is the rate. We run this same style of arithmetic end to end in The Math of a Missed Call if you want the full worked ledger.

Nothing about the evening jobs is worth less, either. The furnace that died at 7 PM pays the same invoice as the one that died at 10 AM. The 9-in-100 shop is not selling worse. It is answering less.

03

Why evening callers are more serious, not less

The tire-kicker theory says evening calls are browsers and time-wasters, so missing them costs little. The clock argues the opposite.

Think about who is on the phone at 7:30 PM. Homeowners are back from work, which means the problem discovered at 6:45 is being dialed at 6:50. Emergencies that built all day finally have a witness. The AC that limped through the afternoon quits during dinner, on the day's heat. Meanwhile the casual comparison shopper, the one collecting three quotes for a project two months out, makes those calls from a desk at 11 AM. Evening filters your call mix toward urgency, not away from it.

Industry estimates compiled from ServiceTitan and CallRail data put 35 to 47 percent of inbound home-services calls outside business hours. Treat the exact share as an estimate; the direction is not in dispute. A meaningful slice of everything your phone produces arrives exactly when the booking rate is 9.

04

What answering the other 91 is worth at your ticket

Nobody books 100 in 100, so forget the other 91. The honest target is the other 15: the distance between the evening rate and the daytime rate those same shops already prove is achievable. Then run your own numbers. Count last month's calls after 6 PM. Multiply by 0.15. Multiply by your average ticket. That figure, monthly, is what the gap between 9 and 24 costs a shop like yours, using nothing but the industry's own measurements and your phone log.

Closing the gap does not require anyone to work evenings. As The 168-Hour Week lays out, the problem was never your people. It is that a 40-hour desk covers 23.7 percent of the clock. An AI receptionist is built to answer in the first ring at 7 PM and 2 AM alike, asks what a dispatcher would ask, and turns a yes on the phone into a job on the calendar. It says what it is on the line, and complicated jobs get an estimate visit instead of a guess.

Your evening calls are already happening. Get in touch and we will put your call volume against these rates and tell you straight whether the math works for your shop.

QUESTIONS

Common questions

What percentage of after-hours calls get booked?

ServiceTitan's study of call records from more than 3,000 trade businesses found small shops booking about 24 percent of inbound calls overall, and just 9 percent after 6 PM. The gap is coverage, not demand. The evening phone rings with the same jobs. Fewer of them get answered.

Are evening callers serious buyers?

Often more serious. A person calling a plumber at 8 PM has a problem that would not wait for morning. The casual price shopper calls at 11 AM. The homeowner with a live emergency calls the moment it happens, and the clock does not schedule emergencies inside business hours.