The call you miss at eight in the evening

If the phone rings while your hands are inside an engine or you are serving a customer, you may not get to answer it. If it rings outside opening hours, the reply will have to wait. The log leaves a number, but may not tell you what the person needed.

The useful question is what happens next: whether you can call back, whether there is a message and whether the person had another channel to explain what they wanted. You do not need to invent a percentage of lost sales to review that process.

Google's number does not count what it seems to

If you have a Business Profile, its Performance report includes a metric called “Calls”. Google defines it as clicks on the profile's call button. It does not tell you which calls rang or were answered, and the same person can click more than once.

Also, Business Profile call history stopped being available on 31 July 2024. To review unanswered calls, use the logs from your phone, switchboard or telephone service, depending on what you have. These are not a count of sales opportunities: they may also include repeat calls, wrong numbers or suppliers.

A written message leaves a different record

Someone who writes can explain what they want without being available at the same time as you. That can make a later reply easier. It does not mean that everyone who calls prefers to write or will switch channels after seeing one on your website.

Before adding automation, decide where the message will arrive, who will review it and what response time you can maintain. Publishing a channel nobody attends to only moves the problem. Outside opening hours, the notice should explain when a person can step in.

If you automate replies through WhatsApp Business Platform, its policy permits automation within the 24-hour window and requires clear, direct routes to human support. Accepted routes include, among others, phone, email and transfer to an agent. The requirement does not amount to promising that a person is available at any hour.

This week's check

For seven days, record three things separately:

• Unanswered calls logged by your telephone system, distinguishing repeats where you can.
• Clicks to call in Google's report for the same period.
• What people say when you call them back and ask whether writing would have suited them.

Do not subtract the second figure from the first: they measure different events and do not form a reliable funnel. The third gathers answers from people you have spoken to; it does not represent everyone who called.

A week can give you clues about what to try. If several people needed to send a photo or explain a query outside opening hours, a written channel is worth testing. If they preferred to deal with it by phone, look at callbacks or phone coverage. None of those observations guarantees recovering every contact; they do let you choose the next change with more than an impression to go on.