Sources & methodology

Last updated: July 2026

We’d rather cite a modest number we can stand behind than an inflated one. Below are the industry sources behind the stats on our site. More to the point, the free scan replaces every estimate with your shop’s actual numbers.

Declined & deferred work

“Around half of shop owners report customers delaying or declining recommended work.” Source: OEC industry survey, reported by Ratchet+Wrench (2026). Roughly 50% of shop owners cited customers deferring or declining recommended repairs. This is the back-catalog leak our Found-Money scan measures directly.

Missed calls

“Up to 1 in 5 calls to a shop go unanswered.” Source: Marchex (May 2026), automotive-specific conversation-analytics data across multi-location service operators. Up to about 21% of calls were missed or failed, and even the best-performing locations averaged around 10%.

The cost of a missed call

“85% of callers who reach voicemail never call back; roughly $1,200 in lost work per missed call.” Source: Invoca, analysis of 60M+ calls. About 27% of home-services calls go unanswered, 85% of callers who hit voicemail never call back, fewer than 3% leave a message, and the average value lost per missed call is around $1,200.

Our calculator is an estimate. The scan is not.

The “do the math on your shop” calculator gives a directional estimate of your phone leak, based on typical patterns for a shop your size. It is not a measurement.

The free Found-Money scan is different: it reads your own export, whether that’s a declined-work report, plain invoice history, or a screenshot, and returns a real dollar figure and a prioritized list built from your data, not an industry average. No card, no signup required to see the number.

Questions or a better source?

If you have a source you trust more, or want the specific citations, email eric@axledash.com and I’ll share them.