Appointment no-show cost calculator
Revenue lost to no-shows = appointments × (1 − show rate) × close rate × job value. Set 48 appointments at a 65% show rate and 17 never happen; at a 35% close rate on $9,500 jobs that is about $55,860 a month, or $670,320 a year.
What the empty slots cost
Everything that made it onto the calendar.
Of those, how many the homeowner was actually present for. Count cancellations as misses.
Of the sit-downs you get, how many sign.
16.8 appointments a month that never happened, carrying 5.9 jobs of expected revenue with them.
The jobs those missed appointments would have produced at your close rate.
Acquisition already paid for. None of it recoverable.
Close rate times job value. What one empty driveway costs.
1.7 more jobs a month from the same appointments and the same ad spend.
From a confirmation sequence, not from a bigger budget.
How to use this calculator
Take one month. Enter how many appointments went on the calendar, what share of them the homeowner was actually there for, what share of those sit-downs closed, and what an average job bills. The results update as you type.
Count cancellations as misses. A homeowner who cancels the night before is cheaper than one who simply is not home, because the slot can be refilled — but the marketing spend that produced the appointment is gone either way, and the job is equally unsold. Splitting them out is useful for working out why; blending them is correct for working out how much.
A worked example
An HVAC company sets 48 appointments a month. The homeowner is there for 65% of them — about 31 sit-downs, and 17 wasted trips. Of the 31, 35% close, giving 11 jobs at $9,500, or about $103,740 a month.
Those 17 missed appointments would have produced about 6 more jobs at the same close rate. That is roughly $55,860 a month and $670,320 a year of revenue that never had a chance to be sold. Each individual no-show carries $3,325 of expected revenue with it.
Lift the show rate from 65% to 75% and the same 48 appointments produce 36 sit-downs instead of 31 — about 1.7 more jobs a month, or $15,960. Across a year that is $191,520 from a text-message sequence, with no change to the ad budget at all.
What a good and a bad result look like
- Show rate in the high eighties or better. Your confirmation process is working. The lever has been pulled — look at close rate or lead volume next.
- Show rate in the seventies. Normal for a business with reminders but no structured confirmation. There is a clear ten points available here.
- Show rate around two-thirds or below. The largest single leak in the business, almost certainly bigger than anything happening in the ad account. Fix this before increasing spend.
- You cannot answer the show rate question. The most common situation, and the most expensive. Track it for thirty days before making any other marketing decision.
The common mistake
Treating no-shows as bad luck. They are almost never people who never intended to be there. They are appointments booked ten days out, appointments set with the spouse who is not the decision maker, appointments made after a four-hour delay by which point the homeowner had already talked to two other contractors, and appointments nobody confirmed. Every one of those is a process, and processes can be changed.
The second mistake is responding to a low show rate by buying more leads to compensate. That multiplies the loss: more appointments at the same show rate means more wasted acquisition spend and more wasted drive time. The fix is upstream, and it is far cheaper.
Most no-shows start with a slow first response — the speed to lead calculator estimates what that delay is doing. The cost per booked job calculator puts the no-show loss next to every other stage of the funnel, and the crew capacity calculator checks you can deliver the extra jobs a better show rate produces.
Common questions
What does an appointment no-show actually cost?
It costs the acquisition spend behind the appointment, the drive time and salary of whoever drove out, and the revenue from the job that would have been sold. The last of those is the biggest by a wide margin: at a 35% close rate and a $9,500 average job, every no-show carries about $3,325 of expected revenue that never gets a chance to happen.
How do you calculate revenue lost to no-shows?
Multiply appointments set by one minus the show rate to get missed appointments, then multiply that by the close rate and by average job value. Forty-eight appointments at a 65% show rate leaves about 17 no-shows; at a 35% close rate and $9,500 a job that is roughly $56,000 of monthly revenue, or close to $670,000 across a year.
What is a show rate?
Show rate is the share of booked appointments where the homeowner was actually present when the estimator arrived. It is measured on appointments set, not on appointments confirmed, and it counts cancellations inside the window as well as silent no-shows. It is one of the least-tracked numbers in contracting and usually one of the most expensive.
Why is show rate cheaper to fix than lead volume?
Because it costs a process rather than a budget. Buying twenty percent more leads costs twenty percent more money every month forever. Lifting show rate by ten points costs a confirmation sequence that is built once, and it improves the return on every lead already being paid for rather than adding new ones on top of a leaking funnel.
What causes appointment no-shows?
Mostly forgetfulness and cooling interest rather than deliberate cancellation. Long gaps between booking and appointment, a slow first response that leaves the homeowner shopping elsewhere in the meantime, no confirmation after booking, and appointments set with someone who is not the decision maker all produce the same result. Very few no-shows are people who never intended to be there.
How do you improve show rate?
Book appointments as close to the enquiry as scheduling allows, confirm by text at the moment of booking, remind the day before and again on the morning, and have the estimator call from the truck when leaving. Making the confirmation ask for a reply rather than just stating the time also surfaces the cancellations early, which turns a wasted drive into a rebooking.
Should cancelled appointments count as no-shows?
For this calculation, count anything that did not result in a sit-down with the homeowner. A cancellation with two days notice is cheaper than a silent no-show because the slot can be refilled, but the acquisition cost is spent either way and the job is equally unsold. Tracking them separately is useful for diagnosis; blending them is correct for measuring lost revenue.
What is a realistic show rate to aim for?
Well-run operations with fast follow-up and a confirmation sequence run substantially higher than businesses relying on the homeowner to remember, and the gap between those two states is usually worth more than any change to ad spend. Rather than chasing a published benchmark, measure your own rate for one month and treat ten points of improvement as the near-term target.
Keep going
The upstream cause of most no-shows: how long the homeowner waited to hear from you.
Free tool Cost Per Booked Job CalculatorThe full funnel, including what you spent on appointments nobody attended.
Free tool Crew Capacity CalculatorBefore chasing more appointments, check the crews can deliver the jobs they produce.
Empty driveways.
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