10 Missed-Call Texts You Can Copy

You're twelve feet up a ladder with a bundle of shingles on your shoulder. Your phone buzzes in your pocket. You are not answering that, and you shouldn't.

The text that goes out in your place is what decides whether that caller waits for you or dials the next roofer. Here are ten you can copy, and how to pick the right one.

What a good missed-call text has in it

Every text on this page is built from the same three parts:

1. Your business name. They called three companies. Tell them which one this is.
2. A short, honest reason. "We're on a job" works. It tells them you're busy because people hire you.
3. One question. A question gets an answer. "We'll call you back soon" gets nothing.

It works because most callers won't leave you a voicemail. In one small business call report, 69% of callers who reached voicemail hung up without leaving a message.¹ But nearly all of them can read a text: Pew Research found that 91% of U.S. adults own a smartphone.²

Texts 1 to 4: the everyday ones

Swap in your own details wherever you see brackets.

Number 2 is for the one-truck shop.

Give a real time in numbers 3 and 4, and then keep it. "By 8 tomorrow" is a promise a customer will wait on. "Soon" isn't.

Texts 5 and 6: emergencies and full schedules

Only send number 5 if someone really will call back in minutes. If nobody is on call tonight, use number 3.

Texts 7 to 9: the ones that sort the job for you

A photo of the water heater label or the ceiling stain can save you a trip.

That's for roofers, painters and remodelers, where nearly every new call is someone asking for a number.

Use number 9 if you get a lot of calls from an hour away.

Text 10: the one nudge

The first nine go out on their own. This one you send yourself, once, later that day, if they haven't answered and you couldn't reach them by phone.

One nudge, not three.

Which one should you start with?

Don't set up all ten. Pick two:

• One for working hours. Number 1 for most shops, number 2 if it's just you, number 8 if you sell by estimate.
• One for after hours. Number 3, or number 5 if you take emergency calls at night.

Add the others when you need them. Number 6 goes on the week you get slammed and comes off when you catch up.

Whatever you pick, leave out the sales pitch. No coupons, no "ask about our fall special." They called with a problem, so talk about the problem.

The rules, in plain English

A missed-call text is a reply to somebody who just called you. Keep it that way.

Don't use those numbers for promotions unless the person said yes to that. And when someone tells you to stop, stop. CTIA, the wireless carriers' trade group, says senders should honor the standard STOP reply and also plain-language requests like "end," "cancel," "unsubscribe" and "quit."³

We're not lawyers, and texting rules change. Before you do more than answer the people who call you, check with your phone provider or an attorney.

The text buys you minutes, not the afternoon

The automatic text doesn't book the job. You do, when you reply. A Harvard Business Review study of online sales leads found that companies who reached out within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to have a real conversation with the buyer as those who waited even an hour longer.⁴ Those were web leads, not calls to a plumber, but the point holds: answer at your next break, not at the end of the day.

For what a missed call costs, read what happens when you miss a call from a new customer. Deciding between this and paying someone to pick up? See answering service vs. missed-call text back. And if you buy leads, the same fast reply wins there too: are paid leads worth it?

The bottom line

You can't answer the phone on a roof. You can make sure every caller hears from you before they've finished searching for someone else.

Pick one text for the day and one for the night. Put your business name in it, ask one question, and reply when you climb down.