After-hours inquiries are missed more often. The missed-call rate outside business hours is well above average (1.7–2.5×) compared with business hours. Calls at night or on weekend days are below average (0.5–0.9×) in likelihood of becoming a signed client, compared with all calls. The share of calls that arrive outside business hours is below average (10–25%).
Probative benchmarks, 2025–2026
Inquiries outside business hours
| What is measured | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Missed calls outside business hours compared with business hours | well above average (1.7–2.5×) |
| Calls at night or on weekend days compared with all calls | below average (0.5–0.9×) |
| Share of calls that arrive outside business hours | below average (10–25%) |
What does this mean for your firm?
- Cover the phone outside business hours, with a person or a service that can take the details and book a time.
- Check how many calls you miss after hours, and when.
- After-hours callers sign less often than the average caller, but they still sign, so do not treat the evening as dead time.
What would a better after-hours process look like?
Pick up, or call back within minutes, and record every missed call with its time. A voicemail that nobody opens until morning is a lost inquiry. Pair this with the speed-to-sign table, which shows how quickly most signings happen.
How do I read this table?
Business hours are a firm’s posted weekday opening hours. Everything else, including evenings, nights and weekend days, is outside business hours. This table also holds the share of web forms that arrive outside business hours, and it is not shown beside the call-length table.
Treat each tier as approximate, plus or minus one step. How the benchmarks are made and protected.
Cite this table
Cite this dataset: Probative Growth (2026). Probative benchmarks, 2025–2026 (v4.0.1) [Data set]. CC BY 4.0. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23735849. https://probativegrowth.com/research/benchmarks/calls-outside-hours/
How each figure is made and protected · Probative benchmarks, 2025–2026