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Receipts

Every number, sourced

We publish the source, the date and how much we trust it for every statistic on this site. If a number is not here, we do not use it.

  • Tier A · primary source
    named data provider or primary research
  • Tier B · industry-reported
    a single vendor or trade source, not cross-validated
  • Tier C · our estimate
    our own model — inputs shown

The registry

StatisticConfidenceSourcePublishedNotes
Up to 21% of calls to automotive service locations go unanswered, dropped, or mishandled
Tier A · primary source
Marchex conversation analyticsAggregated call outcomes across large, multi-location automotive service operators on the Marchex platform.
~10% of calls are still missed at the best-performing service locations
Tier A · primary source
Marchex conversation analyticsSame dataset as the 21% figure; Marchex calls ≤10% a healthy miss rate.
20–30% of inbound calls are missed by the average auto service department
Tier B · industry-reported
Auto Advisor Partners, citing Marchex call analyticsSecondary reporting of Marchex data. Marchex’s own 2026 post puts the ceiling at 21%; we show both.
86% of business callers who reach voicemail hang up without leaving a message
Tier B · industry-reported
Ainora, citing Forbes Consumer Communication Preferences Survey 2025 / BIA Advisory ServicesSmall-business general, not auto-specific.
3 in 4 callers who hit voicemail or no answer call another business instead
Tier B · industry-reported
Ainora, citing HubSpot State of Marketing 2026We could not locate this figure in HubSpot’s published report pages; kept at tier B for that reason.
158 appointment-related calls missed per month by the average dealership service department
Tier B · industry-reported
Flai (analysis of 600+ franchise service departments)Dealership-scale data; directional for independents. 216/month at the 75th percentile.
$853K–$1.17M in annual service revenue at risk per dealership store from missed calls
Tier B · industry-reported
Flai (analysis of 600+ franchise service departments)Dealership-scale; assumes ~$450 average repair order. Directional for independents.
$1,000–$3,200 per day of missed-call revenue exposure for an auto repair shop
Tier B · industry-reported
Ainora missed-call revenue modelVendor model: $200–$400 ticket × 5–8 missed calls/day ($260K–$832K annualized).
23% of calls to auto repair shops go unanswered during business hours
Tier B · industry-reported
AgentZap, citing Automotive Service AssociationVendor blog relaying ASA data; the ASA primary is not linked.
62% of callers whose call goes unanswered never call back
Tier B · industry-reported
AgentZap, citing automotive industry analysts
28% higher appointment booking rate when a call is answered within three rings
Tier B · industry-reported
AgentZap, citing automotive conversion studies
98% open rate for text messages
Tier B · industry-reported
Podium Automotive, citing GartnerGeneral SMS benchmark, not auto-specific.

Numbers we looked for and will not use

These are the plausible, useful figures that would be easy to invent. We could not find a real source, so they do not appear anywhere on this site.

  • share of independent shops that use Google Calendar or Outlook for scheduling

    No published dataset exists. Do not state or imply a figure without a commissioned survey or partner data.

    Last checked

  • auto-repair-specific AI receptionist market size

    Not separately published by any major research firm; only the broader voice-AI category is sized.

    Last checked

  • shops using ShopsConnect.AI book X% more appointments

    We have no instrumented data from real customers yet. Blocked until we do.

    Last checked

Dropped during verification

Numbers from our own research notes that did not survive a check against the page they were attributed to.

  • leads contacted within 5 minutes convert 9x better (Cox / HBR)

    Not present on the cited AgentZap or Ainora pages; Ainora has a different 21x qualification stat (MIT/InsideSales).

  • ~90% of customers prefer text; only 20% answer unknown numbers

    Not present on the cited Podium page.

  • first-visit retention 30–40% at independents; elite 65%+

    Not present on the cited Autoflow page (2023), which only carries generic retention economics.

  • email open rate 20–30% (as the SMS comparison)

    Not present on the cited Podium page.