Do customers still leave voicemails?

If you search this question, you will find confident numbers, such as 80% or 85% of callers not leaving a message. We checked where those numbers come from. we could not trace them to an original study we could open, so I am not repeating them. This post sticks to what can be sourced and says where the gaps are.

What is the best number we actually have?

The one figure we could trace to its source is from a 2016 report by Moneypenny, a company that sells answering services. It surveyed 300 micro businesses with up to nine employees and looked at call data from 10,000 businesses. It reported that 69% of callers did not leave a voicemail message.¹

There are good reasons to be careful with it. The study is a decade old. It was run by a company that benefits from the conclusion. The fieldwork details are not published. Use it as one data point, not as a rule.

Do small businesses still send calls to voicemail?

The same report found that 71% of the small businesses surveyed let calls go to voicemail, while 29% let calls ring out.¹ That tells you how common voicemail was as the default. It does not tell you how many callers used it.

Why would a caller skip the voicemail?

The reasons are easy to see in everyday behavior, even without a statistic.

• Phones are in every pocket. Pew's 2026 survey found 91% of U.S. adults own a smartphone.² A caller with a phone in hand can try another business in seconds.
• The goal is a result, not a message. Someone calling about a booking wants a time on the calendar. A voicemail promises a conversation later.
• Urgent problems do not wait. A caller with a problem tonight is unlikely to sit by the phone for your reply.
• Many voicemail boxes are full or generic. A caller who hears a default greeting cannot tell whether anyone will listen.

These are reasonable inferences, not measured percentages. They explain why the old advice to "just check your voicemail" is thin.

Does it matter if only some callers leave a message?

It matters a lot, because you cannot see the ones who did not. A caller who hangs up leaves a missed-call entry at best. The job disappears without any record of what it was worth.

Google gives a hint about how seriously platforms treat this. In Local Services Ads, a missed call during business hours counts as a valid lead if the customer stays on the line for more than 20 seconds.³ Callers who wait that long are real prospects, and some of them do not leave a message afterward.

What should a voicemail box do for you?

Voicemail still has a place. It catches people who prefer to leave a message, and it works as a record. To make it useful:

• Record a greeting in your own words, with your business name, your hours and what to do in an emergency.
• Offer a text option if you can read texts, so the caller has a second path.
• Clear the box regularly, since a full box turns callers away.
• Return voicemails the same day, in the order they arrived.

Treat voicemail as the fallback, not the front door.

What works better than hoping for a message?

Pick up the call. When a caller reaches a person who answers in your business's name, they can book, ask a question or describe the problem right then. You get the details, and they get a result. The call turns into a booked job or a clear message with name, number and need.

BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 U.S. adults found that after reading good reviews, 20% of consumers contact the business and 20% make an appointment.⁴ Those are people who chose you before they dialed. They deserve a live answer.

B&G Solutions answers calls in your business's name, around the clock, and books jobs into your calendar or booking app. You get the outcome of each call rather than a box of messages to sort.

Common questions

What percent of callers leave a voicemail?

There is no reliable recent public figure. A 2016 survey by an answering-service vendor found 69% of callers who reached voicemail did not leave a message, but it is old and vendor-run.

Why do so many online articles give different numbers?

Many repeat figures from other blogs without linking an original study. Numbers like 80% or 85% could not be traced to a source we could open.

Should I turn off my voicemail?

No. Keep it as a fallback with a clear greeting and a box that is not full, but do not rely on it as your main way to catch leads.

What is better than voicemail for a small business?

A live answer in your business's name that books the job or takes a complete message with name, number and need.

Sources

1. Moneypenny, Small business call report (2016)
2. Pew Research Center, Americans' Use of Mobile Devices in 2026 (2026)
3. Google Local Services Ads Help, How leads work (2026)
4. BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (2026)