Are Missed Calls Costing Your Care Home Beds?

When a family is looking for a care home, the first thing most of them do is pick up the phone. They want to hear a voice, ask questions, and get a sense of the place before they visit. If nobody answers, most of them won't try again.

Industry research suggests that around 85% of people making initial care home enquiries will not call back if their first call goes unanswered. They'll simply move to the next home on their list.

For care homes operating below full occupancy, every unanswered call is a potential lost resident — and the revenue that comes with them.

Why care home calls go unanswered

Care home staff are busy with residents. Medication rounds, personal care, mealtimes, admissions, family visits, and emergencies all take priority over answering the phone. That's as it should be — resident care comes first.

But the result is that phones ring out during the busiest periods of the day, which are often the same periods when families are most likely to call. Shift changes, lunchtimes, and early mornings are common blind spots.

Smaller homes without dedicated reception staff are particularly affected. In many cases, the person answering the phone is also the person delivering care.

The hidden cost

Consider a care home with 40 beds at an average weekly fee of £1,000. A single empty bed costs roughly £52,000 per year in lost revenue. If even one enquiry per month goes unanswered and that family goes elsewhere, the financial impact is significant.

Most care home managers know their occupancy rate. Far fewer know how many enquiry calls they're missing, because there's no visibility. If the phone rings and nobody answers, there's no record of it happening.

What you can do about it

There are a few approaches, ranging from simple to more advanced:

Dedicated reception cover. Having someone whose primary role is answering the phone guarantees calls are picked up. But for smaller homes, the salary cost of a dedicated receptionist may not be justifiable — especially when the phone isn't ringing constantly.

Call forwarding to mobiles. Redirecting calls to a manager's mobile when the main line isn't answered. This works in theory but in practice means managers are interrupted during other work, and the calls may still go to voicemail if they're in meetings or with residents.

Virtual receptionist services. A remote human answering service that picks up when your team can't. Effective but expensive (typically £300-500+ per month) and the operators are usually generalists rather than care sector specialists.

AI call management. AI-powered systems that monitor, screen, and optionally answer calls on your behalf. These can provide 24/7 coverage, handle multiple calls simultaneously, and cost significantly less than human alternatives. Because they're always on, they catch the calls that come in during the gaps.

How CareTime helps

CareTime's Silent Guard monitors every incoming call and delivers a daily Morning Brief showing exactly what happened on your phone lines. You can see how many calls came in, how many were answered, and how many were missed — broken down by time of day and caller type.

This gives you the visibility to understand the scale of the problem before deciding how to solve it.

For homes that want to go further, CareTime's AI receptionist (launching soon) will answer calls 24/7, handle family enquiries, book visits, and route urgent calls to duty staff. No enquiry goes unanswered, even at 2am.

The founding pilot for Silent Guard is available now at £29 for 30 days. No contract, no hardware changes, no disruption to your team.