Ask a sports clinic owner what a missed call costs and you'll hear "an assessment" — maybe $150–$250. That's the wrong answer. A missed new-patient call costs a full rehabilitation course: the assessment, the treatment plan, the sessions — all now belonging to a competitor. Let's do the math honestly, with every estimate labeled.

Step 1: What is a new rehab patient worth? Revenue comes in courses of care, not single visits [ESTIMATES — varies by market and insurance mix]: an initial assessment typically runs $150–$250; a treatment plan runs 6–12 sessions at roughly $80–$150 each. A conservative first-course value is about $800–$1,500 [ESTIMATE]. We'll use $1,000 below [ESTIMATE]. Athletes are repeat customers — the same knee comes back next season.

Step 2: How many calls go unanswered? This is the number most clinics don't know, because unanswered calls are invisible [ESTIMATES — your mileage will vary]: during business hours a meaningful share goes unanswered; after hours the overwhelming majority does; and often 20–40% of all call attempts happen outside business hours. Enable call tracking for two weeks — most owners are surprised.

Step 3: The worked example. A hypothetical mid-size clinic [ESTIMATE — illustrative only]: 90 new-patient inquiries per month; 15% go unanswered (about 13–14 calls); 60% of those book with someone (about 8 patients); the clinic recovers none. 8 × $1,000 first-course value = $8,000/month walking away — $96,000 a year [ESTIMATE]. Even if our inputs are off by half, the number is clinic-changing.

The damage compounds. Each lost athlete isn't one course of care — athletes re-injure, teammates follow recommendations, and parents with multiple kids in sports bring the whole family. Youth and amateur clubs consolidate players' rehab at one clinic, and those contracts start with a single answered call. Scale it: 5 missed inquiries/month → ~3 patients lost → ~$36,000/year; 15 missed → ~9 lost → ~$108,000/year [ESTIMATES].

Then the hidden costs: "They never answer the phone" shows up in local clinic reviews; front-desk phone tag is time not spent on patients; ad spend driving calls nobody answers after 6 PM pays for your competitor's patients. The fix is cheap: recovering just 2 of those 14 missed calls a month at $1,000 each is $2,000/month [ESTIMATE] — against an AI receptionist at ~$297/month. VoiceAI Smile bundles all three at $297/month flat with a 14-day free pilot — +1 (659) 399-0158, voiceaismile@gmail.com.