Before you bring on a VA or an in-house admin, it usually helps to tighten what happens to a ring that you don't catch. The biggest missed-revenue leak at your size is new-lead missed calls, not the follow-ups to existing customers, so start there.
Three practical levers that don't require hiring: (1) set a voicemail greeting that sets expectations and a time window — something like "you've reached [company], we're with a customer right now but we'll call you back within 15 minutes" — and actually hit that window during business hours. (2) Put the company line on a call-answering service or auto-text-back for after-hours and lunch so callers get an immediate "text us the address and service" instead of the voicemail inbox. (3) Log missed calls by hour for 30 days so you can see whether the problem is 2–4 p.m. on weekdays or Monday mornings — most fence companies have one or two heavy pockets once you plot it. If you run Google Local Services Ads, also note that as of October 1, 2026 Google can charge for business-hours missed calls when the caller holds for over 20 seconds, so a hard 15-minute return-call window on those leads matters more than it did.
