Who it is for / Locksmiths
While you are fitting one lock, the next customer is standing outside their own front door. While You Work answers the calls you miss in your business name, finds out what the job is, where it is and how urgent, flags lock-outs, and sends you the details a minute later.
Founding members pay £49 and their line switches on as soon as they finish the set-up form. The first week on a live line is free.
On every call
Urgent jobs
Urgent calls are texted to you straight away, and every call is emailed to you.
Real calls
Half of a locksmith's calls are someone standing outside their own front door. The receptionist gets the address and the situation first, then the number.
The maths
Say you miss 5 calls a week and two in five of those callers would have booked a lockout call-out worth about £90.
5 calls × 40% × £90 = £180 a week. × 52 weeks ÷ 12 = £780 a month of work going to someone else. An example: put your own numbers into the missed-call calculator.
A lockout call answered by voicemail is a job lost in under a minute; the caller is already dialling the next number on the search results.
Timing
Late evenings, Friday and Saturday nights, and Monday mornings when tenancies change. Almost all of it happens while you are on another job with tools in both hands.
What callers hear
The receptionist asks one thing at a time, checks the number back and never makes up a price. The details reach you by email a minute after the call, and by text straight away when it is urgent.
What reaches you
URGENT. Jordan, 07700 900842, M20 Didsbury. Locked out, keys inside.
Receptionist: Hi, you’re through to Secure Locks. Sam is out on a job at the moment, but I can take the details so they can ring you straight back. Calls are recorded so nothing gets missed. What’s your name?
Caller: It’s Jordan. I’ve locked myself out and my keys are inside.
Receptionist: Thanks, Jordan. That’s urgent, so I’ll make sure Sam sees it straight away. What’s the postcode where you are?
Caller: M20, in Didsbury.
Receptionist: And what’s the best number for Sam to ring you on?
Caller: 07700 900 842.
Receptionist: So that’s 07700 900 842. Is that right?
Caller: Yes, that’s right.
Receptionist: Thanks, Jordan. Sam will ring you back as soon as they can, and I’m sending you a text now to confirm.
Set up
A short form made for locksmiths:
One code on your mobile sends calls you do not answer within 20 seconds to your While You Work line. Turn it off whenever you like.
Every caller is greeted in your business name. You get the details a minute later, and the caller gets a text saying you will ring back.
Questions
Yes. Lock-outs are flagged as urgent and texted to you straight away. You choose whether callers are told you take emergency call-outs out of hours or that you will ring back in working hours.
Yes, if you switch it on. Once the caller’s name and number are confirmed, it rings your mobile for up to 15 seconds, and if you do not answer it takes the message as normal.
Yes, with the Voice Booking and Pay module. It offers the caller your real free times, books the job and texts them a confirmation, with your deposit link if you take deposits. Without the module it takes the details and tells the caller you will ring back.
£49 a month including VAT for founding members, locked for as long as you stay, with no contract and the first week free once your line is live.
Only if you have set one in the form and the caller asks. It reads it exactly as you wrote it and says the final price depends on the lock. It does not haggle or guess.
No. It takes the address and the situation so you can ring back and do your own checks at the door, the way you do now.
More detail: what to charge as a locksmith, what a missed call costs, UK call answering prices and how we compare.
Source: Fix Radio survey of more than 220 UK tradespeople, reported by PHAM News, October 2022.
Founding price locked for as long as you stay. No contract. Your line switches on as soon as you finish the set-up form.
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