Locksmiths · part of our trades guide
Answering service for UK locksmiths
Somebody locked out at eleven at night rings every locksmith on the first page until one picks up. They are not comparing prices, they are looking for whoever answers. If you are already on a job, and you usually are, that call goes to whoever is not. Voco answers in your business name, takes the address, works out what the job actually is, and sends it to your phone while you are still working.
29p a minute pay as you go, billed by the second. No contract.
The problem
What do locksmiths lose to missed calls?
Locksmiths lose jobs and enquiries to missed calls, because the caller rings the next business on the list the moment a call goes to voicemail.
- 01
The caller rings until somebody answers
Somebody locked out in the dark is not comparing quotes. They work down the search results until a human picks up and book the first one who does. Ninety seconds decides it.
- 02
You cannot answer because you are already working
The reason the phone goes unanswered is that you are on a job. The busier the night, the more work goes to whoever is not busy.
- 03
Half the calls are outside your area
Emergency search results are geographically loose. Every out-of-area call is time spent explaining you cannot help, usually while you are holding a drill.
How Voco helps
How does Voco help locksmiths?
Voco covers the calls you cannot take, and you stay in charge of every customer.
Every call answered, even mid job
Voco picks up in your business name at two in the morning and while you are already on a call-out. Nobody reaches an answerphone, which for an emergency trade is the entire proposition.
Genuine emergencies interrupt you, nothing else does
You write the rules. A child locked inside, a property left insecure after a break-in, a vulnerable person shut out. Those ring your mobile immediately. A lock change quote waits until you finish.
Out-of-area calls filtered before they reach you
The postcode is checked against the area you cover and callers outside it are told plainly, rather than becoming details you will never use.
Vehicle details captured before you set off
Make, model, year, lockout or lost key, whether there is a spare, keyless or not, and exactly where it is parked. You arrive able to do the job rather than able to look at it.
What are missed calls costing you?
Cautious by design: we count half your missed calls as real enquiries, assume half of those ring someone else, and that you would win one in four.
Cost
What does an answering service for locksmiths cost?
Voco costs 29p a minute on pay as you go, billed by the second, with no monthly fee and no contract. A two-minute call costs about 58p, so a quiet week costs very little. Busier locksmiths can move to a monthly plan from £49.
See all prices- Pay as you go, a minute
- 29p
- A two-minute call
- About 58p
- Monthly plans from
- £49
- Contract
- None
Questions from locksmiths
Something else? Ring 0333 043 6661 and ask Voco directly.
Full guide
Locksmiths in detail
Locksmithing is the trade where answering first wins outright
Most trades lose work to a missed call. Locksmiths lose it in about ninety seconds.
Somebody standing outside their own front door in the dark is not gathering quotes. They are working down the search results ringing numbers until a human being picks up, and they will book the first one who does. Price barely enters into it. Availability is the entire proposition.
Around 85% of callers who reach voicemail never call back, and roughly 80% will not leave a message at all. For an emergency trade those numbers understate it. Nobody locked out of their house leaves a voicemail and waits.
The bind is obvious. The reason you cannot answer is that you are already on a job, and the busier you are the more work you lose.
What a locksmith answering service does on a call
Voco answers in your business name, in a voice you choose, and works from what you have configured rather than improvising. On a typical call it will:
- Establish what the job is: a lockout, a lost key, a broken key, a snapped cylinder, a burglary repair, a lock change or a scheduled security job
- Take the address and postcode, and confirm it is inside the area you cover
- Take the caller's name and number, spelled back and confirmed
- Establish whether they are safe and whether anyone is shut inside or outside the property
- Ask what you have told it to ask, such as the door and lock type, whether it is a UPVC or timber door, and whether there is any damage
- Give whatever call-out information you have configured
- Follow your emergency rules and put genuine emergencies straight through to you
- Send you the whole thing by SMS and email within seconds
Where it does not know something it says so and takes details rather than guessing. It will not quote a price you have not given it, and it will not promise an arrival time you cannot make.
Emergency lockouts, straight to your phone
The whole value of this for a locksmith sits in one setting: what counts as urgent enough to interrupt you.
You write the rules. A lockout with a child or a pet inside. Anyone shut out in the middle of the night. A property left insecure after a break-in. A vulnerable person unable to get into their home. Anything matching rings your mobile immediately, even mid job, because those are the calls worth stopping for.
Everything else is captured in full and waiting for you when you finish, sorted by priority rather than by the order it arrived. A lock change quote and somebody standing in the rain are not the same call.
Jobs outside your area, filtered before they reach you
Emergency search results are geographically loose, and locksmiths get a high volume of calls from well outside their patch. Every one of those is time spent explaining you cannot help.
Voco checks the postcode against the area you cover and tells anyone outside it plainly, rather than taking details you will never use. That alone removes a meaningful share of the calls that currently interrupt you for nothing.
Auto locksmith call handling
Vehicle work brings its own set of questions, and the details you need before setting off are different from a domestic job.
Voco can capture the make, model and year, whether it is a lockout or a lost or broken key, whether the vehicle has a spare, whether it is keyless entry, and exactly where it is parked, including whether it is accessible and whether it is in a car park with height or access restrictions. That is the difference between arriving able to do the job and arriving able to look at it.
The calls that are not jobs
Locksmiths get a particular volume of calls that go nowhere: sales calls, insurance chasers, people wanting a price for work nobody could price down the phone, and callers who want general advice about their door.
Those are handled the way you specify. Sales calls are ended politely and logged, so you can see how many you are getting. Price questions get whatever position you have set, whether that is a call-out fee, a range, or that it needs seeing first.
Proof of what was agreed
Emergency work is done at speed, often at night, sometimes with a distressed customer, and afterwards the details get disputed. What was quoted. What time you said you would arrive. What the caller said about access.
Every call is stored with a transcript and a recording, timestamped. For a trade where a chargeback or a complaint tends to come down to what was said on the phone at two in the morning, that record is worth having.
Call data is stored in UK and EU data centres, encrypted in transit and at rest. Voco Digitals Ltd is registered with the ICO, and retention periods are configurable.
Fitting around how you work
Nothing to install and no new number. Calls forward from the number already on your van, your website and your listings, and you choose when: only when you do not pick up, only outside your hours, or every call.
Voco books into a connected calendar where you have enabled that. Otherwise the job arrives with everything already captured, ready to put into whatever you use.
Getting started
You can be live in minutes. Signing up walks you through a short setup flow covering your business details, the work you do, your hours, your area and the questions you get asked most.
Setting your emergency rules properly takes around an hour and is worth doing carefully, because for a locksmith that setting is the whole product. Decide exactly what interrupts you and what waits, then test it on your own phone before you forward anything.
There is no setup fee, no contract, and a 30 day money-back guarantee. Voco costs 29p a minute with no monthly fee, or a monthly plan if your call volume is steady.
Related: answering service for tradespeople, plumbers, how call handling works, work out what missed calls are costing you.
Answers at 2am. Doesn't ask for overtime.
Hear Voco answer a call
Ring 0333 043 6661 and talk to Voco now, or set up your own AI front office today.