Question for Locksmiths

[Al]

Post if the call outs were from direct advertising or subbed to you by nationals.

[Al]

I'll start the ball rolling.
Having been established for almost ten years, with a reasonble reputation and profile. Covering an area with over 500,000 people in and adverts in YP, Thos and BT PP. Online, 118247 etc Plus small promotions etc.
My prices are very competitive and most lockout calls are converted to sales.
I had two calls from people who were locked out but was too busy for one of them.
Therefore my answer, one. Revenue less than £40 inclusive.

[mcm757207]

What about more than 5? On behalf of the full time locksmith I work worth (I'm only partime), I was going to say 9 but it's not an option....

[EvoRed]

Easy answer from me in that timeframe Al - zilch, and not even one phone call for a lockout in that period.

I have ads in the YP, Thomson, BT book, 118 247, online ads, website...

It has been fairly dead for me in private work, full stop, since about mid August. Why that is, I've no idea. I often wonder if another locksmith business has somehow managed to route calls to my number to their phone's!

Fortunately, warrant work has kept me fairly busy anyway...

[toomush2drink]

Well last week was quite busy and i did 7. If every week was like that i would be laughing but its not. I turned down a couple too as i was busy fitting 20 euro deadlocks. Its strange some weeks it just goes mental and you cant cover everything yet other weeks you may not even get a phonecall some days, like yesterday, not a single call.
I have to say i got most of those jobs on price as they rang around then rang me back especially the night time ones. Here in london there are some seriously greedy people charging easily in excess of £150 plus vat to slip a latch, £40 for a euro etc etc. The other strange things is that i didnt go with yp this year and yet im getting more calls from the free line than i did from my paid for ad last year. Im certain people are slowly wising up and also because lots havent got the money (credit card debts etc) they are ringing around now.
I only sub for other lockies and dont go near the nationals as i believe im helping them to kill my trade, but thats up to the individual to decide on afterall bills need to be paid.

A nice thread al which should be interesting

[carloski]

i did 6 private lockouts between those dates, an i also advertise in yellow pages, 118 247, thomsons etc, the rest of the work i did was all motor trade, been in trade 15years trained in domestic/commercial and autos , 95% of my work these days is for the motor trade, spend most of my time fixing faulty ignition and door locks/mechanisms and programming transponder keys or new remotes

[pinky]

al

in that 1 week period ive had 6 auto jobs and 8 domestic call outs for lock outs, all over weekend, and 3 lock change jobs, and 4.5 days l on warrants .

as the question was on just private call outs which is the question being asked, ive had 8 over that week period, though from my advertising i only had 3 , as 1 was a regular and 4 were from the police.

of the other jobs, warrants are from my normal contractor, lock outs are above, 2 of the auto jobs were from police as were all the lock change jobs following break ins, so for me of all that weeks work only 3 lock outs and 4 auto jobs came from my £4500 of advertising.
without contract work and without the police work i would struggle to make it pay as everyone in this business.

[acl]

Only 2 actual lockouts for me,about 4 lock changes. i wasnt here fri and sat sso Steven had the phones and he probably blew a couple out the lazy bugger!
I normally get a good response from local rag ads but some window company is offering upvc cylinder changes for £35 inc cylinder !
Andy

[Al]

As with my other poll, the last options were deleted. '6' and 'One or more per day' Oh well.
Pinky, I'll take your answer as three fresh lockout calls. (You know where I am if your busy!)
I was trying to see if the people who covered Reactfast et al had lots of lockouts when compared to the first time calls from private advertising.
Keep it coming.

[Don Braidwood]

I have had the following....

4 private call outs for failed upvc strips and charged £ 150.00 to open each door and fit a new strip one of these was from my neighbour

5 private call outs to change euros and charged £ 42.00 each

1 contarct call out for a letting agency and opened two euros and refit and change lever pack for a era invincible charged £ 35.00 for each euro and
£ 45.00


Last week was a very good week for me because as well as the above I had a couple of call outs for glass and service work for upvc total
£ 800.00 approx

I advertise in yellow pages £ 3000.00 a year, yell .com £ 145 approx
I have a couple of contract customers , schools, nursing homes and letting agecise also get called regulary by the ploice.

I dont do warrant work because thankfully I dont have to, but in saying that locksmithing is only a small part of myn business as I do upvc and ali repairs, installations ( get fitters in ) and glass and boarding.

Don

[Don Braidwood]

Sorry just seen Alans post about reacfast

I did do a bit of work for reacfast and I was given work from them regulary, but they did my head in because I told them the postcode areas that I would do and they kept ringing me for other areas.

I stopped doing work for them because I beklieve in the long term it would affect my own work and if all locksmiths turned them down then they would stop advertising and we could get more of the work.

Don

[Rockford]

4 callouts during that period :

Lockout on Euro - Private
Gain entry and change locks (repossession) - regular customer
Sticking multi-point lock - Private
Sticking Euro cylinder - Private

Again, I advertise in YP, Thompsons, BT, Yell, and 118-247.

I've done little for nationals over past few months, as I've been busy on other work.

[Rockford]

Sorry, make that 5 calls, as I didn't record a call yesterday morning - as I didn't charge him for it. Guy called to say he couldn't unlock his door, but he wasn't turning the key far enough

[pinky]

just got off phone to guy covering reactfast work in notts, he has had 7 call outs in same period to lock outs alone, and hes 1 of 4 covering this area, and hes had 7 alone in the week, 4 of which were after 10pm, down side for him is before deductions his average job was £40 to him, then less 18% cis4 deductions and fuel etc.

just to give you a clue on the differences in volume between private and reactfast volumes, pays to have big ad budgets and YP and 118247 in your pocket.

[Sbecspeledrx]

I've had one call out to a lock in - upvc door and the strip had broken. That was for Reactfast and only netted me about £30. I think the guy bust his door intentionally actually, cause as soon as I opened the door, his wife turned the footie off the telly and sent him down the shops

One lock change which i got from a business breakfast, but it had been described to me as a mortice lock change and it was actually a rim lock with the door too thin to put a mortice lock on so I've resheduled that for this week - having ordered a lock especially from SKS.

A very quiet week.

Having said that I've been in the six counties for 4 days of that period, so haven't been around to push myself.