Capture Every 2am Lockout Call, Even When You're Asleep
Locksmiths make their best money at 2am, emergency lockouts, smashed-key extractions, and after-hours commercial callouts. But you cannot answer the phone in your sleep, and a stranded caller will phone the next locksmith on Google. Our AI receptionist takes every emergency call instantly, captures the address and vehicle details, and either wakes you or alerts the on-call tech.
Why Locksmiths Lose Money to the Phone
Locksmith work is fundamentally call-driven and urgency-driven. A homeowner locked out at midnight, a driver who just smashed their key in the ignition, a property manager dealing with a tenant changeover at 5pm, every job starts with a phone call from someone who needs help now. Miss the call and you miss the job. Cost of the AI is a fraction of one job a month.
Lockouts Do Not Wait for Business Hours
A residential lockout at 11pm on a Sunday is the highest-margin job your business gets all week. Stranded callers do not wait. They call the next number on Google when they hear voicemail. The AI answers every call as soon as it is forwarded, day or night, weekend or public holiday, and gets the job onto your dispatch board while the caller is still on the line.
Automotive Calls Need Specific Information Captured
A car key replacement call needs the make, model, year, and VIN to know which transponder chip and which programming equipment you need. A generic answering service does not know to ask for the VIN. The AI does, and it captures everything you need to roll a tech with the right key blank and programmer the first time, instead of making two trips to the job.
A Published Callout Fee, If You Choose One
If you choose to publish a fixed after-hours callout fee, the AI tells callers that fee before booking, which filters out non-genuine "emergencies" who want a $40 daytime price at midnight. If you prefer not to, the AI takes the details and your on-call tech confirms the cost. The AI does not quote for the job itself.
Property Managers Are a Reliable Pipeline
Real estate property managers handle tenant changeovers, lockouts, and key cuts on a near-weekly cadence, and they expect immediate phone response. The AI recognises your property manager partners by caller ID, gives them priority handling, and books the job without the back-and-forth that erodes your relationship with the agency.
Restricted Key Enquiries Are Long Conversations
A commercial restricted-key-system enquiry (a strata building, a school, a medical facility) is a five-figure job that starts with a long conversation about masterkey hierarchies, key cutting authority, and key tracking. The AI captures the building details, the number of users, the security level required (registered design versus patented key blank), and books a site-visit quote with the right technician.
Built for the Way Locksmiths Take Calls
The AI is configured around the actual job types and dispatch decisions of an Australian locksmith business, not a generic answering script with "locksmith" pasted on top.
24/7 Emergency Lockout Handling
Picks up every call within 8 seconds, qualifies as emergency or non-emergency, and triggers the right dispatch path immediately.
- Distinguishes residential, automotive, and commercial lockouts early in the call
- Captures full address, suburb, and access notes for the dispatch tech
- Confirms whether police or roadside assistance are already on scene
- If you choose to publish a fixed after-hours callout fee, tells callers that fee before booking
Automotive Key and Transponder Intake
Captures the specific vehicle information you need to roll a tech with the right key blank and programmer the first time.
- Vehicle make, model, year, and VIN captured every time
- Distinguishes mechanical key, transponder, flip-key, smart key, and proximity-key jobs
- Confirms whether the customer has a spare or has lost all keys (different programming workflow)
- Books the right tech based on equipment held (Autel, Smart Pro, AVDI, Tango)
Service Area and Dispatch Routing
Filters callers by your service area and routes the job to the nearest on-call tech instead of the head office number.
- Configurable postcode and suburb coverage for residential, commercial, and automotive
- Politely declines or refers out-of-area jobs without damaging your local reputation
- Routes to the on-call tech for the caller's service area in multi-van operations
- Adjusts the dispatch logic for weekend on-call rotation
Restricted Key and Commercial Quote Intake
Handles the longer commercial-quote conversations that need full information capture before a site visit is booked.
- Building type and security level (residential strata, commercial, medical, educational, government)
- Number of users, doors, and masterkey hierarchy required
- Key blank platform preference (Abloy, Mul-T-Lock, EVVA, BiLock, ASSA, Kaba)
- Books site-visit quote with the right commercial-systems technician
Property Manager Priority Pipeline
Recognises and prioritises calls from your real-estate-agency partners with the speed and reliability they expect.
- Caller ID matching against your property manager partner list
- Captures tenant or owner details and property address
- Distinguishes lockout, rekey-on-change-of-tenant, and lost-key jobs
- Confirms billing arrangement (account customer or owner pays)
Insurance and Claim-Job Handling
Captures the specific information insurance claim jobs require, so you do not get stuck chasing approval after the work is done.
- Captures insurer name, claim number, and excess details up front
- Confirms whether the insurer has authorised the work or only the assessment
- Distinguishes RACV, NRMA, RACQ, RAA, and RACT roadside-assistance jobs
- Sends a structured invoice-ready job summary to your office for billing
Going Live
The workflow is well understood. We configure your service area, any fixed callout fee you choose to publish, and dispatch routing, and confirm a realistic timeline in your written quote.
Capture Your Rates and Service Areas
We document your standard rates (daytime, after-hours, weekend, public holiday), your service area by job type, your accepted job categories (residential, automotive, commercial, restricted-key), and your equipment held.
Set Up Dispatch Routing
We configure how jobs flow from the AI to your team, to a single on-call number, to a multi-van dispatch board, to your job management system (a ServiceM8, Fergus or AroFlo connection is not part of Starter or Professional and can be scoped as custom work on a quote), or by SMS notification to the on-call tech.
Forward Your Number
Your existing business number is forwarded to the AI, full-time, overflow, after-hours-only, or weekend-and-public-holiday-only. You can switch modes at any time from a portal.
Add Property Manager Partners
We load your real estate agency partner list so the AI recognises them by caller ID and gives them priority handling. New partners can be added at any time from the portal.
Trust, Pricing Transparency, and Locksmith Industry Reputation
The Australian locksmith industry has had reputation damage from rogue operators quoting low and charging high after the job. The AI is built to operate in the opposite direction: clear scope and honest expectations, with prices confirmed by your team.
Pricing Transparency Up Front
Every emergency callout gets a clear callout-rate quote before the booking is confirmed. No surprise invoices, no aggressive on-site upsells, no reputation damage.
- A fixed callout fee stated before booking, only if you choose to publish one
- After-hours, weekend, and public-holiday loadings clearly stated
- Parts costs flagged as additional, for your tech to confirm
- No promises the AI cannot keep on specialty key cuts or unusual vehicles
Security-Conscious Information Handling
Locksmiths deal with sensitive information, addresses of vulnerable people, building security plans, key codes. The AI handles all of it with appropriate discipline.
- Caller verification before sharing job history with anyone other than the original booker
- Never reads back key codes, masterkey hierarchies, or access-control details over the phone
- Australian data residency for call recordings and job intake records
- Retention controls aligned to your business privacy policy
Industry Body and Trade Standard Alignment
The AI is configured to align with Master Locksmiths Association of Australia (MLAA) standards and to handle calls in a way that supports your professional reputation.
- Distinguishes MLAA-accredited workflows from non-accredited where it matters
- Captures security-clearance requirements for government or sensitive-facility jobs
- Handles key-cutting authorisation requirements for restricted-system keys
- Refers gun-safe and restricted-firearm-storage jobs only to appropriately qualified techs
High-Margin After-Hours Capture
Much of a locksmith's after-hours economic value sits in the calls between 8pm and 7am, especially on weekends and public holidays. The AI captures all of them.
- No more lost 2am lockouts because you needed sleep
- After-hours rate stated up front so you only roll for jobs that pay properly
- Multi-tech dispatch routing for busy weekends
- Public holiday and ANZAC Day handling on your published premium rates
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See plumbers solution →Frequently Asked Questions
How does the AI handle a 2am residential lockout call?
It picks up as soon as the call is forwarded, identifies the call as an after-hours residential lockout, captures the property address and access notes, and, if you choose to publish a fixed after-hours callout fee, tells the caller that fee before booking. Once the booking is confirmed, the AI either SMSs the on-call tech with the full job details or wakes you with a direct call. Your choice. The caller stays on the line until the booking is confirmed and gets an SMS confirmation with the tech's expected arrival time. The caller gets a confirmed booking and a tech on the way.
How does it handle car key replacement enquiries when it does not know the make and model?
The AI does not give prices or quotes on the call. For automotive enquiries it captures the vehicle make, model, year and ideally the VIN, explains that the price depends on the vehicle and the equipment required (for example on premium European cars or all-keys-lost jobs that need post-extraction programming), and books a callback or an arrive-to-quote visit based on your preference, so your team can quote.
Will it know which of my techs has the right transponder equipment?
Yes, if you tell us. During setup we capture which techs hold which equipment (Autel IM608, Smart Pro, AVDI, Tango programmers, OEM diagnostic tools) and which key blank stocks they carry. When an automotive call comes in for a vehicle that needs Autel programming, the AI routes the job to the Autel-equipped tech rather than the general residential tech. This eliminates the wasted-trip problem where a tech rolls to a job and discovers they do not have the right gear. For multi-van operations this is one of the most useful features. You stop losing 90-minute drives to wrong-equipment dispatches.
How does it handle insurance and roadside-assistance jobs?
It captures the specific information those jobs need. For an insurance-funded job the AI asks for the insurer name, claim number, excess amount, and whether the insurer has authorised the full repair or only an assessment, this avoids the all-too-common problem of doing the job and then being unable to bill because the authorisation was only for inspection. For roadside-assistance jobs (RACV, NRMA, RACQ, RAA, RACT) the AI captures the membership number, the assistance organisation, and any case reference the customer was given. The job summary your office receives is invoice-ready, with all the information your accounts person needs to bill the third party correctly.
Will it cope with a commercial restricted-key system enquiry?
Yes. Restricted-system enquiries are configured as a separate long-form pathway because they require a proper site visit before a quote. The AI captures the building type (residential strata, commercial office, school, hospital, government facility), the approximate number of doors and users, the masterkey hierarchy required, the security level (registered design key versus patented key blank platform), the existing key system if any (Abloy, Mul-T-Lock, EVVA, BiLock, ASSA, Kaba), and a preferred site-visit time. The AI then books a quote visit with your commercial-systems technician. These are five-figure jobs and the AI is configured to take the time to capture the right information rather than rush to book.
Does it integrate with ServiceM8, Fergus, or AroFlo?
Not as part of Starter or Professional. A connection to ServiceM8, Fergus, AroFlo, simPRO or Tradify can be scoped as custom work on a quote. With one, every call that becomes a confirmed job creates a job card in your system with the intake information attached: address, contact details, vehicle details, job type, urgency, and any access notes. Without one, the AI can SMS the job to the on-call tech and email a daily summary to your office.
What about the rogue-operator reputation problem in the locksmith industry?
We deliberately built the AI to operate in the opposite direction from rogue practice. The AI does not give prices or quotes on the call, so there is no $40 starting quote followed by a $600 invoice on site: your team confirms the price. The AI does not promise things it cannot deliver and does not commit to specialty work that is outside your equipment. Each call summary records what the caller asked for and what was agreed, and on the Custom plan calls can also be recorded, which is useful for staff training and for any rare disputes.
Sources and further reading
- ServiceM8 job management (ServiceM8)
- Simpro field service software (Simpro)
- Tradify job management (Tradify)
Never Miss an Emergency Callout Again
Your existing number keeps working, and every 2am lockout is captured. A ServiceM8, Fergus, AroFlo, simPRO or Tradify connection can be scoped as custom work on a quote.