A lockout is decided in ninety seconds
What does SmartPulse do for a locksmith?
It answers the calls you physically cannot take. The moment a call is missed, the caller gets a text asking where they are and what has happened. Genuine lockouts alert your phone with the address already captured; quotes and scheduled work are booked without interrupting the job you are on.
Why do locksmiths lose more calls than other trades?
Because the work makes answering impossible. You are on a doorstep, in a stairwell, or driving. Demand is also concentrated at nights and weekends, when there is no office and no one else to pick up.
What is a missed lockout worth?
One callout, immediately — and the customer who now has your competitor's number saved for the next time they lose a key, plus the review they will leave on that competitor's profile.
Why locksmith calls are lost, not merely missed
Locksmithing has the shortest decision window of any trade. The customer is standing in the cold, they are not comparing prices, and they are not loyal — they are calling names in order until a human or a message responds. Second place earns nothing.
At the same time, the work itself prevents you from answering. Picking a lock, drilling a cylinder or fitting a door is not something you interrupt for a call that might be a price shopper.
So the calls arrive at the worst possible moment and expire faster than any other trade's. Voicemail, in this business, is the same thing as no phone at all.
What SmartPulse does instead
A missed call triggers a text within seconds: you are on a job, you can help, where are they. Most lockout customers reply immediately, because replying is easier than starting again with a new company.
That reply is the qualification. Address, situation and urgency arrive as structured details, and your phone only buzzes for the ones that warrant stopping. Everything else — lock changes, rekeying, security upgrades for a property manager — is booked into your normal schedule.
A midnight lockout, end to end
- 23:52 — call missed; you are finishing a door two districts away.
- 23:52 — the caller receives a text: you can help, where are they, what happened.
- 23:53 — reply: locked out, front door, address, no spare key.
- 23:53 — urgent alert to your phone with the address and situation already collected.
- 23:54 — you confirm an arrival window in one tap; the customer stops searching.
- Next day — a review request goes out to a customer who is genuinely relieved.
Filtering price shoppers without losing emergencies
A callout range in the first message removes the calls that were never going to convert, while keeping the ones where price is irrelevant. Configure it per time of day — most locksmiths run one message for daytime quotes and another for nights, using after-hours coverage.
Compared with an answering service
A staffed service can answer the phone, but it charges per call, cannot see your van's position, and reads a script to a person standing in the rain. The trade-offs are set out in full in the comparison with answering services.
Frequently asked questions
A locked-out customer will not read a text. Won't they just call the next locksmith?
They will read this one, because they are standing outside holding the phone they just called you on. The message arrives within seconds, states that you are on a job and can be there, and asks for the address. That is faster than the next locksmith's phone even rings.
Can it tell an emergency lockout from a lock change quote?
Yes, from the first reply. Lockouts are alerted to your phone immediately with the address attached. Lock changes, key cutting and security upgrades are booked into normal slots without interrupting you.
We work nights. Does that change anything?
It is the main reason locksmiths use it. Night calls arrive when you are either asleep or already at a door, and both states cost you the call. After-hours coverage handles the reply and only wakes you for work worth waking up for.
Does it quote a price?
Only if you want it to. Many locksmiths include a callout range in the first message to filter out price shoppers before driving across the city. Others prefer to see the job first. Both are configurable.
What if the customer's phone is dead or they have no signal?
Then no channel helps, including a human answering the phone. The message is delivered when their device comes back, which at least recovers the ones that would otherwise be lost entirely.
Keep exploring
Win the emergency job by answering first.
Peak-season call volume without extra office staff.
Capture callouts while your hands are busy.
Turn one-off enquiries into recurring cleaning contracts.
Fill cancellations instead of chasing them.
Be the one who replies at midnight.
Start the 30-day trial and see how many lockouts you were losing.