By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Why does every callout still need to go through the owner?
Because the locksmith is usually the only one who knows the full process for a lockout, a rekey or a restricted key install, from the first ring of the phone to the invoice. Most locksmith businesses grow one callout at a time, and the owner answers the phone, drives the van, cuts the key and writes up the job, because nobody else has ever been shown how.
A locksmith who built the business alone carries the whole job in his head: which deadlock suits which door, how a strata block’s master key system should be structured, what a property manager expects on the paperwork after an insurance claim, or a real estate agency that needs locks changed between tenants fast. When the phone rings at two in the morning for an emergency lockout, the business can only say yes if the owner personally picks up. Growth in a locksmith business often just means more of these calls landing on the same person, not fewer.
What goes wrong when quality varies between locksmiths on the same job?
When a commercial lock change or a restricted key install comes out differently depending on who did it, the usual reaction is to blame the tradesman. In most cases the real problem is that there was never a written system for that job in the first place, so each locksmith does it the way he learned somewhere else.
A new locksmith or apprentice arrives with habits from a previous employer, not this business’s own way of handling an after hours callout, a digital lock install, or a strata job for a property manager. Without something written down, the standard only exists in the owner’s head, and it moves every time someone new answers the phone or picks up the key cutting machine. Blaming the person again next month fixes nothing if the system was the real gap all along.
How do you price a lockout or a rekey so it isn’t a guessing game?
You price callouts, rekeys and key cutting as clear, pre set items rather than an hourly estimate, so the customer knows the cost before the van arrives and your gross profit margin on that job is protected from the first booking of the week to the last. Clear per item pricing also means admin or a second locksmith can quote the job accurately without you on the phone.
An after hours lockout at two in the morning is where bill shock does the most damage to a locksmith’s reputation, because the customer is already stressed and vulnerable. When the price for that callout, a standard rekey, or cutting a set of keys is fixed in advance, there is no argument on the doorstep and no guesswork for whoever answers the phone. This is also the number that tells you the truth week to week: a locksmith business that tracks gross profit margin on every job type, not just at tax time, can see immediately when a rekey or a commercial fit out is being priced too low to carry the van, the stock and the insurance that keep the business running.
What should be written down before you hire a second locksmith?
You document the exact steps for your highest value jobs first, a rekey, a master key or restricted key install, a safe opening or install, a strata or commercial access control job, written the way you actually do it, not the way a textbook says to. A locksmith is in a strong position to do this now, because he can test the written process on himself before handing it to anyone else.
Write down what to check before quoting a strata block’s master key system, what a property manager needs on the paperwork for an insurance claim, how a digital lock or security door install should be signed off. Catch the steps that only live in your head, the ones you would forget to mention out loud, while you are still the one doing every job. This is the work that makes a second locksmith or an apprentice reliable from day one, instead of reliable only once he has made the same mistake you already know about.
What do AI agents do for a locksmith business?
AI agents are software that do a piece of office work the way you would do it yourself, using your prices, your wording and your rules, not a generic script. For a locksmith business, that can mean quoting a standard rekey or an after hours lockout the moment the customer calls, using the exact per item pricing you have already set, so admin is not left guessing and you are not pulled off a job to answer a simple question.
Once the pricing and the process for a lockout, a key cutting job or a restricted key install are written down, AI agents can follow that system and hold the standard even when you are on another job entirely. Done the data first way, starting from what your own callouts, rekeys and strata jobs actually earn, an agent is shaped around how your locksmith business already runs, not a generic version built for every trade at once. AI agents can also flag when a commercial or strata quote sits outside your usual gross profit margin, so the exception reaches you before the job is booked, not after.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching starts from the locksmith’s own numbers, not from a description of the business. Through the Trade Business Intelligence, Greg Allan looks at what each job type, a rekey, a restricted key install, a strata contract or an after hours callout, actually earns, and where the gap sits between what the owner alone can deliver and what a documented system could carry. Greg’s teaching on this is blunt: “It’s not my people, it’s my systems.” The how, the written process, the pricing per item, the agent built on top of it, is worked through inside the Academy, with members, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member who joins open minded, innovative and willing to share what they learn.
