What a great feeling to work for yourself! But obviously, with great freedom comes great responsibility. It’s not that easy to run a locksmith business, especially with the high demands of customers these days and the new competition that continuously enters the market.
So whether you are stressing about how to manage your business or beat the competition, these expert locksmith tips and trips will help you be successful and boost your locksmith business.
1. Be punctual and be professional
We can’t stress this point enough, it is one of the most important tips for running your locksmith business. Whenever you have an appointment at a particular time, make sure that your locksmith arrives at the exact time or even a bit early. It is the best way to strengthen your relationship with your clients, build trust, and get a review after the job. In addition, no matter how rude a customer can be, keep it professional. Be transparent about your prices and services. Stay true to your commitment and keep your services reasonably priced. Remember, one of the best ways to get new customers is through word of mouth from previous clients.
2. Offer 24/7 services
Expanding your availability is a great way to stay ahead of the competition. Offer 24*7 emergency services to your customers. No one can predict when they might lose a key or get locked out, so extending your office hours will immediately give you a competitive edge and will help you get more jobs. This might require you to have a larger team, but you can also divide the shifts between your techs. In addition, don’t forget that you can also charge more during late hours, just as other businesses would.
3. Provide a local business number
When you are running a locksmith business, it is important to offer a local business phone number rather than a toll-free number. Using a local number helps customers feel more secure when contacting you for your services, and usually, they would rather support a local business. You could potentially increase your leads by close to 15% simply by changing your toll-free number to a local number. Give it a try, and let us know how much it improves your business!
4. Improve your marketing strategy
First of all, make sure that your business has an online presence. Your website should be easy to navigate and up to date with the list of products and services, customer testimonials, locations, operating hours, contact information, and positive customer reviews. Along with that, use local SEO to promote your business. Proper implementation of SEO for a locksmith website is one of the most important digital marketing practices. You can use location-based keywords to get more leads, but you also need to make sure that your site is mobile-friendly.
Another locksmith trick to get more jobs is through paid advertising on Google Adwords. It will help your business to rank higher on Google SERPs, and thus, more people will be able to find your business when they search for locksmith services online.
5. Instruct your locksmiths to carry the right equipment with them
It is crucial that you and your team have everything you need for various locksmith jobs. Your team should carry all of the right keys and tools with them at all times. The worst thing that can happen is one of your techs arrive at a job and forget to bring the right key. Not only does it look unprofessional, but they’ve wasted everyone’s time. And time is money. It could result in the loss of a customer and potentially a negative review. Another tip is to create a checklist of tools that your locksmiths can use each time they leave for a job.
6. Organize workshops on locksmith improvement skills for your workers
Your workers should be prepared to invest time in learning new skills. Encourage them to attend training and workshops so that they can build up their skills and become a better representative of your company. You can also introduce locksmith training programs where you can train your team to have on-the-job skills and learn the industry better. It is important to build a professional team who can offer comprehensive and reliable service to your customers.
7. Use reputable locksmith software
Use a reputable software that will help you track your progress as a locksmith. Such a software should be simple to use and should integrate with your calendar app, accounting systems, email, and other operational tools and assist you in keeping your tasks organized. One of the top recommended apps for locksmiths is Workiz. Workiz will help you manage your entire business with tools that enable you to easily schedule jobs, invoice and get paid in the field, manage calls with an integrated service phone, track your inventory, and much more. Give it a try and get ready to immediately increase your revenue!
8. Use negative feedback to work on the weaker areas of your business
Dealing with negative criticism in a positive way is an important skill. The key to handling a negative comment is not to reciprocate in anger, as this will cause a scene and create a bad image for your business. Rather, you can take note of the issue and improve yourself, your team, and your business. No matter what kind of criticism is aimed at you, analyze it and try to find the loopholes so that you can learn from it.
9. Communicate effectively with your customers
Having a good rapport with your customers will not only help you in retaining them, but they will also indirectly promote your business through referrals. You can provide your business card to your satisfied customers and request them to distribute it in their friend circles. You can also offer a discount to your customers who refer new business to you. Always put your customers first with the utmost respect, resolve their issues professionally, and maintain punctuality with their appointments. Get a system to send out automatic notifications to always keep them updated and immediately get their feedback after your services.
Conclusion
Now you have some good tips and marketing ideas for your locksmith business. We recommend you put these locksmith tricks and tips to action and use these skills and knowledge to increase your success. To make your work easy, you can refer to Workiz and browse through the tools and software that will help you manage your business better and cater to customer needs.
Try out Workiz today and get your own chatbot, ad tracking tool and much more!
