Why choose a local independent locksmith over a national company?

When someone needs to call on the services of a locksmith, say they are locked out of their house, office or vehicle; most people will turn to Google and search for a local locksmith or a locksmith nearby because unlike a local taxi company they won’t have a number of a local locksmith saved to their smart phone this is simply because people don’t require the services of a locksmith every day. In most case its just in emergencies or when you’ve moved home.

After searching Google for a local locksmiths and getting a list of nearby locksmiths onscreen it’s now time to choose from the results you have been given, now at the top of the page you’ll usually get paid ads which are typically from large companies who can afford them as Google ads can be expensive and most local, independent locksmiths are priced out relying on organic (natural) results instead, but unfortunately many people will instinctively click on the top paid ad, but this can be disastrous and here’s why.

National Locksmith Companies Do Not Exist

That’s right there are no national locksmith companies employing thousands of locksmiths here in the UK in fact these companies will not employ any locksmiths and consist of a handful of people manning telephones

At the end of the day a national locksmith company is just a call centre or a switchboard, however you want to put it. Their business model in to act as a go between and that’s it. You ring the national company and they’ll ring an independent locksmith who’s on their books and send them over.

The national locksmith company will charge locksmiths an annual or monthly fee to be on their books, some will even insist on a cut from each job too, they’ll spend a potion of their profits on Google ads and everyone is winner, the locksmith get works without having to pay for SEO on his/her own website (in fact they don’t even need their own website) or pay for their own Google ads and the national locksmith company makes money simply by acting as a go between. Sounds perfect! So what’s the issue?

The Problem With Locksmith Call Centres

On the surface the business model that these Locksmith Call Centres use seems perfect but over the years complaints and bad feedback have tarnished the whole locksmith industry.

Unskilled, Amateur Locksmiths

Locksmiths getting their work from national locksmith companies or call centres don’t even need a website of their own. On the other hand they also don’t need to do a good job because there is no comeback, they haven’t disclosed their personal contact number, business details or anything to the customer so can turn up do a terrible job, overcharge and leave, it’s the national locksmith company who’ll get the complaint and they couldn’t care less because as we mentioned earlier people don’t require the services of a locksmith every day so these are one off jobs.  Their response is always “Our engineers are independent” and when you ask for the locksmiths details you’ll get the “data protection” spiel

It’s been estimated that over 90% of locksmiths getting work from these national call centres either have no training at all or have simply taken a 3 day crash course run be one of the infamous rogue locksmith training centres rather than the officially recognised Ofqual vocational course and the thing is they are not breaking the law as the industry is unregulated. The official course is available but you don’t need to take it.

These hard faced amateurs are quiet happy turning up armed with a drill and a hammer and chisel to essential break into your property caring very little about the damage they are doing to your door and or doorframe, where as a professional with use what’s called non destructive entry using manual or electronic picks

Response Times

A genuine local locksmith will usually advertise response times because if you are locked out of your house or vehicle you don’t want to be waiting all day in the hot sun or all night in the rain for a locksmith to turn up. The local locksmith can estimate these response times quite accurately because they are local, know the roads, and know the busy times. Many local locksmiths’ advertise 30 or 60 minute response times.

A national locksmith company will never turn down a job even If they don’t have a locksmith based nearby instead they’ll contact their nearest member which can sometime be 50 or 100 miles away and we’ve seen reports of people waiting 6 hours or more for a so called local locksmith.

Another issue is that the locksmith who has travelled 50 -100 miles will want reimbursing for their time and fuel, there is no way they are charging an industry standard £60- £80 entry fee so will hit the customer with massive bill and we’ve see posts online where people have been charged £800 for emergency entry with the costs made up of ridiculous extras such as fuel costs, travel cost, night rates, service charge and even a charge for getting their drill out even though these amateurs can’t gain access any other way.

In Summary

After reading this we hope that when you need to call on the services of a local locksmith you’ll scroll down the Google results  and find a local, independent locksmith with a local number and their own website.