A locksmith's phone rings with two very different kinds of call. One is planned work: rekeying a house after a move-in, installing deadbolts, replacing commercial hardware, master key systems. The other is a lockout: someone standing outside their car or front door, often in the cold or the dark, asking how fast you can get there.
The planned work is ordinary scheduling. The lockout is a promise about time. The customer is choosing between you and the next locksmith on the list based on the ETA you give, and they'll remember whether you kept it.
The ETA is the product
For emergency work, the arrival time you quote is part of what you're selling. Quote too long and the customer calls someone else. Quote too short and the tech arrives late to a customer who's been waiting outside, which usually goes worse than an honest longer quote would have.
The trouble is that the ETA is often quoted from instinct: the dispatcher thinks of which tech is "over that way" and says "about thirty minutes." That works when the dispatcher knows exactly where everyone is and when they'll be free. It breaks when the closest tech is in the middle of a 45-minute commercial rekey, or when the tech who looks closest on a map has to cross a river at rush hour.
What an honest ETA is made of
For each tech who could take the call:
- Free at (F). When they'll finish their current job. If they're between jobs, that's now.
- Drive (D). From where they'll be at F (the current job's address) to the customer, at this time of day.
- Arrival (F + D). The earliest the tech can be on site.
The ETA you quote should be the smallest F + D among qualified techs, plus whatever margin you're comfortable promising. Note that the tech with the shortest drive isn't always the one with the earliest arrival.
A worked example: who gets the lockout
These numbers are illustrative only. A call comes in at 2:00 p.m. The dispatcher's instinct is to say "30 minutes," which is a 2:30 promise.
Tech A is closer, and sending them misses the promise. Tech B is farther away but free now, and makes it. If the call was quoted from the map alone, the wrong tech gets sent. Notice also what happens to Tech A's next booked job if they'd taken the lockout: that customer now waits too.
Emergency calls break the planned day
Every lockout that goes to a tech with booked work pushes that booked work later. That's fine if there's slack in the day and not fine if the next job is a commercial install with a building manager waiting. Emergency call scheduling is really a policy question: which techs absorb emergencies, and how much of their day do you keep open for them?
A few approaches locksmith firms use:
- A dedicated emergency tech per area or shift. Their booked work is light or flexible, so lockouts don't push anyone's planned customers.
- Open gaps in planned days. Leave an hour unbooked in each tech's afternoon. If no emergency comes in, pull forward flexible work.
- Planned work booked with an emergency buffer. Book rekeys and installs with enough room after them that a short lockout fits in between without making the next customer late.
Whichever you use, measure it. Your on-time arrival rate on planned work tells you whether emergencies are being absorbed or just passed on to the next customer.
Booking-time feasibility for planned work
The same arithmetic applies to scheduled jobs, just with more notice. When a property manager books rekeys on five units for Tuesday morning, the question is whether the tech assigned to that area can finish the job before, drive there, finish the five units, and reach the afternoon job, all with realistic travel times. Commercial jobs in particular can run long and have access windows, so the drive and the job time both need to be in the check.
CrewLink does that check before the slot is offered. It builds live travel time into availability, computing the drive from the previous job's address rather than the shop, and only offers slots a tech can physically reach. Drive time sits next to each job on the dispatch board, so when a lockout comes in you can see what each tech's day looks like around it. CrewLink doesn't track vehicle locations; the "where will they be" answer comes from the schedule itself: the job they're on, and when it's planned to end.
For a deeper look at why quoted windows grow wider than they need to be, read why arrival windows are so long. Trades with a similar mix of urgent and planned work include garage door service and security systems, where a locksmith's access control work often overlaps.
What to take away
- For lockouts, the ETA you quote is part of the product. Quote one you can keep.
- Earliest arrival is when the tech is free plus the drive from that job, not distance on a map.
- The closest tech is not always the fastest one to arrive.
- Every emergency absorbed into a booked day moves later customers. Decide who absorbs them.
- Measure on-time arrival on planned work to see whether emergencies are being passed along.
Common questions
How do I give accurate ETAs for lockout calls?
For each available tech, take when they'll be free and add the drive from where they'll be at that moment to the customer. Quote the earliest of those arrival times plus a small margin you're comfortable with. Avoid quoting from distance alone, since a closer tech who is mid-job can arrive later.
How should a locksmith business handle emergency and scheduled jobs together?
Choose a policy: a dedicated emergency tech, open gaps in each tech's day, or buffers after planned jobs. Then measure whether booked customers are still seen on time. If they aren't, emergencies are being absorbed by the planned schedule without room for them.
What is locksmith dispatch software?
It's software used to assign incoming calls to technicians and manage their day as it runs. For locksmiths, the important part is deciding which tech to send so that both the emergency customer and the tech's next booked customer are seen on time.
How many lockout calls can one tech take per shift?
Divide the hours available for emergencies by the average lockout time plus the average drive. If a lockout takes L minutes on site and D minutes to reach, the ceiling for H open hours is (H × 60) ÷ (L + D). Your own call history gives you L and D.