I am currently enjoying my slowest week of the year, my phone has barely rung this week. Websites are all performing well, no problems with my phoneline... sometimes it's a complete fecking mystery as to why this happens, but it does. I normally use this unplanned spare time to finish of those bist of DIY that I never get time for or to brush up on advertising but I have actually been in bed most of the time sweating out a particularly nasty cold... anyway, It's a great opportunity to update the locksmith blog and todays topic will be 'Factors affecting Calls'.

Firstly let me just say that these factors are purely drawn from my own experience of approx six years and from chatting with other locksmiths who also suffer the occassional work drought.



School Holidays

I can almost guarantee that a school holiday week will be a steady one for locksmith work, ok the emergency locksmith work seems to come in but the bread and butter jobs seem to dry up. I guess during this period people spend money elsewhere on days out and holidays away so repair work gets but on the back burner for another week.

Weather/Season

I wrote some time ago about seasonal locksmith work. Peaks of hot and cold weather often take their toll on uPVC doors in particular. I notice a good increase in uPVC door lock repair work during the coldest months of Winter from Dec - Feb.

Crime 

Every now and again there will be a spate of burglaries, car thefts or lock snapping incidents that will get the local community talking and Googling. I often take to social media when i notice this change and get involved offering advice and maybe throw out a few discounts to generate a bit of work of the back of this. Word of mouthrecommendations can go bonkers if you pitch it just right.

Financial year end

This can be a rewarding period with regards to commercial work whereby it seems companies try and use up their remaining yearly spend on things that have been put off throughout the rest of the year.

Physical directory advertisements

If you are one of the few remaining local locksmiths that bother to advertise in the door to door directories you will probably notice that the first few months of a fresh directory being delivered will bring in the most leads, tailing off throughout the year as people lose and throw away that book that sits around the house.

Website downtime

A web hosts server can sometimes go offline for repair work or other problems. It is worth checking your websites are actually live on a daily basis to ensure they are actually working. Notify your host immediately if you see any error messages as they may not be aware of the problem yet. Most local locksmiths rely heavilly on web generated leads so we are potentially losing money every hour we aren't online.

I am sure there are other factors that affect the amount of locksmith calls we can receive but I think I have covered the main onesabove, if you can think of anything I have missed write me a comment and I will add it to the list. 

Rick