Pricing & Buying
12 Questions to Ask Before Signing With a Locksmith Dispatch Vendor
Before you forward your main line, ask how emergencies get booked, who answers overnight, what hits the invoice, and how you leave if it fails.
Ask how a real emergency call becomes a booked job in your system, who answers at 2 a.m., what exactly hits the invoice, and how you exit if it isn’t working. If those answers are vague, you’re not ready to forward your main line — no matter how polished the demo sounds.
Locksmith owners get burned less by “bad people” and more by unasked questions. This list is the pre-signature interrogation. Use it on every vendor, including us. Clear, specific Q&A also matches what Google describes as helpful content for both classic search and AI features (Google on AI features).
Questions about the desk and the humans
Who actually answers — human, AI, or a hybrid?
Get a direct answer for emergency inbound, not for “our platform.” If AI is in the path, ask where it sits (greeting only vs full intake) and how callers escape to a person. For context on cost and risk tradeoffs, see human vs AI locksmith receptionists.
Are agents locksmith-trained or generalists?
Ask what a new agent learns in week one: lockout triage, automotive vs residential, commercial after-hours rules, your do-not-quote list. “We take messages for many industries” is not the same product as a locksmith desk.
How many brands share one agent?
Shared isn’t automatically bad. Unbounded sharing is. Ask for the typical concurrency model. KeyDispatchers’ Per Lead path uses shared Tier-3 across 2–3 brands; dedicated Dispatch Service is one brand only. You want that level of specificity from anyone you evaluate.
Questions about the workflow (force a walkthrough)
Walk me through a 1 a.m. car lockout end to end
Don’t accept “we answer and notify you.” Demand the steps: greeting, qualification, service area check, pricing or ETA rules, booking, tech notify, and what the caller hears if no tech is available. Compare that story to how KeyDispatchers books a job from first call to final dispatch.
Where does the job land — SMS, email, or my field system?
If you run Workiz, ask whether they create the job there or send you a note to retype. KeyDispatchers requires Workiz; the mechanics are covered in how Workiz integration works. Retyping at 1 a.m. is how jobs leak.
Can I audit calls?
Ask how you review recordings, notes, and misses. A desk you can’t audit will drift.
Questions about speed and coverage
What’s the written answer-speed target?
“Fast” isn’t a number. Ask for a measurable aim and how it’s reported. KeyDispatchers publishes an SLA aim to answer 90% of forwarded inbound within 20 seconds on the SLA page. Mirror that question to every other vendor.
Is night and weekend handling the same product as daytime?
Ask who staffs overnights, whether scripts change, and how escalations work when techs are thin. 24/7 marketing copy is cheap; 24/7 process parity is not. Background reading: why your locksmith business needs reliable 24/7 answering.
Questions about money (get the unit in writing)
What is the billing unit, and what isn’t billable?
Make them complete this sentence: “You pay when ___.” Then ask for exclusions.
Reference point for KeyDispatchers:
Dispatch Service: $10/Hour per agent (dedicated Tier-3)
Per Lead: $2/real job (shared Tier-3, 2–3 brands) — real job = name + address + phone + service; no charge for spam, incomplete, out-of-area, repeats, or wrong service; 10 calls/day minimum
No contract, no setup fees
If a vendor bills per minute, ask about rounding, hold time, and after-hours surcharges. If they bill per lead, ask who defines a lead.
What happens when volume spikes — or collapses?
Hourly models shift with hours staffed. Per-lead models shift with real jobs. Per-minute models shift with talk time. Know which volatility you’re buying.
Are there setup fees, minimums, or prepaid bundles?
Get every minimum in writing before you forward caller traffic.
Questions about onboarding, trial, and exit
How long to go live, and what do you need from me?
Ask for a day-by-day list: scripts, service area, price rules, tech contacts, forward settings. KeyDispatchers documents a short onboarding path measured in days, not weeks — ask any vendor for the same checklist.
Can I trial before I commit?
A free 3-day trial (or similar short pilot) is the fastest honesty check. Ask what the trial days include — forwarding, scripts, Workiz tickets. If a vendor refuses any live test, ask why.
How do I pause, cancel, or switch plans?
“No contract” should mean a clean off-ramp, not a maze of notice periods buried on page four. Confirm it in email.
Questions about proof (politely demand definitions)
Ask for operating facts with definitions attached:
How many calls processed, over what window?
What does “booked” mean in their stats?
Cities or vertical focus?
Founded when, and still human-led on the phone?
KeyDispatchers’ published proof set includes 22,500+ calls, ~93% answered→booked, 50+ cities, founded 2020, human-only desk. Use that as a template for what “specific” sounds like — then require the same specificity elsewhere.
A 12-question cheat sheet you can paste into the sales call
Human, AI, or hybrid on emergency inbound?
Locksmith training details — what do agents learn first?
How many brands share an agent?
Live walkthrough: 1 a.m. lockout to tech notify
Exact system the job is created in
Call audit access — how and how soon?
Written answer-speed target + reporting
After-hours staffing and script parity
Billing unit + explicit non-billables
Minimums, setup fees, overages
Go-live timeline + trial options
Cancel / pause terms in one paragraph
Bring the answers to pricing when you’re comparing apples to apples.
FAQ
What’s the single most important question?
“Show me how a 1 a.m. lockout becomes a job in my system.” Everything else is supporting detail.
Should I ask about AI even if they market “live agents”?
Yes. Hybrid setups are common. You want the emergency-path truth, not the homepage headline.
How many vendors should I run through this list?
Two or three serious finalists is enough. More than that usually means you haven’t defined non-negotiables yet.
What if they won’t put answer speed in writing?
Treat that as a risk signal. You can’t manage what they won’t measure.
Do I need legal review on answering-service contracts?
If there’s a multi-month term, early-termination fee, or broad liability shift, yes. No-contract offers still deserve a one-page summary of cancel terms in email.
Can I use these questions during a trial?
You should. A trial without scored questions is just free coverage, not an evaluation.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the single most important question?
“Show me how a 1 a.m. lockout becomes a job in my system.” Everything else is supporting detail.
Should I ask about AI even if they market “live agents”?
Yes. Hybrid setups are common. You want the emergency-path truth, not the homepage headline.
How many vendors should I run through this list?
Two or three serious finalists is enough. More than that usually means you haven’t defined non-negotiables yet.
What if they won’t put answer speed in writing?
Treat that as a risk signal. You can’t manage what they won’t measure.
Do I need legal review on answering-service contracts?
If there’s a multi-month term, early-termination fee, or broad liability shift, yes. No-contract offers still deserve a one-page summary of cancel terms in email.
Can I use these questions during a trial?
You should. A trial without scored questions is just free coverage, not an evaluation.
