September 2010

Its been 12 months since we wrote our first of many blog and the feedback we are getting from many quarters in Locksmith Livingston has been interesting to say the least. We have tried to give an honest view on various issues relating to the Locksmith industry in Livingston, West Lothian and in the UK as a whole. We will continue to do this in the best interest of the wider locksmith community and to make our customers aware about the pitfalls of calling the wrong Local Number.

However, we do respect our fellow genuine Independent locksmith competitors and hope that they would share our views on certain issues and would also make their customers aware of the many Rogue Locksmiths and Contractors who are out there trying to rip them off.

One such individual has finally got his just deserts after years of ripping customers off with huge charges. Whether or not 4 years in Jail will stop this individual returning to his ‘life of crime’ when he is released, remains to be seen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11139946

As far as we know there is NO locksmith in the Lothians who undertakes such awful acts. The problem we have here is locksmiths quoting low prices to the customer to get Yale lock-out work then sticking a drill through their Yale lock when its simply not required. Customers should be aware that a genuine honest locksmith will only drill out a Yale lock as a last resort and not drill as a matter of financial course. So what may have looked like a good price to begin with, normally ends up double the cost.

Our New Look Website

We have worked tirelessly over the last 7 days to improve the look of our website. What is already a popular listed site on Google we feel its necessary to continually make the Pentland Locksmiths - Livingston locksmith website fresh with updated content. We dread to think what it would cost to get a Professional web design company to do this every year?
Just as well we don’t have to worry about that!

Crime in Livingston

Unfortunately, we have to report the attempted break-in of up to 5 homes in the Waverley Crescent area of Livingston. One house was eventually entered through the Patio door, and various items were stolen as well as the New car sitting in the driveway. The break-in took place on the weekend of 22nd August, so if you have any information, then we would advise that you contact the local Police or Crimestoppers.
We strongly advise that you lock away any garden tools that could be used by a burglar to force open a sliding patio door. We would also recommend the fitting of additional security that will make a the thief’s life that bit more difficult.

Road Works

Like most other drivers we are constantly fighting a battle to get to our customers all over the Lothians and this is made all the more difficult by the countless road works that appear on the road to and from Locksmith Livingston. They had just finished the re-surfacing work on the M8 and then switched their attention to the A71 and now they are back at junction 3 on the M8 again. Within a week of the new road layout and lights at Wilkieston on the A71 being opened, there was a serious crash at the very spot. The road was blocked as numerous firfeighters, Police and Ambulance crews tried to free the passengers of the badly smashed over-turned car. Just wonder if all the expense and delays to get the new layout in place was worth it?

Anyway that’s it for now and keep reading.

Pentland Locksmiths - Locksmith in Livingston.

Pentland Locksmiths in Livinston EH54 8JA

Dear Reader,

Pentland Locksmiths in Livingston

Its been a few months since we last blogged and this is simply because our work has increased month after month following our strategy to offer new services to our customer in Livingston, West Lothian. Even with increased competition and changes to our Google listings our work has increased significantly. Following a statistical review off our jobs over the last 3 months it appears that Customer Recomendations and Regular Customers equate to nearly 46% of all the work we do in West Lothian.

This is a milestone in our business as it takes many years to build up a customer base that can support a locksmith business in any area. We have also managed to build up good relations with many large manufacturing companies in Livingston which has led to a continuous level of work.

Many new start locksmiths are fooled into thinking they will get a lot of work through 'word of mouth' but the sad reality is that it takes years to build up a client base that has confidence in the services you offer.

This is why so many fail in the first year and go out of business.

The Summer Nights

We're now into the summer season and probably the best time of year to do locksmith work. Light nights make our job so much easier, especially when it comes to doing lock entries for our customers who have locked themselves out. But even in the summer our customers need to keep vigilant from opportunist thieves who steal from garages that are left open during the daytime.

New build estates are specifically targetted because the wealth thats available and it becomes easy pickings for gangs who target specific areas of West Lothian. So our message to our customers is to remain vigilant when cleaning out the Garage or cleaning the car because thieves will steal your belongings and will be off with your pride and joy if you leave the keys in the ignition.

And don't leave your keys in your garage lock!

Garden Security

Its also worth noting that many opportunist break-ins and thefts are comitted by using everyday items left lying arond in gardens. Thieves will use spades and other similar items to force open doors and windows in your property. So make sure you lock all your tools away in a secure shed, garage or out-building.

You can also take simple security measures to secure your external property and its hardware. There is no point having a nice lawn if you don't have a lawnmower to cut it, because some cretin has nicked it from your un-locked shed or garage.

Security Gates

If you think your outbuildings are not secure enough or you have no security gate leading to your garden then maybe its time to get a Free No Obligation quote for a custom made security gate.

Click on the photo left to view a recent job we did for one of our customers who needed to secure there outbuilding to satisfy Insurance requirements.

Price Checkers

Daily calls for quotes is part and parcel of having a successful business as every many and his dog wants to know what you charge. Our pricing is no big secret as we stand by the ethos of the Institute of Certified Locksmiths (ICL) to give our customers excellent quality of service and at an affordable price. We get very few complaints from our customers about pricing because the price quoted at the time is the same when the jobs complete, We do not give false or misleading prices, and we do not sell ourselves short by quoting a rediculously low prices. Customers see right through the locksmiths who do jobs on the cheap because most customers know if someone is quoting a low price for a job, then its usually because they are so desperate for work they will do it for practically nothing.

So you want to know how to get the right locksmith and at the right price?

Soon we will be publishing a new page on our website that gives a detailed guideline on how to select the right locksmith for a job and also the price range that most honest independent locksmiths operate.

So make sure you visit our popular website to view the latest news on everything thats happening in Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 8JA.

Thanks for reading

Pentland Locksmiths

http://www.pentlandlocksmiths.com/

Pentland Locksmiths in Livingston, West Lothian EH58JA

Dear Readers,

Its been too long since Pentland Locksmiths - Livingston last posted, but this is basically down to the increase in work over the last 3 months in Livingston and West Lothian as a whole. It has also been a time to continue our new strategy and prepare for the future of locksmithing and to meet the new challenges that being a locksmith in Livingston, West Lothian can bring. The idea of a Locksmith is changing in the eyes of the customer who are now wanting a more varied service than just changing their door locks.

Challenges that lie ahead

To meet these new challenges and to move to a more technical service in West Lothian we are now adapting for the future. We have purchased a new van that's 3 times the internal space of our previous commercial vehicle. The new Citreon Relay medium wheelbase affords us the extra space to allow us to offer services we couldn't do in the past.

Van Deadlocks

One of the new services we are able to offer as a Locksmith Service in Livingston, West Lothian is the fitting of Van Deadlocks. Van security is becoming more important because thieves are buying up more and more tools to force entry on commercial vehicles. Tools are becoming more readily available on the internet and it has become a major worry for the Police and Insurance companies. Most tradesman who use power tools cannot remove their tools every night, so need to leave them in their van and vulnerable to attack.

Pentland Locksmiths only fits High Security Deadlocks and Cylinders that will prevent anyone from forcing entry. Fitting High Security deadlocks will certainly make any thief think twice about targetting your van.

So if you are serious about protecting your tools then click the (picture left) and view our details.

Mobile Key Cutting

Mobile key is a service that we have been able to offer our customers in Livingston, West Lothian EH54 for some time, but the small van restricted our business to only cutting keys for the locks we fit.

We can now supply and cut hundreds of different key variants that most domestic customers will already use on a daily basis. The extra space allows Pentland Locksmiths - Livingston, West Lothian to expand into a more Technical key cutting service that NO other locksmith service offer at the moment.

Other services

Pentland Locksmiths Services are also developing new external security products and services that will be available next month.

We will be creating a new page on our website: http://www.pentlandlocksmiths.com/ that will give full details and photos of the new external security porducts will be able to offer.

What the future will bring?

Most Locksmith Businesses will face a difficult time over the next couple of years with more and more individuals spending their hard earned cash or redundancy to get into what already is an overcrowded industry. Locksmiths starting up in West Lothian are becoming more frequent and will continue to rise in whats an already saturated market. Domestic lock changes and door repairs will always be there by the plenty, but as the locksmiths increase the number of jobs will start to spread thin amongst the locksmiths chasing this type of work. Most new starts will fall on their sword and lose their money and even some long established locksmiths will go out of business. Only the Locksmith who invest and diversify will possibly remain doing a different typ of security work that is not currently available.

This may sound as doom and gloom, but its a sad reality of the way this industry is heading. Until the flood gates of New Start locksmiths are curbed then this will continue until there are so many locksmiths chasing the few basic lock changes, there will not be enough work to support a locksmith business.

This is why we are not relying on this type of work and choosing to move down a different path. We will continue to offer a domestic lock change service to our Domestic and Commercial customers in Livingston, West Lothian, but we only do this to stop National Contractors from ripping off customers with their inflated prices.

Thanks for reading

Pentland Locksmiths

http://www.pentlandlocksmiths.com/

Pentland Locksmiths - 3 Years and counting!

Dear Readers,

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Domestic and Commercial customers a Happy and Prosperous 2010.

And also to our growing readership who seem to enjoy our monthly Blog and occasionally contribute by leaving comments each month. We would also welcome more comments from Independent locksmiths who share our views and would like to add to the discussion we create.

Even if you don't agree with some of our views, you can still leave a comment letting us know what you really think of us.

We won't take offence - honest!

What we did in December

We were looking foward to winding down on the lead up to Christmas Day, but it turned out to be the busiest month for Domestic work since Pentland Locksmiths Services opened for business in December 2006. A week into 2010 we are finally getting some time to let our customers know how much we appreciate the support they have given to us over the past 12 months.

Over the last 3 years Pentland Locksmiths has grown continually year on year as a business, and built up an excellent commercial client base in West Lothian.

We had a higher number of domestic lock-outs than usual as frustrated customers rushed to the shops to get their Christmas shopping leaving their keys at home or losing them while out amongst the crowds.

Crime in West Lothian

Looks like our warnings in last months Blog about thieving bag snatching gangs has been heeded, because there were no serious problems over the Christmas and New Year period. However, we did attend a higher number of lock changes than the previous month due to domestic problems.

www.pentlandlocksmiths.com

Our website seems to be proving popular with our customers who continually tell us that they like to search around the various locksmith websites in livingston, West Lothian before returning to our Website because we offer so much more information about our services than the others. Our website will continually be updated over the next 12 months with more customer related information becoming readily available.

Google Adwords & rip-off marketing companies

Google Adwords seems to be all the rage at the moment amongst locksmiths in the Lothians.

But is it all what is seems and does it live up to the hype and promises thats dished out by the marketing companies who offer this service at a price?

Like most other locksmiths we have been bombarded with phone calls from these rip-off merchants promising you the earth if you let them create a Google Campaign for your business.

When they phone Pentland Locksmiths they can't get it through their thick skulls that we already have 14 Google adword campaigns running and we manage it ALL oursleves without paying these twats a single penny.

Do they think that all locksmiths are a bit dim and don't know anything about advertising?

However, there are locksmiths out there who may need this service and are willing to give it a go even though it costs them £100 per month on a 3 month contract. Thats all well and good, but if you have signed up to one of these Google adwords campaigns you need to know the answers to a few searching questions.

1. Do you really think you are getting value for money for your £100 per month?
2. Do you get regular and genuine statistics that shows the campaign is actually working?
3. Do you know your Click to Job ratio?
4. Do you know how much they (marketing company) spend from your £100 towards your adwords?

All these questions are very important because you could be comitting yourself to minimum of £300 with very little return.

Not to give to much away but we run 14 very successfull Google Adwords campaigns and don't spend anywhere near as much as the marketing companies are charging. I would be very surprised if 20% of the monthly amount will actually go to paying the adwords campaign with the other 80% to the greedy and lazy marketing company.

One of the biggest problems with a poor Click to Job ratio is not down to the actual Google Adwords, but simply because the Locksmith has such a poor website with very little content, poor grammar and too many spelling mistakes.

A cheap and nasty ONE page website with spelling errors is a huge turn off for customers who invariably look elsewhere. Customers like to shop around for the most honest and genuine locksmith they can find and searching Google adwords is no different. They will click on a few Google ads until they find the one they think is the best suited to their needs.

This is where the problems start for all those lockmiths using adwords who get regular daily clicks but NO jobs. Clicks cost money and if there is NO call to back it up then a sense of paranoia can develop.

1. Why do I get clicks and NO calls?
2. Is the Marketing company doing what they are paid to do?
3. Are there locksmiths deliberately clicking my adwords?

These are all the emotions that go through your head when you're paying good money and getting NO return. I recently spoke to a locksmith who operates in a different county and he told me that he got so frustrated with getting clicks and NO jobs that he sat at his computer one night and clicked all the other locksmith adverts on numerous occasions.

This is not a good way to deal with it because its not your competition who are preventing you getting work, but yourself. If we all started clicking each others ads then where would it all end?

To be totally blunt - if you have a crap website that's linked to your Google Adwords then thats the reason its costing you money with no return.

But if can't build a good website without having to pay some marketing company hundreds of pounds for the privilege, then you are stuffed!

I was hoping to write more about the numerous hoax calls we have been getting from Livingston about lost car keys, but I've run out of space. These idiots know full well we don't advertise for car entry and therefore don't do it and thats the only reason they phoned us.

Hopefully, they will realise that even 24 hour locksmiths are entitled to spend time with their families on a Sunday without being continually harrased by some twats who have nothing better to do with their time.

Finishing on a sour note we hope you enjoyed reading and don't be shy with your comments.

Chris

Pentland Locksmiths Services est.2006

www.pentlandlocksmiths.com