"My insurer wants to know what lock you put in"
Three months after a lock change, a customer emails. They are renewing their home insurance, or making a claim, and the insurer has asked what locks are on the doors. The customer remembers that your engineer mentioned the new lock was the kind insurers like. They want something in writing that says so.
The office opens the job. The invoice line reads "supply and fit 5 lever mortice sashlock". No brand, no model, no photo. The engineer who did it thinks it was the usual one they carry, but the van stock changed in the spring. Someone now has to phone the engineer, check the wholesaler invoices from that month and write a letter by hand, while trying not to state anything the business cannot stand behind.
The invoice was written for payment, not for evidence
Locksmith invoices are built to get paid quickly on the doorstep. That is the right priority on the night, but it means the invoice holds a description, not the product details a third party later wants to see.
- Parts are described generically, so the brand and model are lost.
- The standard markings printed on the product or its packaging are not recorded.
- Photos of the fitted lock, if taken, stay on the engineer's phone.
- Customers ask weeks or months later, when nobody remembers the job.
- Each request is answered with a one-off letter, worded differently each time.
Whether a particular product satisfies a particular insurance policy is for the customer and their insurer to decide. Your business can only describe what was fitted. The problem is that, today, it often cannot even do that.
Each request eats office time and carries risk
Looking up an old job, ringing the engineer and drafting a letter takes time that is never billed. Worse, a letter written from memory can say more than you know. If it names the wrong product, you have put something inaccurate in writing that the customer may rely on.
And the customer is not impressed either. They wanted a quick document, and got a wait and a vague answer.
What was fitted, recorded at the time it was fitted
We change the point at which the details are captured: on the job, as the engineer finishes, not months later in the office.
- Your parts list in the job app holds the brand, model and the markings the manufacturer prints on each product, so the engineer picks the exact item rather than typing a description.
- The engineer takes a photo of the fitted lock and, where it helps, of the packaging, inside the job, so it is stored against that job.
- The job record holds door, position and product for each lock fitted, which matters when a job covers several doors.
- A fitted-parts document is generated from the job: your business details, the address, the date, the doors and the products with their markings as stated by the manufacturer. The wording is agreed with you once and does not change job to job.
- The document goes out with the invoice if the customer wants it, or can be sent on request later from the office in a couple of clicks.
- The document says what was fitted. It does not say whether anything meets a policy, and the standard wording makes that clear.
| Request | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Insurer asks what lock was fitted | Phone the engineer, search invoices | Open the job, send the fitted-parts document |
| Several doors on one job | One vague line on the invoice | Each door listed with its product |
| Customer needs a photo | Probably on someone's phone | Stored on the job |
| Wording of the letter | Different every time | Fixed wording agreed once |
This builds on the parts records you may already keep for stock. If your job management software already stores products per job, we connect to it rather than duplicating it.
Requests become a two-minute task
The office answers these emails by finding the job and sending a document. Customers get something clear and factual that they can forward to their insurer. Engineers are no longer rung on a Saturday to remember a lock from last spring.
You also gain a record that helps elsewhere: when a customer calls back with a fault, the office can see exactly which product is on which door before sending anyone out.
Does this sound familiar?
- Customers ask for insurance letters and it takes days to answer them.
- Invoices describe locks generically, without brand or model.
- Photos of fitted locks are not stored with the job.
- Letters to customers are written from scratch each time.
- You have worried about what a hand-written letter might have implied.