AI phone assistant for locksmiths
A lockout call comes from the doorstep, in the cold, often at night. Tel-Agent asks the three things that matter and reaches you fast.
- Locked out now
- Anyone inside
- Door or car
Why a locksmith's phone is answered from a doorstep
A locksmith's calls are made by somebody standing outside their own front door, usually in the dark, often on a phone that is about to die. They are not going to leave a message and wait. The call that gets answered is the call that gets the job, and the caller will try three numbers in five minutes.
How the AI receptionist handles a lockout call
It answers immediately and takes a callback number before anything else.
It asks whether they are locked out right now, which separates a job from an enquiry.
It asks whether anybody is inside - a child or a vulnerable person is a transfer, not a booking.
It asks whether it is a door, a window or a vehicle, and reads the address back.
It mentions that proof of address will be needed, so nobody is turned away on the doorstep.
What the agent is told to ask
Written by you, in your own words, as the assistant’s instructions.
What a locksmith phone assistant should and should not do
What it does
- Answers at night and takes the number first
- Establishes whether this is an active lockout
- Escalates immediately when somebody is inside
- Reads the address back before ending the call
- Keeps call records on the business's own machine
What it never does
- Explain how to open a lock or bypass a mechanism
- Confirm a price before the lock type is known
- Accept a job without asking who is inside
- Promise an arrival time
- Store address data on a third-party server
Questions
What should a locksmith assistant ask first?
The callback number, before anything else. These calls are made from a doorstep on a phone that is often nearly flat, and a call that drops after the address but before the number is a lost job and a stranded caller.
Why does it ask whether anybody is inside?
Because a child or a vulnerable person locked inside is not a booking - it is a transfer, and in some cases a call to the emergency services rather than to a locksmith. That answer changes what happens next entirely.
Can it quote a price for a lockout?
Only a range the business supplied, and only for a lock type it has been told about. Quoting before the lock is known is how a doorstep argument starts.
Does it handle vehicle lockouts?
Door, window or vehicle is one of the questions, because they are different call-outs with different tools. A vehicle lockout also raises the proof-of-ownership question earlier.
What about proof of address?
It is mentioned on the call rather than on the doorstep. A caller who cannot prove they live somewhere is a wasted journey for the locksmith and a bad hour for the customer, and both are avoidable by saying it early.
Does the EU AI Act allow an AI to answer a lockout call?
Yes, under Article 50 of Regulation 2024/1689, which asks that the caller be told they are speaking to a machine - that line belongs in the greeting you configure. Nothing about this work falls under Annex III, the list of high-risk uses. The distinction the Act draws is between assisting and deciding, and this agent assists: it never decides on its own that a job is or is not an emergency. Austria's KI-Servicestelle at RTR publishes the same reading of the transparency duty.
Who is the data controller for what a caller to a locksmith says on the phone?
You are. A lockout call is ordinary personal data, plus an address a stranger now knows is empty, and Tel-Agent is self-hosted with your own model keys, so the recording, the transcript and the record it writes stay on your server and never reach Dpro GmbH. There is no processor agreement to sign with us because we never receive the data, and the source is AGPL-3.0, so you can check that rather than take our word for it.
Can a locksmith run this in the United States?
There is no single federal AI statute to comply with, but a phone line carries older rules. The TCPA governs automated outbound calls, and consent to record is set state by state. Consent to record is set state by state, and California and Illinois among others want every party to agree. Running the software yourself makes you the caller of record, so the disclosure and the recording switch are yours to set.
Not usable yet. The day it answers a real call will be a release, not a newsletter.
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