Hudson, Ink


For those contractors who do them right, maintenance agreements are the bread and butter of year-round cash flow and steady work in season and out. But what is the “right” way to do them?  Let’s go over the main ingredients of a successful MA.

1) The definition of “is.” What is your agreement? Set your targets on what agreement levels should you offer, what benefits are included, and how will you price the agreements? Price for profit, not for fun. Remember, this is not the way to give away your services but to stay profitable.

2) Generate massive leads through advanced marketing. Don’t make the mistake of running ads that promote the agreement. Successful MA marketing is a two-step process. For contractors, this involves getting a lead via broad marketing – HVAC tune-up, plumbing inspection, electrical safety inspection, repair/service offers, for example – and then converting the lead to an MA on site.

3) Present and close the Maintenance Agreement. Conversion is the second step of the two-step marketing, and here’s where you turn leads into sales without pushy selling. When do you do this? Any time, all the time…

Off Season – You make an incredible offer to your most likely group beginning about 21 days before your lowest call traffic days in the off-season. At the conclusion of the service, you offer the Maintenance Agreement correctly and close the deal.

Peak Season – You can add even more Maintenance Agreements during the busy season  because you’re running more service calls, and every call gets your Maintenance Agreement offer. It reduces their bill that day – which they love – and you gain another job in the next slow season.

4. Amplify relationship. As we say, your current customers are your number one best source for future customers.  We say this so much because we’ve seen how it translates into real dollars.

Retention marketing keeps customers – and brings in business. But not by pumping sales in someone’s face with each contact. It’s about maintaining credible, reliable, trustworthy relationships with your client base. And that’s even more important when you’re talking about maintenance agreement customers.

5. Reward, retain, renew, refer, repeat – Keep it going and keep it growing. The maintenance agreement program is a program that rewards loyal customers – and the contractor that provides this program. Customer retention marketing feeds the strength of the program. An automatic renewal keeps customers in the program.

The biggest benefit of a well-run maintenance agreement program is the guaranteed stream of repeat customers, especially for the bigger ticket items. Since your customers have a maintenance agreement with you and your techs see them at least twice a year, it is near certain that you will get the call for replacement. (The best maintenance programs include discounts for these items, so why wouldn't they call you?)

It also provides a turbocharged referral program. You’re in touch, you’re on their mind, you get referred. You can only get referrals from good relationships, which MAs promote. In addition, a referral generator postcard series to your MA clients can pull referrals automatically.