How to sell service agreements and maintenance plans

A service plan, also called a maintenance agreement or maintenance plan, is a signed agreement for the company to come back on a schedule and do named work at agreed prices. For an exterior cleaning company that might be a house wash twice a year and a roof treatment every other year. For a window cleaner, four visits a year. For a gutter company, a clean-out every fall.

The plan is the promise. Each visit is still a real job with a crew, a date and an invoice. What changes is that the office no longer has to win that customer again every year.

Because plans give you recurring revenue you can schedule around, cheaper sales (you sell once and serve for years) and steadier work in slow months. They also make the business easier to run and easier to value if you ever sell it.

• Booked work before the season starts. You know in January how many spring visits are coming.
• Lower cost per job. No ads, no quote visit and no follow-ups for the second, third and fourth visit.
• Better routes. Plan visits can be scheduled where you already have work, which improves route density.
• Fewer price fights. A customer on a plan compares you with last year, not with three new quotes.
• Smoother cash flow. Slow months fill with plan visits you placed on purpose.

A plan should say exactly what happens at each visit, how often visits happen, the price, when it starts and ends, and how to cancel. If a customer can't explain their plan to their spouse in one sentence, it is too complicated.

Use a rotation when visits differ

Many plans do not repeat the same job every time. A rotation lists each visit's own services and price, so the crew does the right thing and the invoice is right without anyone retyping it.

Start from what each visit would cost as a one-off job, then decide what to give back for the commitment. Plan visits usually cost you less to sell and schedule, so a modest discount or a perk can still leave more margin than the one-off job.

plan price per year = sum of each visit's price in the rotation
plan visit price = one-off price × (1 − plan discount)
plan value over its life = yearly plan price × expected years kept

• Discount or perk, not both, to start. "10% off every plan visit" is clear. So is "priority booking and free window rinse".
• Keep the discount small. The real value to the customer is not having to think about it. A deep discount trains them to value the work less.
• Price per visit, show the year. "$380 a visit, two visits a year" reads better than one big number, and it matches how you invoice.
• Plan for price changes. Say in the terms that prices are reviewed once a year and that you give notice before a change.

The service plan revenue calculator shows what a plan book is worth a year at your prices and how much it grows as you add plans.

Right after a job the customer is happy with, and as an option on the first quote. The before and after is fresh, the crew is still there, and the customer has just seen the result.

1. On the quote. Make the plan one of the options (see good, better, best quotes): "One-time wash $380, or twice a year on a plan at $342 a visit."
2. At sign-off. When the customer approves the work, the crew lead can say, "Want us to put you on the schedule for the fall?"
3. In the thank-you message. A short email after the job with the plan and a link to sign.
4. At the re-service date. When a customer is due again (a year after a house wash, for example), offer the plan instead of another one-off.
5. For commercial and HOA customers, in writing up front. They budget yearly and often prefer a fixed schedule.

Put every plan visit on the schedule as a real job weeks before it is due, and give the office one list of visits that still need a date. Plans fail when the next visit lives in someone's head or on a paper list.

• Make the visit ahead of time. A visit should appear in the scheduling tray several weeks before it is due, with its services and price already on it.
• Schedule plan visits first. They are already sold. Fit one-off work around them.
• Pause, skip and catch up on purpose. A customer away for the summer needs a pause with a resume date, not a cancelled plan.
• Tell the customer before you come. A reminder with the date and what will be done.
• Watch who is due and not booked. A weekly look at overdue plan visits catches problems early.

They are bigger, more scheduled and more paperwork. An HOA or a property manager wants a fixed calendar, one invoice for several properties, a purchase order number on each invoice and the same crew every time.

• Agree the calendar in writing: "entrances in March, June, September and December, the week before the board meets".
• Bill the payer, serve the property. The management company pays; the site manager is who the crew calls.
• Expect [net terms](/glossary/net-terms). Commercial customers often pay on terms such as net 30, so plan your cash for the wait.
• Price the access. Early starts, gate codes and closed pool decks cost time.

Make renewal the default and cancellation easy. Customers sign more readily when leaving is simple, and a customer who wants out but can't get out turns into a bad review.

• Remind before the renewal. A short note a few weeks before the plan year ends, with any price change.
• Cancel in one step. Reply to a message, call the office or use a link. Put the steps in the plan terms.
• Ask why. "Moving", "price" and "not happy with the last visit" need different responses.
• Check your state's rules. If a plan renews automatically or charges a saved card, ask your accountant or attorney which automatic-renewal rules apply where you work.

Multiply the number of plan customers by visits per year and the average visit price. Even a modest plan book can fill weeks of the calendar before you spend anything on ads.

Example with invented numbers: a company with 150 plan customers at two visits a year and an average plan visit of $360 has 150 × 2 × $360 = $108,000 a year of booked work. At about 6 visits per truck per day, that is 50 truck days already sold.

yearly plan revenue = plan customers × visits per year × average visit price
truck days filled = (plan customers × visits per year) ÷ visits per truck per day

• Service plans repeat every N weeks, every N months or in chosen months, with a preferred crew, weekday and time.
• A plan can be one visit repeated or a rotation where each visit has its own services and prices.
• Each visit becomes a real job with the plan's services and prices, in the scheduling tray ahead of time, tagged with its due date.
• Plans can be edited, paused with a resume date, skipped for one visit, or caught up, without cancelling and reselling.
• Customers sign the plan online (typed name, drawn signature and an agree box) from a link the office emails or copies.
• A list shows customers who are due again, with their last price and crew, so one-off customers can be offered a plan.
• Plan visits are invoiced like any job. Invoices are marked paid by hand today; card payments are coming.