Maintenance agreement renewals and tune-ups slip through the cracks.
You sold the HVAC maintenance agreement. Now someone has to keep up with the renewal date, the tier, the heating and cooling visits, and every filter and bulb on the schedule. That person is also running everything else.
Sound familiar?
- Renewal dates live in a spreadsheet, the visit notes live somewhere else, and the filter sizes live in a tech's head.
- A member calls to ask why nobody came out for the fall check. You look it up, and it never got scheduled.
- You find out an agreement lapsed long after it ran out, when that customer calls for a repair at full price.
- Tracking tiers, heat checks, cooling checks, filters and UV bulb dates by hand feels like a second job.
What it costs you
Agreements are supposed to be the steady work that carries you through slow weeks. When the visits don't get booked, that steady work turns into holes in the schedule.
A member who never gets a tune-up feels like they paid for nothing. They aren't likely to renew, and it's hard to blame them.
Every lapsed agreement is revenue you'd already earned the right to. Getting it back means selling it all over again.
If you ever sell the shop, a buyer may look hard at whether your agreements really renew. A list that lives in one person's spreadsheet won't hold up well.
Why it keeps happening
Each agreement carries its own dates: when it started, which tier it is, which visits are due, which parts need changing. Across all your members, nobody can hold that in their head.
Those dates sit in different places, so checking on one customer means looking in several.
Renewals belong to everyone, so they belong to no one. The office books today's calls first, and next month's renewals wait.
Tune-up season runs right into your busy season. The visits that keep members happy lose out to the no-heat and no-cool calls.
Who you'll talk to
I'm Kevin Kirchner. On the call, I'll ask how you keep track of agreements now, from the sale to the renewal, and where they tend to slip.
Keeping dates, visits and member records straight is the kind of busywork that can now be taken off your team's plate. What that looks like depends on your shop.
Questions
Are maintenance agreements worth it if we can't keep up with them?
They can be steady work, but only if the visits happen and the renewals come back. An agreement nobody services can cost you the customer.
We track agreements in a spreadsheet. Is that the problem?
Not by itself. The trouble starts when the spreadsheet is the only place the dates live and nobody has time to work it each week.
What exactly do you build?
It depends on how you work today; we figure that out on the call.
Related shop headaches
See all shop headaches, or go back home.
Keep your members coming back
Bring a rough idea of how many agreements you carry and how you track them today. We'll look at where renewals slip, and I'll tell you honestly whether I can help.