How home service businesses can sell a yearly plan

Local home service businesses often suffer from big seasonal swings. A contractor might be overwhelmed with bookings in spring and summer, then watch the calendar empty out when winter arrives.

Getting through these quiet spells is stressful. Paying staff and covering your fixed costs gets hard when your income depends on unpredictable emergency calls.

One way to smooth out seasonal drops is to package your services into yearly plans that customers pay for on a regular schedule.

The power of yearly memberships

A yearly plan turns unpredictable emergency repairs into steady monthly income. It evens out your revenue so you can run your business with more confidence all year.

To make a yearly plan work, you cannot simply ask customers to prepay for standard labor. Build the plan around prevention and savings.

Homeowners usually know they should maintain their home, but they often forget to book the appointments until something breaks. A plan fixes this by handling the scheduling for them.

An example of a yearly home service plan

Look at how an independent heating and cooling company can use a yearly plan to protect its winter income.

Instead of waiting for furnaces to break down in December, it can offer the "Four-Seasons Comfort Plan":

• What is included: A full furnace tune-up before winter, an air conditioning service before summer, and new air filters delivered every four months.
• The price: $39 a month.
• Who it is for: Homeowners who want to avoid high energy bills and expensive emergency repairs by keeping their system running well.

This plan changes the business. The company earns regular income during its slow seasons, and the customer gets a system that keeps running without them having to think about it.

Make it easy to join

To help your yearly plan succeed, make it easy to buy. Use automatic monthly card payments instead of sending an invoice each month. Showing your plan's monthly price and terms clearly on your website builds trust and usually helps more people sign up.

When your business has a base of regular members, your marketing costs often drop. You spend less time chasing new leads and more time serving the customers you already have.

What to read next

• Start with the group's main guide, Why customers compare on price.
• Learn how to set your monthly price in How to price an offer.
• See another way to keep customers coming back in Turn one-time customers into regulars.