Paperless Service Agreements for Contractors

The HVAC, plumbing and electrical service businesses have never been very stable. Some months everyone wants you to come around and fit or refit their system and then in other months, you find yourself twiddling your thumbs and waiting for the next mad dash.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way and with a bit of careful planning and a few simple tools in the Jobi Pro Software, you can ensure that your business offers Service Agreements and Maintenance Agreements to bring you work throughout the year. Jobi Pro App also will keep you connected with homeowners.

Why Offer a Service and Maintenance Agreement?

Service Agreements and Maintenance Agreements are ideal for both the client and your HVAC business. The client will have peace of mind that their HVAC unit is in full working order and will be regularly serviced to prevent it breaking or wearing out, particularly in peak seasons; your HVAC business benefits because you can schedule in appointments throughout the year and build up your client retention. This same logic applies for Plumbing and Electrical service providers as well, all administrable and built into Jobi Pro.

Clients also appreciate having this kind of agreement because if you take a single payment to cover several years, it gives them the assurance that their unit will last that long and that they won’t have to wait in a long list of people looking for last minute fixes. They also benefit from a more cost efficient plan and, as these contracts are often bundled in with other services, they are benefitting from a better deal. It’s a win win for you and your customers.

From your perspective, you are making an additional upsell on the original call out and now have a much longer term customer than you would have before. This gives you a better chance to build up a strong customer relationship and hopefully benefit from word of mouth recommendations as well.

How Do You Manage Service and Maintenance Agreements?

As long as they are straightforward agreements (and your most junior member of staff should be able to understand how works for the best effect) then managing your agreements shouldn’t be difficult at all. In fact, if you use Jobi Pro, you can manage all your contracts on your phone via the app.

You can use the dashboard to monitor what has been done in the past and what needs to be done as well as keep up with promised appointments. You can also use custom pricing to ensure that every customer gets the best value and choose from a few different agreements to get the best one. Using terms like gold, silver and bronze make this kind of differentiation easy for everyone to appreciate and understand. Be sure to view the Jobi Pro Video Demos.

In your Service and Maintenance Agreement, you need to put how many visits you are going to schedule and what you will do on those visits. Then, add these visits to your calendar with an automated reminder to make sure it goes ahead. Keep things simple and only offer services that will create value for both you and your client. For example, an annual inspection will provide reassurance for your customer and give you a chance to see if anything else may need doing.

What Should You Include in your Service and Maintenance Agreement?

No-one is going to sign an agreement if they can’t see where the benefit is so you need to make sure that the benefits of the agreement are clear to everyone.

There are a few different routes you can choose from and you may like to have several agreements tailored to different clients. This way you can appeal to lots of different people and they can choose what they would prefer.

Bundled Services

If you are selling a 10 year warranty, it makes sense that you should offer a 10 year service agreement to go with it. This way consumers can do a single payment to cover them for a much longer period of time without worrying about extra fees. You benefit because you ensure their custom for 10 years and get an injection of cash upfront.

Priority Service

As the HVAC business certainly has a high season, it makes sense for some customers to buy a priority pass or premium service to ensure that they are bumped up the line. Again, you can sell this as a long term contract with a single upfront payment or offer it instead of a discount on other services. This is a much cheaper way for you to provide your customers with a benefit and everyone wins.

Smart Agreement Investments

Another good idea is to put a part of their service charge each year into savings that they can access in credits should they need to replace their system or buy a new part. This works a lot like an investment or savings account and will assist your customers in saving up for the future when they will need a replacement HVAC unit. Saving like this encourage customers to stay loyal and over multiple years can make a huge difference to what they can afford. Once again, everyone benefits as you retain their custom without any extra cost and they can save with ease.

Service agreements and maintenance agreements are the best way to encourage customers to remain loyal to your brand and for you to ensure the continued success of your business. Instead of working ridiculously hard one season and then barely scraping by the next, you can regulate your business to make sure work is more consistent.

Finding the areas where you and your clients can benefit from a mutual agreement is the best way to ensure a good relationship. It is also perfect for avoiding costly price reductions and discounts in favor of more tangible benefits that really will make a difference.

And, since you can organize, fulfill demands and keep up with all your customers’ needs from your phone using just an app, it has never been simpler to offer the best in your district and start competing on a new level.