Membership Strategy That Works in Every Home Service Business

One of our partner companies went from 300 service contracts to 2,500 service contracts in two years. And in this video, I'm going to walk you through step by step, how to structure service contracts and sell service contracts so you can replicate that in your business. Then we're going to talk about how to market to your service contracts to get the most out of the lifetime value and cut down on churn. Before we get into that, the big elephant in the room is that I can't sell service contracts. My business isn't set up for that. It's a one time thing. They do it every four years. I've heard it all. I used to be in the trades at a home service business doing $3 million and it was an air duct cleaning company and contracts was non existent because duct cleaning, you need it done every three to five years. Dryer van cleaning, maybe every one year. But it's not an emergency type of service that people are going to want to pay ahead of time for. So the first thing we're going to discuss is the three different types of memberships and how you can set them up for your business. The first type of membership is a freemium membership. So at that air duct cleaning company, we had the same issue that no one wanted to pay up front for a service contract because they were just going to call us whenever they need their ducts cleaned or their dryer van clean. So what do we do? We set up a freemium option where customers that came through our funnel got auto enrolled in our membership. The beauty of this was that every single person came in as a Clean Air member and we made them aware of the benefits that they received, which was priority scheduling for their annual driver van cleaning, which means we're going to call them and actively have them on the schedule every four years. They're going to be set up for their duct cleaning job. They're also going to get discounts on bird guards and flex lines and aero seal and any other services that they would get done with us. They can participate in these type of advantages. Now creating the membership is great, but the marketing part is the big piece that we're going to talk about down the line. But if you can't figure out how much to charge or how to set people up, just set up a membership and auto enroll people into a membership and we're going to talk about how to treat people as members later on in this video. Number two, the second type of membership is the partial membership. The partial membership is good for companies like Gutter cleaning companies, people need you once or twice a year, but it's not emergency type of service. People will call you when they need you and you don't really know how to price your stuff. So what we recommend doing is this. If you can't come up with a service contract for gutter cleaning, for example, example, you do twice per year bookings. So someone calls to schedule their gutter cleaning and you say, hey, we actually have this program where you set up two gutter cleanings for the year and you get a discount. Let's say it's 10 off when you schedule your second one. And then every year we're going to be proactive about scheduling you. That way you don't have to worry about scheduling your gutter cleanings. And it's on the book. Here's the big part to this. You auto enroll them into your membership like I talked about before. But now, every single January in your shoulder season, you call every single person in your membership and you get them on the calendar for the next year. So, so you're proactively scheduling them on the calendar. And if you want to give them some discount for different services or different promos that happen throughout the year, that's great. We're going to talk about the marketing piece after this. The first part is structuring your memberships because people say, I can't structure a membership. I don't know how much to charge. These are very simple ways to set them up. The third one is your typical membership, which would be H Vac, plumbing, electrical. And I'm going to talk more specifically about how to sell these service contracts because most people get hung up on who should sell it and how to sell it. So one of the benchmarks when it comes to these types of service contracts is for every $1 million in revenue, you should have 500 service tracks. That's a good benchmark to shoot for to make sure that if you are going to sell your company or even just create a sustainable business of returning customers, you want to have 500 service contracts for every $1 million in revenue. So quick story. That company that I mentioned at the top with 300 service contracts and now 2500 service contracts, this is what they did. They incentivize their customer service representatives to sell service contracts, which then freed up their technicians to be true sales techs and sell bigger ticket items and not worry about service contracts. And here's what that looks like. Someone calls in to get work done. And here's the script that the CSR would Use the CSR would say something like, would you like to save money on your service today? Great. Because we have a home comfort plan here. We want to keep you comfortable all year round and avoid costly expenses. So what this does is it pays for itself because we're going to give your system a deep cleaning twice a year. In the meantime, if you ever need us, you get an instant savings of 15% off of any repairs. You're also going to be first priority in line every single time. And you'll also have $30 off on the diagnostic, work assessment, examination, evaluation every time we go out. What do you think that. Would you like to save money and join the Comfort Plan today? Now this is a script. I'm not saying to read all this or say all this. It sounds very scripted when I'm saying it. But however, that sounds very natural for your customer service reference. Something like, hey, do you want to save some money while we're out there? We have this awesome comfort plan. It's going to save you money this time. It's going to save you money when you come out there again, it's going to put you top priority on the list. If you have an emergency, we're going to get out there. Do you want to take advantage of that? Because most people will sign up for this because it saves them money, whatever that sounds like, incentivize your CSRs to get that sale. That way every single call, they can make more money and then you can get more service contracts. This company that went from 250 to 3,000, that's exactly what they did. Now the second part to this is a sell by tech. The technician goes out to the home, right? They're going to be doing the work and they're going to be selling a service contract. Most technicians don't want to be bothered with contracts. You know they're going to make an extra 20, 30 bucks. They'd rather sell the bigger ticket items or just do the repair. They're not salespeople. It's going to be hard for them. What most people do is they actually sell it on the back end with happy calls. And here's a script for happy calls of what you do after the job is completed to sell service contracts. Hey, this is Phil with Flash Consulting. Just checking to see how everything went when John was at your home yesterday for your service, blah, blah, blah. I noticed that you're not a Comfort Plan member with us. Most of our customers join the Comfort Plan because they get discounted rates, priority scheduling. I'm wondering why? See what they say to join our Comfort plan program. It's only 50 bucks per month. Would you like to sign up to receive these benefits? Thanks so much for giving us the opportunity to serve you. We look forward to helping you. Next, these happy calls you're trying to check in and see how everything went, but create another opportunity for the business for people that didn't sign up that maybe need your services again in the future. They can sign up for a service contract. That way, they're priority scheduling and discounts. All right, so those are the three types of memberships. The freemium, the partial, and then the paid contract. Now, once you get service, contracts, memberships, whatever it is, you have to make sure that you are marketing and treating people as they are members. You're going to get high churn if you don't. And more importantly, your membership is just a waste of time if you're not actually utilizing the membership, even if it's the freemium one, to make people aware. So how do you turn your memberships or contracts into lifelong memberships that people want to stay with and pay for or stay on a plan and continue to use you? Number one, you get priority scheduling. So now it sounds like, hey, as a Clean Air member, I actually have exclusive access to this routes for these days. Let me get you on the schedule. You're building up the membership side of things. Or when you're calling someone to schedule them for their spring inspection, for their gutter cleaning, for their next service, their dryer van cleaning on an annual basis, it's like, hey, as a cleaner member, I'm proactively calling you before we open our schedules to the public to get you onto our calendar. You're building that membership inside of everything that you do. Number two, same thing with discounts. When you send out an email, you send out an email to your service contracts or memberships, and you say, hey, we have an exclusive offer that we're only running to our members, and we only have 10 slots left. That's why we're making you aware before we make the public aware of this promo to get you access to it. And then on top of that, anything that you do inside of the actual service, make sure that you highlight. As a cleaner member, you get access to this specific thing, this additional service, this specific scheduling. You get access to this specific technician or whatever it is. We put our best guy on this one because of this. You want to build up that membership aura as much as possible when you're communicating with your customer. All right, so once you get the communication down of the service contract. Now we're going to talk about how to market to your service contracts to make sure that they know what it's all about, continue to stay with you and see value in any type of membership or service contract that they're paying for. The first one is email marketing. The number one thing that you can do if you have service contracts, memberships, whatever that sounds like, is an intro email. So when someone gets enrolled into a membership or signs up for a service contract, you have an email sequence that goes to them. Inside of that email sequence, you have a video from the owner that says, hey, thanks so much for joining our comfort plan. We can't wait to serve you as part of that membership. It's my commitment to you that you have priority scheduling, discounted rates, all the other things in a video format. It builds a lot of trust. The other thing that you want to talk about is what to expect next. How are we going to be communicating back and forth the value that you're going to get inside of this service contract. An intro to some of the technicians that you're going to see. You want to build up this whole membership series. That way people feel like, wow, I'm actually enrolled in a membership. Think like a Costco membership or something else. Everything is Costco members. Scan your card, you get access, access to this exclusive stuff. You get to do certain things when you sign up. It's a big fun thing that you're enrolled in this membership now. People are paying for these memberships and even if they're not, you should still treat them as if they were paying for it because they are members. The second thing is seasonal reminders. So instead of just sending out an email newsletter blast to all of your customers, now you can incorporate videos from the owner. Hey, I want to let you know we got a winter storm coming in. The temperatures are going to be dropping. As a Clean Air member with us, you're going to get access to this, this and this. And it's my commitment to you to make sure your home is warm all winter. So if you need anything, please reach out here. Thank you so much for being a member of ours. We can't wait to serve you. However that sounds you want to continue to build this up in a timely fashion when it comes to seasonal reminders. Same thing with discounts and promos, you can do this exact same thing. As a Clean Air member, you get access to these 15% off exclusive deals. And you can take advantage of that here. All right. And the Last thing when it comes to email marketing is value driven content. People don't want to just be bash over the head that hey, buy more stuff, buy more stuff. You need to have some value driven content inside of your membership as well. So I would recommend doing things that you would see in a normal newsletter of educating people, but try and tie it into more of an intimate setting. So if you're having a holiday or some type of an event or something like that, try to make people feel like they're a part of whatever you're doing. A little behind the scenes tour of the shop, a little interview with your technician or someone else. The more people are going to feel like they are actually connected to your business. They're not just paying for some type of membership that hopefully they need like an insurance or something like that. They feel like they're a part what they join. The next thing you can do from a marketing perspective is text marketing. So you don't want to be annoying or spammy, but you want to make sure that people are reminded that they are these cleaner members. So when you're reaching out to schedule spring or fall inspections or the gutter cleanings or the dryer van cleanings, it's like, hey, we're reaching out to our cleaner members first to get them on the schedule. And we're going to be in your area next week doing these inspections. Can we stop by and take care of yours as well? Whatever you decide to send out, you want to make sure that it's in that framework. The other one is anniversaries or birthdays. So if they sign up and you get their birthday information, send them a birthday. Hey, happy birthday. Thanks so much for being part of our family over here. We can't wait to serve you next. Or an anniversary. Hey, it's been a year since we served you last. You've been a year long membership with us. We're so excited to have you inside of our membership and can't wait to serve you next. Whatever that sounds like, a text, an email, all that sounds really good. With a birthday anniversary. These next three strategies are not necessarily from a digital perspective, but they are great strategies that we've seen executed for memberships to make sure that you're getting returning customers coming back into the business. The first one, a lot of real estate agents do this and it works great. And that is a membership event. So all of your past customers, if they are in the freemium model or inside of your membership program, get to come to an exclusive event. What we always Recommend is have some of an event at your facility if you have a warehouse or storage area, and if you don't rent out someplace or have it at a local park where you have a massive event for all of your membership customers or past customers that come into your freemium plan, you can do things like shop tours, truck tours, games, barbecues, giveaways, anything like that to create this membership. Now, realtors, they do a lot of different things, whether it's like a pie day where for Thanksgiving everyone comes to their house and gets pies or something for Halloween with hayrides and different stuff, they usually do a bunch of different things, but they're creating this membership or community feel of all their past customers and just bring a bunch of people like, hey, there's this awesome event that you get exclusive access to as a member in our program. It's such a great way to tie your membership into a community event. And even if you don't do memberships, you should do community events at least one a year where you bring out the community, all your past customers and people come out and just enjoy your business. It's not necessarily a transactional type of relationship. The next one is an online portal. The online portal is huge because you want a place where your customers can interact and you can put this inside of that email welcome series. So that way people know, okay, you're going to go here, you're going to email, and you're going to go here to request service. And you want to guide them to exactly how you want them to engage with your business. So that way you have this open line of communication and they have exclusive access to some type of a membership portal. And then the last one is gamification. And I really like this one. I haven't seen it executed too well, but I think if people did this, it would land with their customers. And that is, once people have been with you for 1, 2, 5, 10 years as a member, you should have some type of a gamification of it, which is after 10 years, you know, give them a $50 gift card to a local restaurant and go by their house and say, thank you so much for being a member with us, or give it to the technician or call them or send them something just to say thank you so much. Because these people have been with you for years, years and years, and you want to acknowledge that and make it a game. Some of the other ways you can do this is like after two years, you get this. After five years, they get this. After 10 years, they get this. And you're making it very sticky for them to want to stay because they feel appreciated based off of how long that they've been a member of yours. You hear this a lot of country clubs where people have been with you for 10, 20 years, or it's like a legacy thing that's been passed on this membership, and they're trying to create that aura of, I've been this lifelong member of this organization. So all these things are great, but you can't sell any memberships if you don't have any leads or customers. Which is why I made this video right here on how we help the home service business generate $1.2 million in four months by streamlining their lead intake process. And if that one's not out yet, you can check this one out.