An HVAC business with 200 maintenance agreements is a fundamentally different company from one with none. Not because of the plan revenue — that part is modest — but because it knows what March looks like before March arrives.
What a plan is actually worth
At $180 a year, 200 agreements is $36,000. Useful, not transformative. The real value sits in three places:
- Two guaranteed visits a year to a system you are tracking the age of. Replacement conversations happen on your schedule, not during a heatwave.
- Filled shoulder seasons. Spring and autumn are where small HVAC shops bleed. Plan visits are work you can schedule into exactly those weeks.
- Customers who do not shop. A plan member calls you first. Everyone else calls whoever answers.
What to include
Keep it to things you can deliver consistently:
- Two visits a year — heating before the cold, cooling before the heat.
- Standard filters included. It is cheap and it is the most visible benefit.
- Priority scheduling when it is busy. This is what they are really buying.
- A discount on repairs — 10–15% is typical.
- No overtime surcharge on emergency calls.
Avoid including parts or anything open-ended. A plan that can lose you money on one customer is a plan you will quietly stop selling.
What to charge
Most residential plans land between $150 and $250 a year for a single system, with $80–120 for each additional one. Work it from your own numbers: two visits at your real hourly rate, plus filters, plus a margin — and then check that the discounts you are promising do not erase it.
Monthly billing converts better than annual. $16 a month reads as nothing; $192 reads as a decision.
When to sell it
At the end of a repair, while the system is fixed and the relief is fresh. Not as a cold offer, and not on an invoice. The line that works is a question rather than a pitch:
That’s sorted. This unit is nine years old — most of what I just fixed shows up on a tune-up before it breaks. We do two visits a year for $16 a month, filters included, and plan customers go to the front of the queue in August. Want me to set it up?
The part everyone gets wrong
Selling plans is easy. Delivering them is where businesses fail. If nobody remembers to book the autumn visits, you have sold an obligation you are not fulfilling, and renewals collapse in year two. The reminder system is not optional admin — it is the product.
Build and run the plans in one place
Toolbelt’s Maintenance Plan Builder turns a plan into a priced, signable document in a minute, and seasonal reminders email the customer when the next visit is due and roll the date forward on their own. Equipment and filter sizes stay logged against the customer. Three free estimates, no card.
See also fall tune-up season and getting more Google reviews. Or Toolbelt for HVAC.