Annual service plans: turning one-off jobs into regular work
How a service plan or maintenance contract gives a trade business steady work and steady income, and what to put in place before you sell one.
By The Osmuch team · · 6 min read
In short
- A service plan turns a customer you saw once into work you can see coming months ahead.
- Decide whether the plan books a visit, simply bills on a schedule, or both.
- Write down the price, how often, how long the customer is committed and how either side can end it.
- Selling to households off premises or online brings a 14-day cancellation right.
- Remind yourself before each visit is due, not on the day.
Most trade work is one-off: a call, a job, an invoice, and then nothing until something breaks again. A service plan changes that. An annual boiler service, a quarterly safety check or a monthly grounds visit puts your name in the customer's diary every year and gives you work you can plan around.
What a plan can be
There are two broad shapes. The first books a visit: a service every twelve months, paid per visit or by monthly instalments. The second simply bills on a schedule, such as a monitoring fee, a retainer or a rental, with no visit attached. Many plans are a mix. Decide which you are selling before you price it, because the paperwork follows from it.
Pricing a plan
Start from what a single visit costs you, in time and parts, and what you would charge for it as a one-off. A plan usually costs the customer a little less in return for the commitment, and costs you less too, because you can plan the route and book the work in a quiet month. If the plan includes call-outs or parts, be realistic about how often they will be used. A plan priced on the assumption that nothing ever breaks will lose money.
Write the terms down
- What is included in each visit, and what is not.
- How often visits happen, or how often the customer is billed.
- The price, and how and when it can change.
- How long the customer is committed for, if at all.
- How the customer can cancel, and how much notice you will give if you change or end the plan.
Selling to households
If you sell a plan to a private customer at their home or online rather than at your premises, the Consumer Contracts Regulations usually give them 14 days to change their mind. If they ask you to start within that time, they may have to pay for what you have already provided. Give them the cancellation information in writing when they sign up. The rules on consumer subscriptions are being tightened, so check the current position before you design a plan that renews automatically.
This is general information, not legal advice. Check the rules that apply to your plan, particularly for automatic renewal and cancellation, before you sell it to consumers.
Running the plan
The work is in the reminders. A visit that is due on the first of the month needs booking a couple of weeks before, the customer may need a call to arrange access, and parts may need ordering. Look ahead each week at what is coming due, and keep an eye on any visit that has slipped past its date without being booked, because that is the one the customer will remember.
Keep track of what has been billed and what has been paid. A plan where the monthly payment quietly stopped three months ago is a plan you are now delivering for free.
Questions
Can a customer cancel a service plan?
If you sold it to a private customer at their home or online, they usually have 14 days to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. After that, it depends on the terms you agreed, so set out clearly how either side can end the plan.
Should a service plan renew automatically?
Many do, but automatic renewal for consumers is an area where the rules are being tightened. Make renewal and cancellation terms clear, and check the current rules before you rely on it.
How far ahead should I book a service visit?
A couple of weeks before it is due is a good starting point. It gives time to arrange access with the customer and order any parts.
Doing this in Osmuch
Osmuch handles plans under Subscriptions. Each one either books a visit onto the calendar a set number of days before it is due, as a project with its parts and people already on it, or simply raises a bill on schedule. You can set the tie-in, the customer's notice period and the notice you give, build packages several customers share, and price lines from reusable tariffs. Each subscription shows what has been billed and what has been missed, visits due soon appear in the daily digest, and a checklist lists the legal requirements that apply to selling subscriptions, with a note that it is not legal advice.
Guide: setting up a service contract · Guide: connecting your stripe account · Guide: invoicing a completed job