In this “TPLT Full Access” Release:

• Why memberships should matter to you

• Customer feedback and membership plan design

• Membership pricing

• Membership fulfillment & profitability

• Membership dashboards & reporting

Why service plan memberships SHOULD matter to your business

Service Partner Plans, Maintenance Plans, Memberships… they are known by a lot of different names. At our business, we refer to our membership plan as our “Home Protection Plan” or “HPP” for short.

Disclaimer: I may use the terms above interchangeably throughout this newsletter. Sorry if this is confusing 😃 

There has been A LOT of discussion among industry experts over the years about membership programs, and more often than not… folks don’t agree on pretty basic questions like these:

• Should we keep them or get rid of them?

• How should we price them?

• What’s included in your membership?

• Are they one visit or two visits per year?

While I won’t sit here and tell you that our program is the “right” way, I am going to tell you what has worked well, what hasn’t worked, and what we are changing.

In a seasonable businesses like ours, memberships are critical to managing our performance throughout the year - particularly in the shoulder season.

More importantly, a well designed membership program is good for:

• Your company

• Your customers

• Your team members

Let’s talk through these one-at-a-time down below.

Why are memberships good for your company?

In short, a well run membership program will reduce the “valleys” you see in the graph above.

Absent a large membership base… many contractors sit their team members at home during periods of mild weather.

By scheduling your membership visits during these lulls in demand, you ensure that your business is able to generate revenue during months when the weather is not driving demand calls to your business.

By collecting data on the type of equipment, age of equipment, and location of equipment, you can better market to your membership base to drive revenue. More to come on this in the “Fulfillment & Profitability” section below.

Why are memberships good for your customer?

Here is how I would summarize our membership benefits to a customer:

• Safety - we are dealing with refrigerant, gas lines, carbon monoxide, electricity… let’s make sure everything is working the way that it should.

• Reliability - proper maintenance can ensure that your system works when you need it most, and often you can catch failing parts before they cause you to lose air conditioning on a 110 degree Summer day

• Longevity - by properly maintaining your equipment, you can extend the life of the equipment. Don’t subject your system to unnecessary wear & tear by neglecting maintenance needs.

Why are memberships good for your team members?

I don’t know about you, but I want a full weeks paycheck each week. And so do your team members.

Memberships should be proactively scheduled by your team during periods where demand call volume (i.e., breakdown calls) is low.

Do I need to say more?

Membership Configuration

Check out ServiceTitan’s “Membership Overview” inside of their online Knowledge Base. Configuring your membership programs correctly inside of ST is the first step.

Across our companies, we have nearly 600 rolling billboards driving around the communities we serve. If you haven’t invested in a clean + high impact truck design, you are missing the opportunity to drive more leads. Need help in this area? Shoot Zac a note at [email protected], and tell him that I sent you.

Customer feedback and membership plan design

For nearly 7 years… we had a SINGLE TIER of membership. It was designed to be “all inclusive”, and it was priced accordingly.

This was a MISTAKE!

We ran customer focus groups & surveys, and we surveyed our own field professionals… and here is what we learned:

• Customers wanted more than one option

• Some customers had an existing HVAC provider, but wanted to use our other non-HVAC trades

• Priority Service was among the most valued benefits in the eyes of customers

• Our field pros mistakenly perceived “discounts” to be the most valued by customers

• Our price was too high for many customers (our membership started at $36 per month for one complete HVAC system)

We took all of this feedback and redesigned our program with TWO membership options:

• The Home Protection Plan - Signature (our original all-inclusive plan)

• The Home Protection Plan - Essential (a good value, lower cost option)

The biggest changes?

We removed air filters, humidifier pads, and bi-annual maintenance visits from the HPP-Essential Plan. This significantly reduced direct costs associated with the plan and allowed us to significantly reduce the price of the plan, while still providing priority service and discounts across all trade lines.

We intend to re-target all former HPP-Signature plan members who cancelled due to price or not wanting maintenance visits, and offer our new HPP-Essential Plan. Our goal is to have HPP-Essential member count EXCEED our HPP-Signature member count over the next 2-3 years.

Ultimately, we expect to see the rate of member growth jump significantly with the introduction of a lower priced option - and as a result - we will cover MANY more critical home systems under our plans to include HVAC systems, water heaters, electrical panels and more.

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