Memberships are recurring service plans. Customers pay you on a schedule (monthly, quarterly, annually) — in return, they get a number of included visits, a discount on additional work, and priority service.
For shops doing $1–10M, memberships are usually the single largest improvement to revenue predictability and customer retention you can make.
The model
| Concept | What it is |
|---|---|
| Membership template | Defines the plan — name, price, billing cadence, included visits, member discount. |
| Customer enrollment | One customer signed up to one template. |
| Member visit | One of the included maintenance jobs (e.g. Spring tune-up, Fall tune-up on a $19/mo Comfort Club plan). |
| Member invoice | The recurring charge. |
Lifecycle
- Create a template — see Creating a membership template.
- Enroll a customer — see Enrolling customers in a membership.
- Recurring billing kicks off — see Recurring billing for memberships.
- Member visits get scheduled — see Converting membership visits to jobs.
- Discounts auto-apply on any other work — see Applying member discounts.
The value exchange
| What members get | What you get |
|---|---|
| 1–2 maintenance visits per year (spring + fall tune-up) | Recurring revenue — predictable monthly cash, not just billable visits |
| 10–20% discount on parts and labor for any other work | Lock-in — members rarely switch competitors when they have a plan |
| Priority scheduling (same-day or next-day) | Density — maintenance visits cluster spring + fall; you can scale labor around them |
| Loyalty rate — multi-year members get more discount | Upsell — techs find capacitors, filters, ducts during member visits. Repair revenue follows maintenance |
What members give you (data-wise)
A card on file. That's it. Run a Call requires a card on file before activating a membership — otherwise there's nothing to bill against.
Customer-facing view
Members see their plan summary on the customer-facing job and invoice pages — Savings this year: $187, Next visit: Apr 15. It builds the sense of value.
Pricing recommendations (industry rule of thumb)
| Lever | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Monthly price | Between $15 and $25 for residential. |
| Annual discount | 10–15% over month-by-month (so $179/yr vs $19/mo × 12). |
| Discount on repair work | 10–15% (enough to be felt, not enough to crush margin). |
| Number of visits | 2 (spring + fall) for HVAC. |