GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Running a Garage Door Business

Building Tune-Up Plan Revenue in a Garage Door Business

Repair calls are unpredictable by nature. You cannot plan when someone's spring will break. A yearly tune-up plan is the opposite: work you know is coming, at a price you set, from customers who already trust you. For a small garage door company, a solid base of plan customers smooths out the year and keeps your name in front of homeowners between breakdowns.

Why Plans Matter

The after-hours rules in Emergency and After-Hours Calls: Writing a Policy Your Garage Door Business Can Keep deal with the most unpredictable part of the job. Tune-up plans are the most predictable, and a company needs both.

A tune-up plan does three things. It brings in money on a schedule. It gets a tech in front of the whole door once a year, where they may spot worn rollers or a tired opener before they fail. And it means that when something does break, the customer calls you first, because you were just there.

Decide What the Plan Includes

Keep the plan simple enough that the office can explain it in one breath. A yearly tune-up usually includes a full visual and safety check of the door and opener, lubrication of moving parts, adjustment where needed, a test of the auto-reverse safety and photo-eye sensors, and a written report. Some companies add perks for plan members, such as a reduced or waived service call fee if something breaks during the year, or priority booking in busy season.

Write down what the plan does not include, too. Parts and repairs found during the tune-up are quoted separately. That avoids surprises when the tech finds a frayed cable.

Price It From Your Own Numbers

Price the tune-up like any other service, from the time on site, the drive, the materials and the profit you want. As an example, a company might charge $129 for a single-door tune-up. Houses with more than one door or opener take longer. GarageDoorBossPro saves measurements on each property, including the number of doors and openers, and services can be priced off them, so a three-door house gets a fair price without anyone doing math.

Decide how plan customers pay. Many companies keep a card on file and charge it when the visit is completed. That way, nobody chases a tune-up invoice.

Let the Visits Come Due on Their Own

The biggest risk with tune-up plans is forgetting about them. A list in a spreadsheet gets checked once and then ignored. In GarageDoorBossPro a tune-up plan is recurring work set by minimum days between visits, 365 for a yearly plan. When a visit comes due, it shows on the Waiting List, a live map and list with pins colored not due yet, due now, or overdue past a 7-day grace.

The office books due visits onto the install-and-tune-up van, grouped by area so the route makes sense. Commercial maintenance works the same way at a shorter interval, such as every 90 days, agreed with the account.

Make the Visit Count

A tune-up that looks like a quick spray of lubricant does not get renewed. The tech app gives the tech a door safety inspection checklist: springs, cables and drums, rollers, hinges and brackets, tracks aligned and secured, door balance, auto-reverse safety test, photo-eye sensors, opener force and limits, lubrication, bottom seal and weatherstripping, emergency release, keypad and remotes. The tech records readings such as door size, spring turns, balance, door age and opener age, sets a condition of Good, Needs attention or Repair recommended, and writes recommendations.

The office can print a Garage Door Safety Inspection report for the homeowner from that checklist. A clear report with the tech's recommendations shows the value of the visit, and every “Repair recommended” line is a potential estimate.

Grow the Plan List

Plan customers come from every other kind of work. The best moment to offer a plan is right after a repair, when the customer has just been reminded that doors break. Installs are another natural moment: a new door or opener deserves a yearly check. Customers can also sign up for services and pricing, such as a yearly tune-up plan, from the customer app, with their card captured. The pitch at the end of a repair is covered in Selling a Yearly Tune-Up Plan at the End of a Garage Door Repair Call.

Tag plan customers so they are easy to find in reports, and check every so often how many are on a plan and how many visits are overdue.

Plans as a Base for the Year

A company with a healthy plan list can plan its slow months around tune-ups, give techs steady days, and lean less on paid ads. The rest of the business picture is on the GarageDoorBossPro garage door business software page.