GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Tune-Ups & Maintenance Plans

Offering a Maintenance Plan After Every New Door and Opener Install

A new garage door or opener is one of the bigger purchases a homeowner makes for their house. The day it goes in, the customer is excited, a little relieved the old one is gone, and thinking about how to keep the new one working. That is the moment to offer a yearly maintenance plan, and it is one of the easiest yeses your company will ever hear.

Installs Are the Other Big Source

Repairs are one major source of new plan customers, as covered in Offering a Tune-Up Plan After Every Garage Door Repair. Installs are the other. A repair customer is relieved. An install customer has just spent real money and wants to protect it.

The pitch writes itself: “Your new door is all set. We offer a yearly tune-up where we come back, go over the door and opener, and leave you a written inspection report. Want to add it?”

Keep it honest. Do not make promises about how long the new door will last with or without the plan, and do not make any claim about manufacturer coverage. The plan sells on a trained tech's eyes on the door once a year and the record that comes with it.

Make It Part of the Install Quote

The cleanest way to sell plans on installs is to put the plan right on the estimate. When the office builds a new door or opener estimate from your service list, add the yearly tune-up as an optional line. The customer sees it next to the door, understands what it is, and can include it when they approve the estimate online.

Save it in your estimate templates. If you have a “New 16x7 insulated door” template and a “Belt drive opener install” template, both can carry the tune-up line. Nobody has to remember to add it.

If the customer did not choose it on the estimate, the install tech can mention it again when the job is done. Some customers just need to see the new door working first.

The New Equipment Goes on the House

An install is the best possible moment to document the garage. Everything is new and every label is readable. In GarageDoorBossPro, the new door and opener are saved on the house with their details:

• Brand and model number
• Serial number
• Year installed
• Size, such as 16x7 or 9x7, or opener HP
• Drive or material: belt, chain, screw or wall-mount jackshaft; steel, insulated steel, wood, aluminum & glass or composite
• Bay, such as single, double, bay 1, bay 2 or detached

Springs, cables & drums, keypad, remotes and safety sensors can be saved too. Equipment details filled in on the estimate carry onto the job, and changes on the job flow back to the house. When the first tune-up comes due, the tech sees exactly what was installed, and when.

The First Tune-Up Is Easy

A tune-up on a door you installed is about the most straightforward visit there is. The tech knows the door, the opener and the hardware because your company put them in. The inspection is quick, the condition is usually Good, and the report reinforces that the customer made a good choice.

That first clean report matters. It sets the tone for the plan. A customer whose new door gets a Good rating and a tidy report every year sees the plan as part of owning the door, not as an extra charge.

Opener-Only Installs

Not every install is a full new door. Opener replacements are common, and they are a great time to offer a plan as well. The tune-up checks the opener force & limits, the auto-reverse safety test, the photo-eye sensors, the keypad and the remotes, all of which matter on a new opener.

An opener install is also a chance to document the door that stayed. Save its size, material and an approximate year installed on the house. That record will be useful at the first tune-up, and very useful on the day the customer asks about replacing the door too.

Card on File, Plan on the Client

Install customers usually pay with a card, and that card can go on file for the plan. When the customer says yes, the tune-up plan is added to the client with your price and 365 minimum days between visits. The card on file can be charged when the tech completes each tune-up.

If you set up the plan right after the install, the first tune-up comes due about a year after the door went in. That is a natural rhythm for the customer: every year, around the time they got their new door, the tune-up comes around.

Plans sold after installs and repairs, added together, are how a garage door company builds steady recurring work. That idea is covered next in Building Recurring Revenue Between Garage Door Installs. For the full tune-up program, see the garage door maintenance software page.