Maintenance agreements are the steadiest money in residential HVAC. A customer on a plan calls you first when something breaks, books their tune-ups without being chased, and is worth a lot more over ten years than a one-off repair customer. Most shops know this. Fewer have an agreement that's clear enough that the customer signs it on the spot in the kitchen.
The template below is the one we ship inside General Dispatch for heating and cooling businesses. Fill in the brackets, change what doesn't match how you work, and it's ready to hand over. The rest of this page is what goes in it and why, how to price it, the terms that cause arguments later, and how to sell it without feeling like a salesman.
What goes in an HVAC maintenance agreement
Every good maintenance agreement answers the questions a homeowner will ask you later, before they ask them:
- Who and what. The customer, the service address, and each system covered. Write the systems out (main house split system, garage mini-split) so nobody argues later about whether the second unit was included.
- What each visit includes. A spring cooling tune-up and a fall heating tune-up, with the checklist for each. A checklist on paper is what makes $199 a year feel like a deal and not a fee.
- What the plan gets them. Priority scheduling, a repair discount, no overtime charges, whatever you offer. Two tiers is plenty. Three makes people stall.
- Price and how they pay. Per system, per year, or monthly by card. Monthly closes more plans than annual, and the card on file makes the renewal automatic.
- Term, renewal and cancellation. Does it auto-renew? How much notice to cancel? What happens to a plan cancelled halfway through?
- What's not covered. Parts, refrigerant beyond a top-off, duct cleaning. Say it now, so a repair bill isn't a surprise.
- Repairs found on a visit. Quoted on the spot, done only with their approval.
That's it. A maintenance agreement that runs past two pages is an agreement nobody reads, and an agreement nobody reads is one you'll be arguing about in August.
Why spring and fall
The two visits aren't arbitrary. ENERGY STAR's maintenance checklist recommends checking the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall, because contractors get busy once summer and winter arrive. It also tells homeowners to change filters regularly, since a dirty filter raises energy costs and can damage the equipment.
That's your sales pitch too, and it's a true one: a plan customer is already on your calendar before the first heat wave, when everyone else is waiting a week. The tune-up in April is the reason their condenser doesn't quit in July, and if it does, they're at the front of the line.
How to price a maintenance plan
There's no one right number. It depends on your market, your labor rate, and what you include. A simple way to land on yours:
| Step | Example |
|---|---|
| Your normal price for one tune-up | $129 |
| Two visits at full price | $258 |
| Plan discount on the visits (about 20 to 25%) | $199 a year |
| Offered monthly | $17 a month |
| Plus tier: filters, coil cleaning, bigger repair discount | $279 a year |
These are example numbers, not a price guide. The point of the math: the plan should feel cheaper than paying per visit, while the repair discount and priority scheduling are what keep them renewing. Price per system, so a house with two units pays for two. And don't price the Plus tier so close to Standard that nobody can tell the difference; the gap is what makes Standard look like the sensible choice.
One more thing owners get wrong: the plan isn't where the margin is. The margin is in the repairs a plan customer approves on the spot because they already trust you, and in the replacement they buy from you in year six instead of from the company with the billboard. Price the plan to be signed, not to be profitable on its own.
The terms that cause arguments later
Four clauses do most of the work in a maintenance agreement, and they're the four most shops leave vague.
Renewal. Say whether it renews on its own and how much notice either side gives. The template uses 30 days in writing, which is long enough that nobody is surprised and short enough that you aren't carrying a customer who moved away. If you bill monthly by card, say that the renewal is automatic unless they cancel.
Cancellation and refunds. Let them cancel any time. A customer who feels trapped tells the neighborhood. The fair version, and the one in the template: refund what they paid minus the visits already made, charged at your standard tune-up price. So a customer who paid $199, got the spring visit and cancels in June gets $70 back, and you got paid full price for the visit you did.
Unused visits. They don't carry over. If they did, you'd be doing three tune-ups in one spring for a customer who skipped last year, and the plan would stop meaning anything. Say it plainly and say it once.
Missed appointments. A no-show without notice may count as a used visit. You'll rarely enforce it. Having it in writing is what makes the customer answer the reminder text.
Under all of that sits the one line that saves the most arguments: what's not covered. Parts, refrigerant beyond a top-off, duct cleaning, and any system not listed. A plan customer whose compressor fails in year two should already know the plan gets them a discount on the repair, not a free repair.
Maintenance agreement vs service agreement
People use the names interchangeably, but there's a useful difference. A maintenance agreement is about scheduled preventive visits: the tune-ups, the checklist, the plan perks. A service agreement is broader, and often commercial: response times, labor rates for repairs, sometimes parts coverage. For residential customers, the maintenance agreement is the one that sells. Keep repair pricing out of it except as a discount.
If you do commercial work, you'll want both documents, and the service agreement is the one to have a lawyer look at, because it's the one that promises a response time.
How to sell it
The agreement sells at the end of a visit, in the house, by the tech who just did the work. Not by mail, not from the office a week later. The tech has just shown the homeowner a dirty filter or a capacitor reading low, and the honest line is short: "We do this twice a year for plan customers, and you'd be first in line if it quits in July. It's $17 a month." Then hand them the agreement, or send it to their phone.
Three things make that moment work. The tech has to know the price without looking it up. The agreement has to be one they can sign right there, not one you'll email later. And the shop has to actually book the fall visit, because a plan customer who never hears from you in October cancels in November.
That last part is the one most shops lose. The plan sells on the tune-up and dies in the calendar.
Making it signable
A paper agreement works. The trouble is what happens after: it lives in a folder, nobody remembers the renewal date, and the fall tune-up never gets booked.
In General Dispatch this agreement is a built-in template. You (or Jack, or your own agent) fill in the customer and the systems, and the customer gets a link in your brand to read it, pick a tier and sign on their phone. Once it's signed, tell Jack to book the tune-ups and they go on your tech's calendar with reminder texts before each visit, so the plan actually gets used. When a plan customer calls after hours, the AI receptionist already knows they're on a plan. It's free to set up, so you can send yourself one and see what your customer sees.