HVAC Maintenance Agreements: How to Price, Sell & Keep Them

A maintenance agreement (also called a service agreement, club, or membership plan) is the one product in an HVAC shop that pays you before the phone rings. Done right, it fills the slow months, gives your techs a reason to be in front of customers every year, and makes the business worth more to a buyer. Done wrong, it's a discounted tune-up that loses money on every visit.

This guide covers what plans usually include, how to price one so it actually makes money, how to sell it without being pushy, and how to keep members renewing. All worked examples use made-up round numbers to show the math. Swap in your own.

Why agreements matter more than they look

They're a big share of the industry's revenue. Market research from Mordor Intelligence's U.S. HVAC Services Market report, as cited by ACCA's blog, puts recurring service agreements at roughly 55% of total HVACR industry revenue. Source: ACCA HVAC Blog, "Strategies for Increasing Service Agreement Sales"

They fill the off-season. ENERGY STAR tells homeowners that "contractors get busy once summer and winter come, so it's best to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall." Those are exactly the shoulder seasons when service calls slow down. A member base gives you scheduled work to put on the board in spring and fall, instead of waiting for the first heat wave. Source: ENERGY STAR, "Maintenance Checklist"

Keeping a customer is cheaper than finding one. Harvard Business Review notes that "acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one," and cites Bain & Company research (Frederick Reichheld) that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. That's research across industries, not an HVAC-specific study, but the logic holds: a member who calls you first is a lead you didn't pay for. Source: Harvard Business Review, "The Value of Keeping the Right Customers"

Buyers pay attention to recurring revenue. Capstone Partners' HVAC Services M&A Update (July 2026) says: "Reliance on aging systems has driven demand for maintenance-focused providers with recurring revenue and repeat customer relationships." If you ever plan to sell, a documented member base with a renewal history is one of the clearest things you can show a buyer. Source: Capstone Partners, "HVAC Services M&A Update"

What's typically included

There's no standard plan, but most are built from the same parts. ACCA's blog lists common benefits as annual tune-ups, exclusive discounts, repair warranties, priority response, and no after-hours fees. Source: ACCA HVAC Blog

A typical residential plan includes some mix of:

• Scheduled visits. Usually one cooling check (spring) and one heating check (fall). Single-visit plans are common in markets with one dominant season.
• A defined checklist. ENERGY STAR's list of what a contractor checkup should cover includes checking thermostat settings, tightening electrical connections and measuring voltage and current, lubricating moving parts, inspecting the condensate drain, checking system controls, cleaning evaporator and condenser coils, checking refrigerant levels, cleaning and adjusting blower components, and inspecting gas/oil connections and burner combustion on heating equipment. It also notes that airflow problems "can reduce your system's efficiency by up to 15 percent." Source: ENERGY STAR, "Maintenance Checklist"
• Priority scheduling. Members go to the front of the line when it's 98 degrees and the board is full.
• A repair discount. Usually a percent off repairs, so members aren't shopping your price.
• Waived or reduced fees. Diagnostic fee, trip charge, or after-hours premium.
• Extras on higher tiers. Filters, a second system at a reduced rate, extended labor warranty on repairs, or a credit toward replacement.

Be careful what you give away. Every benefit has a cost. Priority service costs you nothing on a slow day and a lot on a peak day. A 15% repair discount costs real margin on every member repair. Put a number on each benefit before it goes into the plan.

Tiered plans

ACCA's blog recommends offering multiple membership levels instead of one plan for everyone, and gives the example of one contractor offering Gold, Silver, and Bronze packages with 13, 10, and 6 benefits. Source: ACCA HVAC Blog

Common ways shops split tiers:

• Basic: the visits and checklist, priority scheduling, a small repair discount.
• Middle: adds waived diagnostic/trip fees and a bigger discount.
• Top: adds filters, extended repair warranties, or a replacement credit.

Tiers do two things: they give a price-sensitive customer a "yes" option, and they make the middle plan look like the reasonable choice. Keep it to three tiers. More than that and the tech can't explain it at the kitchen table.

Need the actual agreement? Our free HVAC maintenance agreement template is a copy-paste outline with a tier table, what's included per visit, renewal, cancellation, and exclusions, with placeholders for your own terms.

Pricing a plan so it actually makes money

The mistake is pricing a plan off what the shop down the street charges. Your plan price has to cover what the visits and benefits cost you. Here's the math with example numbers only.

Step 1: Cost per visit. Take the average time a maintenance visit takes, including drive time, and multiply by your loaded labor cost per hour (wages plus taxes, comp, insurance, PTO). Add materials. Say a visit takes 1.25 hours at a loaded cost of $45/hour, plus $10 in materials: 1.25 x $45 + $10 = $66.25 per visit.

Step 2: Direct cost per member per year. Two visits = $132.50. Add a small allowance for the cost of benefits (for example, the expected value of waived fees and repair discounts). Say $20 a year. Total direct cost = $152.50.

Step 3: Add your share of overhead. Maintenance visits use trucks, dispatch, software, and office time like any other work. If your overhead runs $60 per billable hour, two 1.25-hour visits carry $150 of overhead. Fully loaded cost = $152.50 + $150 = $302.50 per member per year.

Step 4: Set the price. A plan priced at $240/year ($20/month) looks fine against direct cost ($152.50, about a 36.5% gross margin), but it's $62.50 short of fully loaded cost. That doesn't mean it's a bad plan. It means the plan is only profitable if it creates enough repair and replacement work from members to cover the gap. Know which one you're running: a plan that pays for itself, or a plan that's a paid lead-generation program. Both can work. Guessing is the problem.

Step 5: Watch margin, not just price. Plan price minus direct cost, divided by plan price, is your gross margin per member. Using the numbers above: ($240 - $152.50) / $240 = 36.5%.

Pricing table: building each tier from cost

The same method works for every tier. Price each one from the bottom up:

Plan price = (labor + parts and materials + benefit allowance + overhead) ÷ (1 − target margin)

• Labor = visits per year x hours per visit (with drive time) x loaded labor cost per hour. If you don't know your loaded rate, the [labor burden calculator](/tools/hvac-labor-burden-calculator) works it out from wages.
• Parts and materials = consumables per visit, plus anything the tier includes (filters, for example).
• Benefit allowance = what you expect the waived fees and repair discounts to cost you per member per year. Start with a guess, then replace it with real numbers from your member history.
• Overhead = visit hours x your overhead per billable hour.
• Divide by (1 − margin), don't multiply by (1 + margin). A 20% margin means dividing by 0.80. Multiplying by 1.20 gives you a 20% markup, which is only about a 16.7% margin. The [markup vs margin calculator](/tools/hvac-markup-margin-calculator) shows the difference.

Hypothetical example only. These numbers carry over from the steps above ($45/hour loaded labor, 1.25 hours per visit, $10 materials per visit, $60 overhead per billable hour) with a 20% target margin on fully loaded cost. They are not market prices, and they're not a recommendation. Use your own costs.

How to read it:

• Prices are rounded. $151.25 ÷ 0.80 = $189.06, rounded to $190. Rounding up is fine; rounding down below the formula price eats your margin.
• Compare with Step 4. The $240 two-visit plan from Step 4 is $140 below the $380 Standard price here. That gap is what you're betting member repair and replacement work will make up. If you price below the formula on purpose, write down how much follow-on work per member you need to close the gap, then track it.
• Most of the cost is time. In this example, labor plus overhead is about 87% of the Standard tier's cost ($262.50 of $302.50). Shaving 15 minutes off each visit (with drive time) moves the price more than cutting the benefits list.
• Second system or add-ons. Price a second unit at the same address the same way, usually with less drive time per visit, so it costs less than a whole second plan.

We don't list "average" plan prices here because we haven't found a published source for them that we trust. Prices vary a lot by market, labor cost, and what's included. For the written contract that goes with these tiers, use the [HVAC service agreement template](/guides/hvac-service-agreement-template).

Our free HVAC maintenance agreement calculator runs this math with your own numbers: margin per member, break-even plan price, and what your member base adds up to in recurring revenue.

Monthly vs annual billing. Monthly billing lowers the sticker shock ("$20 a month" sells easier than "$240 up front") and keeps the plan renewing automatically. Annual billing gets you the cash up front. Many shops offer both and let the customer choose.

Selling agreements without being pushy

ACCA's blog gives a benchmark: service technicians should aim for at least a 25% conversion rate from service calls to service agreements, and specialized maintenance technicians can reach 70% or higher. Source: ACCA HVAC Blog

What tends to move that number:

• The tech believes in it. If the tech thinks the plan is a gimmick, the customer will too. Train techs on what the plan includes and why it helps the customer, not just on a script.
• Offer it every time, at the right moment. After the repair is done and the customer is relieved is a natural time. So is when you're collecting payment and can show what they'd have saved as a member.
• Show the savings on the invoice. "As a member, today's visit would have been $X less" is easier to say yes to than a brochure.
• Leave something behind. A clear one-page handout the customer can read after you leave.
• Ask for referrals. ACCA's blog suggests referral programs that reward members for bringing in friends and family.

Keeping members: renewal and retention

A plan only builds value if members renew. The biggest lever is simple:

• Auto-renew by default. ACCA's blog recommends monthly auto-charge or card-on-file billing so members don't lapse just because nobody sent a reminder.
• Actually do the visits. Nothing kills renewals like a member who paid for two tune-ups and got one. Schedule visits proactively, and track members who are overdue.
• Remind them what they got. Before renewal, send a short summary: visits done, discounts used, fees waived. People forget.
• Call before they cancel. A failed card or a cancellation request is a chance to talk, not just a form to process.
• Track your renewal rate. Members at the start of the year who are still members at the end, divided by members at the start. If you don't know this number, you don't know if your program is growing or leaking.

Common maintenance agreement mistakes

1. Pricing off a competitor's plan. Their costs aren't yours.
2. Giving away too many benefits. Every discount and waived fee is margin. Price them.
3. Selling plans you can't service. 500 members with two visits each is 1,000 visits. Make sure you have the tech hours in spring and fall.
4. Letting visits slip. Unfulfilled visits turn into cancellations and bad reviews.
5. Not tracking which members generate repair and replacement work. That's how you know if a thin-margin plan is paying off.
6. Manual renewals. If renewing depends on someone remembering to call, members lapse.

How does your plan stack up?

The worked examples use placeholder prices. To see how your plan price compares with real shops, add it to the anonymous Owner Numbers survey, which asks about maintenance-agreement pricing.