Even My A/C Repairman Offers A Continuity Program!

I got a little chuckle out of this. And it is an example of smart business.

The other day, we had to call an A/C company out to our house. It got cold here in Florida. Not the bone-chilling cold of a northern state, but more like the “oh, look at the cute little cold Floridian!” kind of cold. We ran the heat in the house. The problem is that it didn’t work very well. The outside unit wasn’t running, so it was running on auxillary electrical heat and just barely keeping up.

Anywho, we called One Hour Heat and Air. So, the guy comes out and does his job. He goes through the whole system and comes back in with a detailed writeup of everything going on with our system.

Two things jumped out at me:

• He was doing some HUGE upselling.
• The company offers a continuity program.

The immediate problem was a simple drain clog on the water line. He cleared it out and now the heat works. Yay. But, he laid out everything he did, complete with amp readings and a bunch of words I was counted on not to understand. He moved to upsell me into a U/V lighting kit that’s supposed to kill bacteria in the air handler, plus some other equipment changes to deal with some electrical jolts going on. So, an $81 dollar bill was being upsold to over $1,700.

Then came the continuity program. If I join the Comfort Club for $17/month, I get discounts on the upsells, plus a twice-a-year system check.

As a marketer, I’ve got to appreciate this. They managed to build a monthly program into an A/C repair business. Not only that, but each of those 6-month system checks provides ripe opportunity to upsell me. Plus, they offer immediate discounts on recommended work if I join the monthly program.

Of course, I turned down all of this. The repairman was very nice, and he did what I had them come out for.

So, what’s the motto today?

How can you build continuity into YOUR business?

I mean, we’re talking A/C repair here and they did it. It is incredibly smart business.

Whether you run an online business or an offline one, there is a good chance you can find a way to build a recurring payment plan into what you offer. Continuity is an awesome business model, too. Makes things a lot more predictable and keeps revenue steady.

Think about it.

What examples of continuity programs have you seen from offline businesses that you thought were pretty creative? Comment and let me know!

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