A care plan does three jobs for a furnace company: it pays for visits in months when crews would otherwise be idle, it keeps customers from shopping around when something breaks, and it tells you years ahead which furnaces in your area are getting old. This service designs a plan that does all three and covers its own cost.
Why the plan matters more now
Gas furnace replacement is no longer an automatic repeat purchase in every province. Utility and government money increasingly points homeowners towards heat pumps, and a homeowner with no relationship to you will get three quotes from three different kinds of company. A member who has seen your tech every fall is far more likely to call you first, whatever system they end up choosing. The plan protects the relationship even when the equipment changes.
Who it suits
Companies with a care plan that nobody explains, a member count that has been flat for years, or renewals that depend on the customer remembering. It also suits owners who want to sell the company one day, because recurring revenue is something buyers ask about. For exit planning itself, the Sedighi.ca group offers separate advisory work.
What we design
- Delivery cost. We time a plan visit from your records, add drive time and loaded labour, and set a floor price below which the plan loses money.
- Contents. A seasonal furnace visit, filter changes, priority scheduling, a repair discount and, where you install them, a check on any cooling or heat-pump equipment.
- Price and payment. Monthly or annual, and whether to bundle the plan into new installs for the first year.
- The offer moment. When techs mention the plan, and the one-sentence explanation they use.
- Renewals. Who asks, when and how, with a written record of each member's consent before any renewal text or email goes out, as Canada's anti-spam law expects.
- Replacement forecasting. A simple field on each member record for furnace age and condition, so you can see next year's likely replacements by neighbourhood.
A worked example
Suppose a plan visit takes 75 minutes on site plus 25 minutes of drive time, and your loaded labour cost is $70 an hour. Delivery costs about $117 before filters and admin. Add $15 for consumables and booking time and the floor is roughly $132. If you price the plan at $19 a month ($228 a year), each member contributes around $96 a year before repair discounts. With 400 members that is about $38,000 a year of contribution, earned in weeks you choose, plus repair and replacement work from customers who already trust you.
Plans in a changing fuel market
Design the plan so it survives a fuel switch. If a member replaces a gas furnace with a dual-fuel system or a heat pump, the plan should simply extend to cover the new equipment at an adjusted price. Members who would have to cancel and rejoin often don't, and that's the moment a competitor wins them.
Timeline
Design takes about three weeks. Rolling out to techs and existing customers is best done in spring or early fall, when you have time to make the visits. We don't recommend launching a plan in December.
How results are measured
Member count, renewal rate, plan visits completed on schedule, and the share of replacements that come from members. Over a full year, that last figure shows whether the plan is feeding the business.
Mistakes to avoid
- Selling plans you can't deliver on time in October.
- Promising "free" parts or unlimited no-heat calls.
- Letting plans renew silently with no contact, then losing members at the first price change.
- Ignoring the data: furnace ages on member records are the cheapest replacement leads you will ever have.
Plan pricing depends on knowing your labour costs, which the margin review establishes. Plan visits also need slots, which is why care plans and capacity planning are designed together. See the FAQ for questions about how we work.
Frequently asked questions
What should a furnace care plan cost the homeowner?
It should cover your delivery cost, a fair margin and the discounts you promise members. We work that out from your labour rate and visit time rather than copying a competitor's price.
Should the plan include parts?
Usually not, beyond filters and small consumables. Plans that promise parts coverage tend to lose money in a cold winter. Discounts on repairs work better.
How many members do we need before this matters?
The plan starts paying off once visits fill quiet weeks you would otherwise pay crews to wait through. For many companies that begins at a few hundred members.
Can we sell plans to customers who bought from someone else?
Yes, and those are often valuable, because older furnaces installed by others are tomorrow's replacement opportunities. The first visit tells you what you are dealing with.