How to Get More Repeat Customers in Home Services

Acquiring a new customer costs 5-7x more than retaining an existing one. For a home service contractor spending $250-400 to acquire a new customer through Google Ads, that means retaining an existing customer costs roughly $50-70 in ongoing touchpoints. Yet the retained customer spends more per visit, refers more often, and never compares you to three other contractors on Google.

74% of home service contractors have no systematic follow-up after the initial job is complete. They finish the work, collect payment, and never contact that customer again unless the customer calls first.

That missing follow-up system is the single biggest revenue leak in most contracting businesses. A customer you served 18 months ago needs you again, but they’ve forgotten your name and are back on Google searching for “plumber near me.”

The economics of repeat business

The numbers tell a clear story about where your marketing dollars should go.

A new customer acquisition through Google Ads costs $250-400 for most home service trades when you factor in CPC, conversion rate, and close rate. Through Angi or Thumbtack, it’s $150-300 per booked job, often for lower-value work.

Retaining an existing customer costs $50-70 per year in email marketing, text messages, seasonal reminders, and occasional direct mail. That’s the total cost of keeping your name in front of someone who already trusts you.

The revenue difference is equally dramatic. First-time customers spend an average of $300-500 per visit on the initial service call. Repeat customers spend $450-700 per visit because they’ve built trust and are more likely to approve additional work, upgrades, and add-on services.

For a detailed breakdown of how this compounds over the customer lifecycle, read our analysis of customer lifetime value in home services.

Top-performing contractors generate 35-45% of their annual revenue from repeat customers. Average contractors generate 15-20% from repeat business. The gap between these two groups almost always traces back to one thing: whether or not they have a follow-up system.

Maintenance agreements: the backbone of repeat revenue

Maintenance agreements are the most reliable mechanism for turning one-time customers into repeat revenue. A customer who signs a maintenance agreement has a 75-80% chance of renewing year-over-year, compared to a 15-20% chance of a non-agreement customer voluntarily scheduling maintenance.

A plumbing company grew from $1.1M to $3M in revenue over 3 years, and the owner attributes the growth primarily to their membership program. They hit 1,000 active members at $99/year, generating $99,000 in recurring revenue. When they added HVAC services, they emailed existing members first — instant cross-sell to a warm audience that already trusted them. No ad spend required. The list they’d built through memberships became a launch channel for an entirely new service line.

Structuring agreements that sell

Monthly billing outperforms annual billing. An agreement priced at $15-20/month feels manageable. The same agreement priced at $180-240/year feels like a large expense. Monthly billing also creates higher retention because canceling means actively deciding to stop a recurring charge, which most people avoid.

A strong maintenance agreement includes:

Scheduled visits. Two visits per year for HVAC (spring and fall). One annual inspection for plumbing. A seasonal service for landscaping. These visits keep your team in the home and give you opportunities to identify additional work.

Priority scheduling. Agreement customers jump the queue during peak season. When it’s 105 degrees and your schedule is packed three days out, agreement customers get same-day or next-day service. This benefit alone justifies the cost for most homeowners.

Discount on repairs. A 10-15% discount on parts and labor for agreement customers. This isn’t a margin killer. The guaranteed revenue from the agreement more than offsets the discount, and it incentivizes the customer to call you instead of shopping around when something breaks.

No overtime or after-hours charges. Waiving emergency fees for agreement customers eliminates hesitation when something breaks at 9 PM. They call you immediately instead of waiting until morning and potentially calling a competitor.

The contractor community has a common benchmark: 500 members per $1M in annual revenue. Mattioni Plumbing (Philadelphia) prices their VIP program at $15.58/month. BillyGO (Dallas) offers a $99/year “NOW!” plan. Both report that members spend 2.5x more per transaction than non-members and generate 256% more revenue overall. Your agreement pricing matters less than getting customers enrolled — the downstream spending is where the real margin lives.

Selling agreements at the right moment

The close rate on maintenance agreements varies dramatically based on when you pitch them.

After a successful repair: 20-30% close rate. The customer just experienced a breakdown. They’re motivated to prevent it from happening again. “This capacitor failure could have been caught during a routine inspection. Our maintenance plan catches these issues before they become emergency calls.”

During a new system installation: 40-50% close rate. The customer just invested $8,000-15,000 in new equipment. Protecting that investment with a $15/month maintenance plan is an easy decision. Bundle the first year free with the installation to lock them in.

Cold outreach to past customers: 5-8% close rate. Lower, but still worthwhile when sent to your entire past customer database. An email offering a maintenance agreement to a customer you served 6 months ago generates steady sign-ups at minimal cost.

One HVAC tech shared his pitch on a contractor forum: “Mrs. Jones, that capacitor we just replaced is a $12 part. But the emergency call on a Saturday afternoon cost you $400. Our $15/month plan catches these during a routine inspection before they fail.” He reported a 35% close rate using that specific framing, compared to 12% when pitching features like “two tune-ups per year.” The difference: framing the agreement around what the customer just experienced — the pain of an emergency bill — instead of listing abstract benefits.

Seasonal reminders: staying top of mind

A homeowner thinks about their HVAC system twice a year: when it breaks and when the season changes. If you contact them proactively at the season change, you capture the appointment before they think to call someone else.

Seasonal reminder campaigns generate 3-5 appointments per 100 contacts. That’s a 3-5% direct conversion rate, which sounds modest until you realize the cost per appointment is near zero for existing customers.

The seasonal reminder sequence:

60 days before the season change: “It’s almost time for your [spring AC tune-up / fall furnace check]. Reply to this text or call us to schedule. Agreement members get priority booking.”

30 days before: For anyone who didn’t respond. “We’re filling up our [month] schedule for [service]. Spots are limited. Book now: [link or phone number].”

Week of season change: Final reminder. “Last chance for early-season pricing on [service]. After [date], standard rates apply.”

Text message marketing works best for these reminders. Text messages get a 98% open rate versus 20% for email. For seasonal reminders where timing is critical, SMS gets faster responses and higher booking rates.

For less time-sensitive communications, email marketing remains cost-effective and allows for more detailed content like tips, offers, and educational material.

The post-job follow-up sequence

What happens after you finish a job determines whether that customer becomes a repeat buyer or a one-time transaction.

74% of home service contractors do nothing after the job. No follow-up call. No satisfaction check. No future service reminder. The job ends and the relationship ends.

Here’s the follow-up sequence that top contractors use:

Day 1 (within 2 hours of job completion): Text message thanking the customer and asking for a Google review. “Hi [Name], thanks for choosing [Company]. If you have 30 seconds, a Google review helps us a lot: [link]. - [Tech Name]”

Day 3: Email checking on the work. “Hi [Name], just following up on the [service] we completed on [date]. Everything working as expected? If anything comes up, don’t hesitate to call us at [number].”

Day 30: Text or email with a maintenance tip related to the service performed. “Quick tip: [relevant maintenance advice]. If you’d like us to handle this during a tune-up visit, here’s our maintenance plan: [link].”

Month 6: Service reminder. “Hi [Name], it’s been 6 months since we [service]. For most homes, [related service] is recommended at this point. Want to schedule a check? Reply YES or call [number].”

Month 11: Annual follow-up. “Almost a year since we [service]. Time for your annual [inspection/tune-up]. Book now and we’ll lock in last year’s pricing.”

This sequence costs virtually nothing to run. A CRM or simple email platform handles the automation. The result: your name stays in front of the customer at regular intervals, and when they need service, you’re the first call.

Building a referral engine from repeat customers

Repeat customers refer at 3-4x the rate of first-time customers. They’ve used you multiple times, they trust your work, and they’re more willing to put their name behind a recommendation.

Ask for referrals at the right moment. The best time is after completing a job where the customer expressed satisfaction. Not at the end of every job. After the ones where they said “great work” or “you guys are the best.”

A simple ask: “We really appreciate your business, [Name]. If you know anyone who needs [service type], we’d love to take care of them. We treat every referral like family.”

Referral incentives work when structured correctly. A $50 credit toward future service for every referral who books a job costs you $50 but saves you $250-400 in acquisition costs. The math works overwhelmingly in your favor.

A contractor on r/sweatystartup tracked his referral sources for 12 months. His repeat customers (served 3+ times) referred at a rate of 22% — meaning roughly 1 in 5 of those customers actively sent someone his way. First-time customers referred at just 4%. The difference: repeated positive experiences build confidence in recommending. You can’t shortcut that trust with a referral card handed out on the first visit.

Track referrals in your CRM so you can thank the referring customer and measure which customers are your best referral sources. Those high-referral customers deserve VIP treatment: faster scheduling, first access to promotions, and personal attention from the owner.

Systematic follow-up: the CRM requirement

You can’t run a repeat customer program on memory and sticky notes. You need a system that tracks every customer, every job, every follow-up touchpoint, and every maintenance agreement renewal date.

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is the operational backbone. Whether it’s ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, or a simpler tool, the CRM needs to:

Store customer history. Every job, every invoice, every note from the tech. When a customer calls two years later, you should know exactly what was done, what was recommended, and what they declined.

Automate follow-up sequences. The post-job sequence, seasonal reminders, and maintenance agreement renewals should run automatically. Manual follow-up doesn’t scale past 10-15 customers per week.

Sera Systems, a field service platform built specifically around membership growth, reports that contractors using automated post-job sequences see 40% higher membership sign-up rates compared to those relying on manual tech pitches alone. The combination works best — tech makes the in-person pitch, and the automation follows up with customers who didn’t commit on the spot. Neither channel alone performs as well as both running together.

Track agreement renewals. Maintenance agreements are only valuable if they renew. Your CRM should flag agreements approaching renewal 30-60 days out so you can proactively reach out.

Segment your database. Not every customer gets the same message. Agreement customers get different communications than one-time customers. High-value customers get different treatment than $150 drain cleaning customers.

For a deeper look at nurturing leads and past customers systematically, see our guide on lead nurturing for home services.

Measuring repeat customer performance

Track these metrics monthly to gauge the health of your repeat customer program:

Repeat customer rate. What percentage of this month’s jobs came from customers you’ve served before? Below 20% means your follow-up system is broken or nonexistent. Above 35% means your retention efforts are working.

Maintenance agreement count. Total active agreements and net change month-over-month. Growing this number by 5-10 agreements per month transforms your revenue stability within a year.

Agreement renewal rate. Target 75%+. Below 70% means the agreement doesn’t deliver enough perceived value, or your renewal outreach is too late.

Revenue per customer. Track average annual revenue per customer across agreement and non-agreement segments. Agreement customers should consistently outspend non-agreement customers by 25-40%.

Referral rate. What percentage of new customers came from existing customer referrals? A healthy referral rate is 15-25% of new business.

The compounding effect of retention

Customer retention compounds in ways that new customer acquisition never can.

Year 1: You serve 500 customers. 74% never hear from you again. 26% return for a second service.

Year 2 with a follow-up system: You serve 500 new customers plus 150 returning customers from Year 1. Your revenue is 30% higher with only marginally higher marketing spend.

Year 3: 500 new customers plus 200+ returning from Years 1 and 2. Maintenance agreements provide $3,000-5,000/month in baseline recurring revenue. Referrals from repeat customers reduce your acquisition costs.

By Year 5, contractors with strong retention systems generate 40-50% of revenue from repeat business while spending less on marketing per dollar of revenue than competitors who chase new customers exclusively.

John Wilson (Wilson Companies, Owned and Operated podcast) grew his plumbing business to the point where maintenance agreements and repeat customers account for the majority of his revenue. His approach: every tech pitches memberships on every call, the CRM automates renewal reminders 60 days before expiration, and high-value repeat customers get priority scheduling that keeps them loyal. Wilson treats the membership base as the core asset of the business — not the trucks, not the tools, not the brand. The customer list and their commitment to recurring service.

The contractors with the most stable, profitable businesses aren’t the ones with the biggest ad budgets. They’re the ones who figured out that the customer sitting in their CRM is worth more than the one they haven’t met yet. Every dollar spent on retention earns 5-7x more than a dollar spent on acquisition.

Build the system. Automate the follow-up. Sell the agreements. The repeat customers will follow.