ElectricalBossPro Blog — Generator & Maintenance Plans

Letting Customers Sign Up for a Generator Maintenance Plan in the Customer App

Every extra step between “that sounds good” and “I'm signed up” loses customers. If signing up for a generator plan means calling the office during business hours, reading a card number over the phone and waiting for a callback, a lot of people never get around to it. ElectricalBossPro lets customers sign up on their own, in the customer app or on your website.

Sign-Ups Are the Other Path to Work

Recommendations from inspections become jobs through estimates, as covered in Turning Inspection Recommendations Into Estimates the Customer Approves Online. Plans can come in the same way, as a line on an estimate. But for many customers, the easiest path is to sign up themselves.

ElectricalBossPro gives you two places for that: the customer app for existing customers, and a sign-up form on your website for new ones.

In the Customer App

The customer app is where your customers already go to see invoices, pay, update their card, request service and see today's route on a live map. It is also where they can sign up for services and pricing you choose to offer.

For an electrical contractor, that might include:

• Yearly Generator Maintenance — for example $189 per visit
• Yearly Electrical Safety Inspection — for example $149 per visit
• Generator Maintenance plus Safety Inspection on one yearly visit

Those are example prices for your own services. You decide what shows and what it costs. A customer who had a service call last month can open the app, see the plans, and sign up without calling anyone. Their card is already on file, or they can add or update it right there.

On Your Website

New customers find you on your website. The ElectricalBossPro sign-up form can go on your site and capture a card along with the customer's details. Each submission flows into Form Responses in the office.

From Form Responses, one click converts a sign-up into a client. The office does not retype the name, address, phone and email. When the first visit comes due, the new customer shows up as a pin on the Waiting List map with everyone else who is due.

The same website request form also handles general service requests, so a homeowner looking for a one-time repair and one looking for a yearly plan both land in the same place.

What Happens After They Sign Up

Once the customer is a client with the plan on their property, the plan's minimum days between visits takes over. The first visit lands on the Waiting List, the office puts it on a van, and the customer gets reminders by text and email if they want them.

If the customer has a generator, the first visit is a good time to capture the generator record on the house: brand, model, serial, kW and fuel, plus the transfer switch or interlock. From then on, every visit has it on the job card.

It is also a good moment for a short welcome text from the office. Something like “Thanks for signing up for our yearly generator plan. We will text you when your first visit is due” tells the customer the sign-up went through and sets the expectation for what happens next. Customers who know what to expect rarely call to ask.

Card on File From Day One

The big advantage of self sign-up with a card captured is that billing is set from the start. When the tech taps Complete on the first visit, the card on file can be charged automatically and the invoice goes out with line items and sales tax. No one has to call for payment or mail an invoice and wait.

Customers can update their card in the customer app any time, so an expired card does not have to turn into a phone call. How auto-charge works for plans is covered in Card on File and Auto-Charge for Generator Maintenance Plans.

Tell Customers Where to Sign Up

Self sign-up only works if customers know about it. A few simple ways to point them there:

• Mention the plan on the generator install estimate and invoice.
• Add a line about the customer app to your safety inspection report hand-off.
• Send a text or email from the office to past generator customers before storm season.
• Put the sign-up form on your website's generator page.

The fewer steps it takes to sign up, the more plans you sell. To see how sign-ups fit with the Waiting List, records and billing, visit the ElectricalBossPro generator maintenance software page.