2026 is upon us, which means budgets across the home contractor industry have been reset and hopes for new leads are as high as ever. But before you pull out your purse to refresh those same-old digital ads, stop and ask yourself a simple question: “Am I on the marketing treadmill?”
If you’re not sure what that is, or you think you are and don’t know how to get off it, take a few minutes to read on. It could save you a lot of time, stress, and money this year and beyond.
What is the Marketing Treadmill?
In marketing, there’s a common “treadmill approach” local businesses consider when seeking new leads. They dump hundreds, even thousands, of dollars into third-party advertising platforms like Google Ads in hopes of reaching new customers. The return on these types of investments are often low, and even those who succeed – at least by the definition of success in this industry, which is just over seven percent – only see a handful of jobs actually secured.
So, why is this called a treadmill approach? Because no matter how successful or unsuccessful a lead generation campaign may be, whenever money is available and transactions start to decline, people repeat this same cycle again and again.
For contractors in the HVAC, plumbing, and standby generator service industries, the result is much the same up front, but it’s even worse long-term.
Why? Because the few customers you spend hundreds and hundreds of advertising dollars to book are only brought in for one-time jobs.
Did you know that 27 percent of all customers never hear back from a small business after their first purchase? That’s almost a third of all buyers who never hear anything from anyone after a successful transaction. And by the way, this number includes boutiques, restaurants, and other Ma & Pa establishments built on small-ticket sales where digital follow-ups are paramount to their ongoing success. How many home service contractors can say the same?
That’s a primary problem with the marketing treadmill: there’s no recurring revenue connected to a huge portion of the leads you’re paying so much money to generate. It’s just a bunch of one-time transactions that, once finished, leave you right back where you started – looking for more customers.
Exhausting, right? It’s a never-ending cycle that contractors nationwide are all-too familiar with, but when budgets reset at the start of every new year, servicemen and women around the country buy into it with hopes that “this time, things will be different.”
But what if there was a way to get off the marketing treadmill? What if there was a proven way to actually make things “different” instead of just hoping? What if you could lock in homeowners on long-term contracts for up to a decade or longer, letting you save all those advertising dollars for something else entirely?
Enter the Premier Program®.
Retention vs. Re-Acquisition and the Home Comfort-as-a-Service Model
Let’s call it like it is: re-acquisition can be a cumbersome process. Even if your efforts are successful, you’re still using valuable resources – like time and money – to bring back previous customers you did not retain after a past transaction.
Our Vice President of Marketing, Ashley Bard, notes that:
“The customer acquisition cost (CAC) for home service businesses has gone up. Between ads, SEO, and other lead-generation efforts, you might be paying hundreds just to get a single booked job. That’s especially painful when the homeowner was already once a customer.”
Not just painful – up to seven times more painful. On average, the cost to acquire new customers is five to seven times higher than retaining existing customers. This includes re- acquiring previous customers you no longer work with.
If you want your business to grow, you want to focus your time and energy on building relationships, not chasing one-time installs. Studies show that increasing retention rates by just five percent can boost profits by up to 95 percent. That means you could almost double your profits by simply retaining one twentieth of all customers.
And the best part? It doesn’t have to be hard. Bard says, “most customers don’t need to be impressed. They just want things to be easy, so it’s about being consistent and easy to work with. One of the best ways to do this is by adding long-term value and peace of mind.
The Premier Program: Long-Term Benefits and Sustainability
Our Premier Program is a recurring revenue model, also known as Home Comfort-as-a-Service (HcaaS) that enrolls customers in a long-term, all-inclusive contract that includes:
- New HVAC, standby generator, or water systems plumbing
- Professional installations
- Ongoing preventative maintenance
- Seasonal tune-ups
- Filter replacements
- Full-service repairs and priority service
- Low monthly payment financing
Instead of a one-time install and a hope they call you again, homeowners get a simple, worry-free way to take care of their system over time – with professional maintenance, repairs, and replacements handled by the contractor they already trust.
For you, that trust turns into something far more powerful than a transaction. You’re no longer chasing repeat business, but instead building a long-term customer relationship rooted in reliability, consistency, and service.
The result is steadier demand throughout the year, stronger customer loyalty, and less pressure to spend on marketing just to stay top of mind. As those relationships compound, your business becomes more predictable, more efficient, and easier to grow.
Continued Growth and Revenue Building with the Premier Program
As homeowners stay in the Premier Program, you continue to earn quarterly payouts over time, turning what used to be a one-and-done job into a growing stream of predictable revenue. Over the course of several years, those payouts start to stack up. The more homeowners you bring onto the program, the more consistent and meaningful that revenue becomes.
This is where retention really changes the math. Remember that statistic on increasing retention rates by five percent to almost double your business? With the Premier Program, retention doesn’t just improve – it compounds. Each homeowner you enroll strengthens your future revenue base, year after year, without the need to resell, re-market, or re-earn the relationship.
In turn, your business grows not just by selling more systems, but by building lasting customer relationships that keep paying off long after the initial installation is complete.
Again, it doesn’t have to be hard. Customers want to take the easy way out. All you need to do is give them simple ways to score a big win, and the Premier Program is as good as a layup.
Call Today and Learn More
Want to know more about our recurring revenue model? Want to see how it can transform your business into a predictable machine that focuses on things like training, expansion, and retention instead of treadmill advertising?
If so, contact us today. We’d love to meet you!
