PressureWashingBossPro Blog — House Washing & Recurring Plans

Pricing a Yearly House Wash Plan: Practical Guidance for Owners

Once you decide to sell yearly plans, the first question is what to charge. Too low and you are giving away the profit that makes plans worth having. Too high and the customer wonders why they should commit. There is no single right answer, because your costs, market and crew are your own. What follows is practical guidance on the approaches owners commonly use and the traps to avoid.

Start From What the Wash Costs You

Getting the card at sign-up is covered in The Yearly Plan Sign-Up Form: Capturing the Card When a Customer Joins. Before the customer fills in that form, they need to know the price.

A plan visit costs you roughly the same as a one-time wash: crew time, chemical, fuel and wear on the rig. What a plan saves you is the cost of finding the customer again. No ads, no estimate visit, no chasing. That saving is where any plan discount comes from. If you discount more than you save, you are paying the customer to stay.

Your square feet, stories and siding on the job give you a consistent base. Estimates priced off a property's measurements mean next year's visit starts from the same numbers as this year's.

Common Ways to Price a Plan

• Same price as the one-time wash. The customer pays what they paid this year and gets the convenience of never having to call. Simple, and it does not train customers to expect discounts.
• A small thank-you discount. A modest amount off each plan visit. For example, a $325 house wash might be $300 on the plan. It gives the customer a reason to commit and costs you less than finding a new customer.
• A free add-on. Instead of cutting the price, include something small: the front walk, the mailbox and porch rails, or the gutter faces. Customers feel the value without your base price moving.
• Bundled plans. House and driveway together on a plan, priced as a package. Higher ticket per stop, one visit, one invoice.

Some owners also look at the gap between visits. A customer on a six-month driveway plan gets a lighter clean each time, because there is less buildup, so the visit takes less time than a driveway that has gone three years untouched. Whether you pass that along in the price or keep it as margin is up to you, but it is worth knowing when you set the number.

Whichever you choose, use it for every plan customer. Mixed plan pricing becomes a headache to explain the first time two neighbors compare notes.

Building Plan Pricing Into Your Service List

Estimates in PressureWashingBossPro are built from your own service list. If plan pricing differs from one-time pricing, set it up as its own service or estimate template, like “Yearly Plan House Wash” and “Yearly Plan House and Driveway.” That way the office does not have to remember the discount, and the invoice shows clearly what the customer is paying for. Packages are covered in The House and Driveway Package: Bundling the Two Jobs Homeowners Ask For Together.

Raising Prices on Plan Customers

Chemical, fuel and labor costs move. At some point plan prices will need to move too. A few habits make it easier:

• Tell customers before the visit, not on the invoice. A text or email a few weeks before their plan comes due is respectful and avoids surprised calls.
• Raise at the yearly visit, not mid-year. Yearly plans give you a natural moment to adjust.
• Keep the explanation short and honest. Costs went up; here is the new price; thank you for staying with us.

Two-way texting and automated emails make the notice easy to send to every plan customer at once.

What Not to Do

• Do not price plans so low you resent them. A crew that feels plan houses are losing money will not do them well.
• Do not hide fees. If roofs or heavy staining cost extra, say so up front.
• Do not change the scope quietly. If the plan includes the driveway, wash the driveway every time.
• Do not forget sales tax where it applies. Invoices include sales tax lines, so set it up once and it is handled.

Make the Price Easy to Understand

Customers commit to plans they understand. One line that says what is included, how often, and what it costs per visit beats a paragraph of fine print. If the card on file will be charged when the visit is complete, say that too. For the rest of the yearly plan tools, visit the PressureWashingBossPro house washing software page.