The other day my furnace stopped working.

The issue is that my wife was trying to change the air filter.

Why?

Don’t ask (she just likes to do those kinds of things, and yes - I realize I’m the man of the house and I should be doing it, but I digress...)

After Renee’s noble attempt at performing advanced furnace surgery…

… we got stuck with a half-opened furnace, and no idea how to piece that sucker back together.

So I called my brother who built my house (he’s kind of a baller, check out his story).

He laughed and asked why the heck I was changing the filter myself?

Why didn’t I have the furnace guy do it?

I didn’t know that was an option...

... so I called the guy up and he starts telling me about his “Maintenance Plan”.

After about 15 seconds I said “Sign me up.”

That’s how he locked me in on a recurring service model for his business.

Most businesses totally miss out on building this into their model.

Instead of figuring out how to add more value and create an ongoing service, they let competitors swoop in and steal the contract.

Honestly, I think my brother should of made a list of monthly / yearly services that I should’ve considered and got me to sign-up for them when we closed on the house.

Things like:

• Snow removal
• Air filters
• Fireplace cleaning
• Propane tank maintenance
• Gutter cleaning
• Lawn mowing
• Etc...

Even if all he did was sign me up, he could’ve been collecting sweet monthly residuals for the rest of his life without lifting a finger (or putting a furnace back together).  

That strategy (and a few other keepers) is what I cover in this week’s video.

How do you increase the amount of repeat business from a customer to improve your long term value so you’re not always having to find new customers.

When I’m training a group of entrepreneurs at my events, I always walk them through these areas of focus:

1. Offer “Ongoing Service"
2. Start (Onboard)
3. Continuous Value
4. End Strong
5. Ask For Business
6. Case Study / Testimonials

Each one of these take very little effort to implement, but will have a HUGE impact on your business.

My favourite is asking for a case study or to get a testimonial.

When you do it right, it adds incredible credibility to your business (plus it’s super fun and fulfilling to learn what your customers appreciate most about you).

So what are you committed to taking action on? Or what have you done in your business to increase the amount of repeat business? Leave a comment with your feedback.

Can’t wait to read what you’ve got.

Have an incredible day!

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter@danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

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