Gutters fill up again every year. The same trees drop the same leaves on the same roof, which makes gutter cleaning one of the most naturally repeating services a lawn company can sell. Yet most companies sell it one job at a time, and every fall they have to win the same customers back from scratch. A spring and fall plan fixes that. The customer agrees once, you show up twice a year, and your rush season starts half booked. This post covers how to design the plan, price it, pitch it, bill it and keep it running, so the plan stays easy for the customer and easy for your office.
What a gutter plan should include
Keep the plan simple enough to explain in one sentence: "We clean your gutters every spring and fall, flush the downspouts, and send you photos each time." That is the whole offer.
Two visits a year fits most houses. One visit in late fall after the leaves drop, and one in spring after seed pods and pollen. Houses under heavy oak or pine cover may need a third visit, and that should be a choice on the plan, not a separate sale.
Spell out what is included and what is not. Cleaning all gutters, flushing and testing downspouts, clearing debris from the roof edge near the gutter, and bagging or hauling the debris are typical. Repairs, re-hanging sagging sections and guard installation are usually extra. If you write it down at sign-up, nobody argues about it in year three.
Pricing the plan so both sides win
A plan is a trade. The customer gets a small discount and never has to think about gutters again. You get guaranteed work, no estimate to write each season, and visits you can schedule into your densest routes.
A common approach is to price each plan visit somewhat below your one-time rate for that house. For example, if a one-time cleaning on a house is $210, a plan visit might be $185 or $190. The exact discount is your call; just make sure the plan price still clears your hourly target after drive time.
Price per house, not one flat plan price for everyone. A plan on a two-story with guards should cost more per visit than a plan on a small ranch. Use the same footage and story count you used for the original estimate, so the plan price is just your normal pricing with the plan discount applied. The pricing guide covers building the per-house price.
When and how to offer it
The best moment to offer a plan is right after a one-time cleaning, while the customer is looking at the before photo of their packed gutters. "Want us to just take care of this every spring and fall?" lands much better then than in a cold email.
Put the plan on the estimate itself as an option, next to the one-time price. Many customers will pick the plan on the spot if they can see both numbers side by side.
Your lawn customers are the other big source. They already pay you on a schedule, so adding gutters to their account is a small step. Mention it in your fall gutter mailing, and have your mow crews flag houses with trees over the roof. In IndustryBossPro you can also send an upsell alert to customers after a service, which is a natural place to mention the gutter plan to lawn customers who have not tried it yet.
Billing options that fit your customers
There are three common ways to bill a gutter plan, and different customers prefer different ones.
Per visit is the simplest. The customer is charged after each cleaning, ideally to a card on file, with the completed photos attached. Many companies set the invoice to charge automatically when the crew marks the job done.
Monthly spreads the cost across the year. A plan that costs $380 a year becomes a little over $30 a month. Some customers like the smaller number, and you get steady cash in the slow months.
Prepaid means the customer pays for the year up front, often in exchange for a little extra discount. In IndustryBossPro, package plans can be billed per visit, monthly or prepaid, and prepayments are tracked as a ledger, so each visit draws down the balance and you can always see what has been used and what is left.
Whichever you choose, get a card on file at sign-up. Plans that depend on mailing an invoice every visit tend to fall apart.
Keeping plan visits on schedule
A plan is only valuable if the visits actually happen when they should. Set the gutter service to repeat on an interval, about 180 days for spring and fall, and the property appears on the Waiting List when the next visit is due.
From there, you schedule plan visits the same way as any other gutter work: circle an area on the map, pick the due properties, and put them on a day and truck. Plan houses tend to sit near your lawn routes, so they make tight, efficient days. Then layer one-time jobs into the gaps.
Send a night-before text so plan customers know you are coming, and a completed alert with photos afterward. Plan customers are not being asked to approve each visit, so the photos are how they see the value. A plan customer who gets clear photos twice a year rarely cancels.
Handling changes and cancellations
Plans change. A customer installs gutter guards and only needs an annual check. Someone wants the spring visit moved to May. A house sells. Handle each as a quick edit to the property's service, not a new sale.
When someone does cancel, record the reason. Cancellation reasons in IndustryBossPro let you see patterns over time: if several plan customers leave because of price, or because they bought guards from someone else, that tells you what to change. A customer who cancels because they put in guards is a reason to start offering guards yourself.
Finally, review the plan list every winter. Check that every plan house has a card on file, that the prices still make sense after a year of job times, and that the next visits are set up correctly. Fifteen minutes in January keeps the whole plan book running clean in April. More on recurring service setup is on the service contract page.
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