Running a pre-season maintenance campaign

What a pre-season campaign is for

A pre-season maintenance campaign books tune-ups, inspections and safety checks in the weeks before demand peaks: furnaces in early fall, air conditioners in spring, irrigation before the freeze, gutters before the leaves come down. It turns quiet shoulder weeks into steady work, catches failing equipment before the emergency call and gives agreement customers the visit they paid for.

The work is mostly done by the customer service team. Owners set the offer and the capacity; CSRs build the list, make the calls, send the reminders and fill the schedule. This playbook is written for them.

Demand is already there

Homeowners plan maintenance. In a 2025 survey, regular maintenance was the top planned home project for 32% of US homeowners, ahead of interior painting at 20%^[1]. A campaign does not have to create demand. It has to reach people at the right time with a clear reason and an easy way to book.

Build the list

1. 01

   Pull customers by service history

   Everyone with relevant equipment serviced or installed in the last three to five years, plus agreement customers due a visit.

2. 02

   Clean the records

   Merge duplicates, fix phone numbers and addresses, remove customers who moved and flag landlords and property managers separately.

3. 03

   Respect contact preferences

   Remove anyone who asked not to be called, texted or emailed, and check whether you have the consent needed for each channel.

4. 04

   Check the Do Not Call rules

   The National Do Not Call Registry had 259 million active registrations as of September 30, 2025^[3]. Existing-customer exemptions have limits, so follow your compliance advice before calling anyone you have not served recently.

5. 05

   Add the details CSRs need

   Last visit date, equipment type and age, agreement status, notes from the last technician and preferred appointment windows.

Segment before you call

The call-down script

1. Identify yourself and the company first: "Hi, this is Maria from the heating and cooling company that serviced your furnace last October."
2. Give the reason in one sentence: "We are booking fall safety checks before the first cold nights."
3. Make it personal: "Your system is about twelve years old, and the technician noted the igniter last time."
4. Offer two specific times: "I have Tuesday the 14th between 8 and 10, or Thursday the 16th between 1 and 3."
5. Handle the common objection: "It has been working fine" is answered with "That is the best time to check it, before it is under load."
6. Confirm details: access, pets, parking and the best number for the on-the-way call.
7. Close politely if they decline, and record the reason so the next campaign is better targeted.

Reaching people who do not pick up

Only 19% of US adults say they generally answer calls from unknown numbers^[2]. Expect most first calls to go to voicemail. Plan a sequence instead: an email or letter that names the visit and the dates, a call a few days later from a number customers recognize, and a short voicemail. Make sure the callback number reaches a person who knows about the campaign.

If you use any automated or AI voice for outbound calls, get compliance advice first. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that calls made with AI-generated voices are artificial under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act^[4], which brings consent requirements into play. Live staff calling existing customers is the safer default for this kind of campaign.

Text and email reminders

• Send texts only to customers who agreed to receive them, and include how to opt out.
• Keep messages short: the visit, two dates or a booking link, and the company name.
• Send a reminder the day before each booked visit and an on-the-way message on the day.
• Do not resend to customers who already booked or declined; update the list daily.
• Keep a record of consent and opt-outs for every number you text.

For the rules behind these steps, see TCPA texting rules for home services and appointment reminder text templates.

Release slots by area

A campaign that books visits wherever customers happen to live will scatter technicians across the map. Instead, release slots by zone and day: north side on Tuesdays and Thursdays, east side on Mondays and Wednesdays, and so on. Offer the customer the next two slots in their zone first. When a zone fills, open the next week rather than squeezing visits into another area's day. Keep a daily allowance for repair calls, because a campaign that blocks every slot leaves no room for the emergencies it was meant to prevent.

Make the visit worth booking

A tune-up has to deliver something the customer can see. For HVAC, ENERGY STAR notes that improper installation can reduce system efficiency by up to 30%^[5] and that sealing and insulating ducts can improve heating and cooling efficiency by as much as 20%^[6]. Give technicians a checklist that covers safety, performance and these findings, and leave a written report with photos. Recommendations should be accurate and ranked: what is unsafe now, what is likely to fail soon and what can wait.

Coaching the team during the campaign

Call-down campaigns improve fastest when the lead listens to calls in the first few days. Pick three calls per CSR, one booked, one declined and one voicemail, and review them together for ten minutes. Look for the moments that decide the outcome: whether the reason for the call is clear in the first sentence, whether the CSR offers specific times or asks an open question, and how the most common objection is handled.

Share good lines across the team. If one rep finds that mentioning the last technician's note books more visits, put it in the script for everyone. Rotate segments so nobody spends a whole week on the hardest list. And end each day with a short count of calls, contacts and bookings so the team can see progress.

Handling the replies

A good campaign creates a wave of callbacks, and the worst outcome is a customer who returns your call and reaches nobody. Before the first message goes out, decide who answers campaign callbacks, at what hours, and what they need on screen: the customer's segment, the offer and the open slots in their zone. If calls arrive after hours, make sure they are answered or captured with a clear promise of when the office will call back. Track callbacks as their own line in the daily count, because they book at a higher rate than outbound calls.

What to measure

• Contact rate: share of the list reached by phone, email or text.
• Booking rate by segment and by channel.
• Calls per booking for each CSR, to spot coaching needs.
• Show rate and same-week cancellations.
• Repair and replacement estimates created from campaign visits, and how many were accepted.
• Agreement sign-ups from non-agreement customers.

Example (fictional): a CSR team of three works a list of 1,800 past customers over four weeks. Agreement customers book at a much higher rate than the rest, so the lead moves two CSRs onto agreement and recent-install segments in week two and saves the older-equipment calls for the most experienced rep. By the end, the north and east zones are full for three weeks and the team has a list of reasons customers declined to review before the spring campaign.