Installation work is feast or famine. A great month of new jobs is followed by a quiet one, and you’re back to chasing leads. Maintenance agreements smooth that out — and for many installation businesses, they eventually become the most valuable part of the operation.

What an MA actually is

A maintenance agreement is a simple promise: you’ll service a customer’s equipment on a regular cycle, every 3, 6 or 12 months, for an agreed fee. Air-con units need cleaning. Solar systems need inspection. CCTV needs checking. The work already exists; an MA just makes it scheduled and paid in advance.

The customer benefits too. They get priority service, a predictable cost, and the assurance that someone is keeping an eye on their equipment. For a factory or a shop, the cost of an MA is nothing compared to a breakdown during peak hours.

Why it changes the business

Predictable revenue. A book of MA contracts is income you can forecast, not hope for. Even fifty active contracts at 1,000–2,000 baht each is real recurring cash flow that appears whether or not any new installs close that month.
You keep the customer. Instead of disappearing after the install, you’re the team that shows up twice a year. That relationship makes it very hard for a competitor to replace you.
More upsell opportunities. A technician on site for maintenance spots the failing part before it breaks, the unit that needs an upgrade, the second piece of equipment the customer has been thinking about. These are warm conversations, not cold pitches.
Fewer emergency calls. Regular maintenance catches problems early. Fewer breakdowns means fewer stressful last-minute jobs and fewer customers calling at 9pm.

What to charge

Pricing varies by equipment type and visit frequency. A rough starting point for a two-visit-per-year aircon MA in Thailand is 800–1,500 baht per unit, depending on whether it includes cleaning or just inspection. Solar cleaning and inspection runs higher because it typically requires more time and sometimes roof access safety gear. CCTV system checks are often bundled at a flat rate per site.

If you’re unsure, start by looking at what the job actually costs you in labor time, then add a margin. Don’t underprice just to win — a customer who expects a full clean for 300 baht is more trouble than they’re worth.

The practical obstacle: remembering to do the work

The hardest part of running MAs isn’t selling them. Selling is easy — most customers who ask say yes when you frame it as peace of mind at a fixed price. The hard part is the execution.

Three months from now, do you remember which customers have a service visit due? Do you have a list you trust? If the answer involves manually checking spreadsheets or scrolling through notes, you’ll miss visits, upset customers, and eventually let contracts lapse.

This is exactly where a system pays for itself. When each MA contract automatically creates its next maintenance job on schedule — with the right checklist attached, the right technician assigned, and a reminder sent before the visit — you stop relying on someone’s memory and start relying on a process.

A checklist that travels to the job

A CCTV maintenance visit and a solar inspection visit look completely different. The technician checking CCTV footage retention and camera angles needs different prompts than the one checking panel voltage and inverter fault codes. An MA system worth using lets you define the checklist per contract type, so when the job appears on a technician’s phone, they know exactly what to check and document.

That documentation matters too. If a customer says “you didn’t clean the panels last time,” you have a timestamped record with photos showing that you did. Disputes disappear.

Making it run itself

When an MA is set up properly in a job management system, this is what happens automatically:

Contract is signed and the cycle is set (e.g., every 6 months)
A maintenance job appears in the schedule 2–3 weeks before the due date
The technician is assigned, the checklist is attached, the customer gets a reminder
After the visit, the report is filed and the next cycle starts

You don’t touch any of it between those touchpoints. The system runs the recurring side while you focus on new work.

Start with solar

Solar is the perfect place to begin. Every rooftop you install needs periodic cleaning to keep output up — the maintenance need is obvious to the customer, and the conversation is easy: “If we clean the panels twice a year, you’ll keep your production numbers. It’s this much per year.” Sign the MA at install time and each system becomes a small annuity from day one.

Aircon is the highest volume. CCTV is easy to bundle per site. Once you have a template for one, it takes minutes to replicate for another.

Related feature: learn how OnSiteQ’s maintenance agreements auto-generate PM work orders on every contract.

Recurring revenue with maintenance agreements