Sign "Maintenance Plans"

[Nicholedene]

Does anyone out there currently offer a sign maintenance plan? In a recent consumer survey I learned that several of our current or prospective clients would prefer a more hands-off subscription-style service where I send someone around every once in a while to check their sign for wear and make any needed repairs. I'm into the idea, but having a little trouble getting my head around what this animal looks like. If you've heard of this sort of thing before or already offer it, I'm curious to know what kind of schedule you use (how often do you check the signs?), what sorts of maintenance are included, versus deeming a sign too worn for repair, what pricing looks like, etc. I primarily work with architectural signage. Nothing electrical. Thanks!

 

[dlndesign]

I actually interviewed Lou Polur at Rethinkinginsurance.com, he's creating a warranty program that would be used in all aspects of the sign industry.

You can listen to that episode here.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cmykthis-002-warranty-programs/id973748727?i=337008991&mt=2

 

[visual800]

well since you posted.

While reading this I was thinking maint on signage is just about pointless. You see dim light, you go fix. You see lights out, You go fix. BUT you mentioned no electrical. I have to wonder what type of maint can be done on non-electrical signage.

Plaques coming loose? Studs on letters coming loose? I'm not following what type of maint. you can do on normal signage as I have never seen many signs need maint. Can you describe in better deatail the types of signs that would require maint?

 

[CanuckSigns]

well since you posted.

While reading this I was thinking maint on signage is just about pointless. You see dim light, you go fix. You see lights out, You go fix. BUT you mentioned no electrical. I have to wonder what type of maint can be done on non-electrical signage.

Plaques coming loose? Studs on letters coming loose? I'm not following what type of maint. you can do on normal signage as I have never seen many signs need maint. Can you describe in better deatail the types of signs that would require maint?

+1

 

[ddarlak]

well since you posted.

While reading this I was thinking maint on signage is just about pointless. You see dim light, you go fix. You see lights out, You go fix. BUT you mentioned no electrical. I have to wonder what type of maint can be done on non-electrical signage.

Plaques coming loose? Studs on letters coming loose? I'm not following what type of maint. you can do on normal signage as I have never seen many signs need maint. Can you describe in better deatail the types of signs that would require maint?

maintenance plans or extended warranties are not about what the client needs but rather what you can get them to pay for that they don't need.

that's why the insurance guy is looking into it.....

 

[bob]

With possible rare exceptions, a sign is some combination of text and images on some surface or another. There's nothing to wear out ergo there's nothing to maintain. You put up a sign, it wears out mostly by fading, and then at some time in the future you replace it with a new sign. During that life cycle, there's just not a whole hell of a lot to maintain.

A 'Maintenance Plan' on something with no moving parts appears to be Yet Another worthless extended warrantee. A way to shake a few more nickels out of someone's jeans.

 

[ddarlak]

watch out for flying pigs....

I'm pretty sure me and bob just agree'd on something...

 

[Nicholedene]

What Maintenance Looks Like

Sorry for the delayed response here guys. For whatever reason 101 didn't send me any emails saying "hey you have awaiting messages." About 90% of the signs we put out are vinyl prints or lettering on painted wood. What does maintenance look like? Letters falling off/corners peeling up, paint touch up, rusty hardware, leaning posts, missing post caps, etc. Vast majority of our signs are in the 15+ year age bracket - old enough to be showing wear, but not in bad enough shape that they need a total replacement. I do regular maintenance for certain larger companies that have hundreds or thousands of these older signs. They call and ask for paint touch-up or replacement of missing letters, or re-setting a post in the ground, etc. So I know there's a legitimate market for this with my client-base, not for brand new signs I put out, but for those older ones my company put out 15/20/30 years ago. I'm just not sure what this would look like logistically. Rather than a client needing to spend hours touring their property (for instance, a large resort) and making a list of which signs need work, I would do that for them on an annual or 6 month rotation? Then how I do differentiate pricing for the customer that regularly has 30 signs that need touchup, versus the customer that may have 2 signs that need touchup? Would it be a per sign rate? Or a square footage rate TBD by how many signs are in need of repair? I know this sort of thing exists because in my research I saw several other sign companies offering it on their websites. Just looking for specifics on how those sign companies are making it happen.

 

[J Hill Designs]

the thing with the type of mainenance you are talking about is, it only happens once every 15 years -- how can you charge for a yearly plan for that?

Maintenance contracts, in my experience, are for electric signs where you need relamping/ballasting much more frequently than that.

 

[GB2]

I think the idea of a maintenance plan is a great one, especially if it includes cleaning the sign. Nobody ever cleans their sign and it would make a significant difference if they were cleaned regularly. Also, the plan would include an annual inspection to insure the safety of the sign and that it hasn't been damaged, vandalized, affected by wind and does not have any loose parts or loose attachment points. This also gives you an opportunity to keep yourself in the front of the customers mind and possibly an opportunity to offer them something new to purchase at each visit.

 

[FireSprint.com]

There are alot of those types of plans in other industries. For example we can get an HVAC service contract around here for our offices. I think they are around $40 a month or something. They come and check/change the furnace filters. Once a year the do a little more inspection and if there's a problem, we get 10% off plus priority service.

I would think you could do something similar. For $99 a year you'll drive by and inspect the sign 3 or 4 times and clean it if needed. Then if there is a problem, they get $10% off and priority service to fix it.

Keep in mind here that whatever you charge for a, inspection service should probably only be to cover the cost of inspection and not for any real work/materials.