Download Recurring Monthly Revenue Maintenance Service

Recurring Monthly Revenue
Maintenance Service Contracts
for Smart Homes
www.domotz.com
Maintenance Service Contracts
How to get started with RMR
Today’s smart homes contain many devices that hook on to the home network. And
the number of devices entering an average home is only going to continue to grow,
in so much that many are wondering who will be providing tech support to all these
new devices. (HBR)
Gartner predicts that a typical home could contain more than 500 devices by 2022.
(Gartner) From smart locks and sensors to smart thermostats, many of these
connected devices play a crucial role in the well being and stability of a home. With
more homes relying on technology to function, maintenance service helps ensure
that all devices continue to function properly.
Today’s consumers have shown they are willing to invest in many services to
maintain the functionality of their homes. But, at the same time, when it comes
to IT and technology many consumers expect that everything should always work
fine, without any investment. From cleaning persons, gardeners, alarm monitoring
companies and other maintenance services – consumers have shown that they are
willing to invest in services required to maintain the well being and optimal performance of their homes. Many of these services are solely used to obtain greater
peace of mind - such is the case for alarm monitoring systems. In fact, peace of mind
and security are the biggest drivers for implementing a smart home in the first place.
(icontrol)
$13,512
$3,229
$1,200
$1,200
Home
Maintenance
Average
annual spend
to maintain a
home[1]
Landscape
Gardening
Average
annual spend
on home
landscaping[2]
Alarm
Monitoring
Average costs
for home
security alarm
monitoring[3]
Pool
Maintenance
Average
annual spend
to maintain a
pool[4]
As times change and consumers begin to use and interact with more digital services
on a daily basis, it’s important they also understand that investing in maintenance
service can help achieve a more enjoyable and reliable smart home. Maintenance
service not only ensures that smart home devices are working properly, but also
adds security, peace of mind and can result in significant savings on technical
support costs when something goes wrong.
[1] Review Journal: http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/money/heres-why-it-costs-1126-month-maintain-the-average-american-home
[2] Home Advisor: http://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/landscape/
[3] Security Alarms Estimator: https://securityalarms.co.uk/
[4] Home Advisor: http://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/swimming-pools-hot-tubs-and-saunas/maintain-a-swimming-pool/
1
www.domotz.com
@domotz
Why RMR Monitoring Systems
have failed in the past?
If consumers are willing to pay for services to maintain the well being of their homes
and clearly want help managing complicated smart home technology – then why
have so few actually adopted a maintenance service contract to date? The reason is
that most maintenance service contract costs are unusually high. High costs have
been driven by the expensive software that’s required to provide maintenance.
Expensive Software: Monitoring systems costed service providers hundreds
of dollars per month; leaving very little room for profits and to make a
scalable business.
Too big of a hardware investment: First time set-up required hefty
investment in hardware – which deterred consumers from getting started
with the service.
High prices for end consumers: Maintenance service has catered only to
high end smart home owners. As smart home tech gets cheaper and cheaper,
service providers need to develop tiered pricing and levels of support.
Too complex: Many monitoring systems require extensive training which
means money/time investment from the service provider.
Low Volumes: In order for service providers to make money with
maintenance service, they need to achieve volume. Unfortunately with high
set-up and monthly fees, not enough consumers have been willing to invest in
the cost of maintenance.
As smart home devices continue to decrease in cost, more people are adopting the
technology. This means that maintenance needs to be more accessible too in terms
of costs.
For example; the consumer that has spent 5k on a home automation system is not
going to pay hundreds of dollars a month for maintenance. A fixed monthly cost of
$25/mo is much more relevant for a consumer that’s invested in low/mid-market
smart home tech.
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www.domotz.com
@domotz
Benefits of Maintenance Service
Contract for your customers
The first step in selling maintenance service, is to
communicate the benefits.
Security & Peace of Mind
90%+ claim security is the primary force that drives the
adoption of automated technology. (icontrolnetworks)
Your customers need to know that maintenance
service makes their home more secure, because
someone professional is assisting in
monitoring their essential devices.
Save Money
IT support on demand can be really costly. For
example, to provide support on demand a system
integrator may charge $150/hour with a minimum 2
hour requirement plus the cost of transportation. Help
your customers understand that in the end they’ll
actually save money associated with on-site visit, by
getting a maintenance contract
Convenience
A maintenance service contract enables your
customers to get optimal performance from their electronics.
Lessons Learned: Alarm companies have succeeded
at RMR schemes for years. Consumers have been
willing to pay between $50-$100 dollars a month for
alarm system monitoring, just to know that if
something goes wrong in their home they are covered.
Alarm companies succeed because they bring
consumer peace of mind, which is a key driver of
installing the technology in the first place.
3
www.domotz.com
Why Domotz’s Monitoring
system is different
Relevant features:
Remote Monitoring, Remote
Device Access, Remote Power
Management, Alerts and Network
Diagnostics.
Cheap:
Only $2.99/mo per network,
leaving plenty of room for margins
to build your maintenance offer.
Low Entry Barrier:
Free installation on existing
devices like NAS or Raspberry Pi,
or via affordable Domotz
Hardware.
User Friendly:
No extensive manuals or training
guides. The software is designed
to be user friendly enough for
anyone.
Customer Engagement:
A customer facing app, which you
can customize and give to your
customers. It’s a new way to
engage them!
Multi-platform:
Provide maintenance service on
the go and across devices using
the Domotz mobile apps.
@domotz
How to sell RMR Service Contracts:
1
Create a dedicated web page:
The first step in marketing your maintenance service is to create a dedicated web
page including: visuals, features and benefits. Use your web page to:
Share the benefit
Share the features
Share pricing details if relevant
Tip: Use our website asset packs to build your customized web page.
2
Create tiered offers:
Not all of your customers are going to be willing to pay a few hundred dollars a
month for maintenance service especially if they have made minimal investment in
smart home technology.
Tip: Create price offerings that meet the needs of all your different customer segments. We recommend using one Lite offer (affordable enough for anyone) and one
Super offer (higher value offer). For example; $25/mo – Lite offer and $200/mo –
Super offer.
3
Share the benefits:
Whether on your website, social media, over the phone or in-person, you should
always share the benefits of maintenance service with your customers.
Peace of Mind: More security because the home is being monitored
professionally
Security: Detection of intruders, flood, leaks, faulty or disabled alarm systems
and essential devices that have gone down
Convenience: Better smart home performance and longer device life
Saving Money: Savings on electronics support costs which have very high
hourly maintenance fees
Tip: To help convey the benefits, use Domotz’s customizable/white label brochure
template.
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4
Share the results:
One of the best ways to convey the successes of your monitoring program is to
share the previous results with future prospects via Case Study’s. To collect feedback
you can use for your case studies we recommend using tool’s like Survey Monkey or
Type Form to engage with your customers.
www.domotz.com
@domotz
To Summarise
Consumers are willing to pay
for maintenance services for
their homes
Consumers are willing to
engage in RMR contracts that
bring Peace of Mind
Service providers need to tier their
support offerings to reach different
customer segments
RMR Service Contracts have
failed in the past because of
high recurring costs and
set-up fees
Alarm companies hit the nail on the
head by creating a scalable business
model, giving consumers peace of
mind and enabling easy enrolment
RMR Maintenance Service Contract DO’s
5
Create a dedicated web
page for your service
Communicate the
benefits to your
customers
Collect feedback via
surveys and interviews
Share results via Case
Study’s
www.domotz.com
@domotz