has anyone tried this way to make money?

I am a one man shop, and some times i am swamped and the other times nothing. in order to level out my income i offer businesses a service agreement like this: They pay a monthly fee which includes up to two hours of service(phone tech help, repair, etc)when needed. they also get 24-48 hour service,and emergency service at regular rates after the 2 hours.
i encourage them to call to have me install updates etc. this keeps me in touch with the business, and their computers. this has enabled me to keep them running much better(much easier to prevent than fix a problem) and has gotten me numerous referrals(due to the problem free computers). plus I can schedule routine things around my schedule(testing a backup, etc).
I currently have two companies, and think i could do 4-6 depending on size.
I doubt i am the only one doing this, and was wondering if you had any tips on how to structure this, and your experiences. if you don't do this, i would still value your opinion.



[This message has been edited by techs (edited October 07, 2000).]

I can't get away with this, but Kudo's to you for getting it by the customer, I have a hard time just squeezing out the dollars I do get. These folks feel like I should work for free around here, Maybe it's the area....

I toyed with this idea about three years ago and found it to be a tough sell, not much interest in it. Looking back, I'm glad it didn't work out as we now have all the business we can handle, to the point of using part time help. The biggest enhancement to my business was specializing in business users and moving away from home users. This also helped in lagging sales of new systems as the business client is more interested in the quality of a system and not just looking for a cheap box. Under the right circumstances, service contracting could be a viable part of of a business. It just depends on how you want to structure your business.

Have your customers invest in a remote pakcage such as PC anywhere or one of its competitors so that you can provide some services without leaving your office.

Actually i won't do it unless they let me install pc anywhere.

checkout Intels Remote Serivices Portal Cards etc very good product.


Jesse

Called them "service packs" or a retainer. A retainer was a monthly fee for priority service to my larger clients, also for those clients requiring help desk support, no hastle support or routine maint. "Service Packs" were pre-bought service bundles that allowed for priority service, service discounts, emergency response and network monitoring but required at least a 2.5K investment and up, the more you spent the cheaper the hour rate got.

Both had PC Anywhere or Novell ManageWise as requirements so that I could monitor and maintain from offsite. I found this to be very profitable because I could schedule regular days when the customer could expect me, I was already paid and knew that the customer was not going to hastle me regarding payment, I also had the confidence that the customer was my customer and would call me for anything.