Loyal Customers
The customers you already have are ready to hand you money, and most home service owners are walking right past it. Kenny Ridgell from Ridge Media joined me on the show to talk about where the real profit is hiding in your business. He told me about a client with around 1,500 active maintenance contracts who was only running about 500 visits a year, leaving roughly $60,000 in mostly pure profit sitting on the table from the other 1,000 customers who never got called.
That kind of money sitting unclaimed is exactly where Sneaky Leaky loves to hang out. Kenny shares how to follow up with your loyal customers the right way, why your technicians are the most powerful sales tool you have, and how a few small systems can keep that profit in your pocket instead of letting it slip away.
What You’ll Learn…
- Why your loyal customers are the cheapest source of new revenue you have
- The simple math that proves your maintenance contracts are sitting on hidden profit
- How to arm your technicians for cross-selling without turning them into salespeople
- Why the wrong tech in the wrong seat is quietly costing you thousands per visit
- What most home service owners get wrong about following up with loyal customers
- How tracking the right numbers tells you which 50% of your marketing is actually working
- The surprising profit leaks hiding in your billing, your parts house trips, and your apparel closet
Key Moments…
[1:05] The Biggest Profit Leak Hiding In Your Marketing Spend
[9:23] Why Loyal Customers Are Cheaper Than Chasing New Leads
[10:39] The Realtor Stat That Will Change How You Follow Up
[14:57] The Battery Trick That Built Wildly Loyal Customers
[16:13] Putting The Right Tech In The Right Seat For More Profit
[29:41] The Hidden Cost Of Tech Trips Back To The Parts House
[39:22] The Credit Card And Manual Billing Leaks Most Owners Ignore
The Biggest Profit Leak Hiding In Your Marketing Spend
When I crack open the QuickBooks file of a home service business, I almost always see fifteen or twenty different marketing companies on the books, and most owners cannot tell me which ones are actually working. That is a real problem, but it is not the biggest one. The biggest leak is the people you have already won over and are not following up with. Your loyal customers are the cheapest, most profitable lead source you have, and most owners are walking right past them. If you want to plug a leak that pays you back fast, start there before you touch your marketing budget.
Why Loyal Customers Are Cheaper Than Chasing New Leads
Kenny shared a story about a client with around 1,500 active maintenance contracts who was only running about 500 visits a year. The math was painful when we did it out loud. Each maintenance visit averaged $600 in additional ticket value, and skipping those other 1,000 visits meant leaving roughly $60,000 in mostly pure profit on the table. Your loyal customers are the cheapest, fastest way to grow your bottom line because the cost of acquisition is already paid. You do not have to spend anything new; you just have to show up.
The Realtor Stat That Will Change How You Follow Up
Kenny shared a stat from a realtor friend that stopped me in my tracks. Around 93% of people surveyed said they were happy with their realtor, but only about 10% called that same realtor back when it was time for the next deal. The reason was almost never that the customer was unhappy. It was that the next-door neighbor or the friend at church became the more recent point of contact. Your loyal customers do not call you back automatically, even when they love you, so the responsibility is on you to keep showing up in their world.
The Battery Trick That Built Wildly Loyal Customers
I shared a story I picked up from an HVAC owner in Southern California who armed his techs with a variety of batteries. When they showed up for a maintenance call, they offered to swap out the batteries in the smoke alarms, the TV remote, and anything else around the house. It gave the techs a reason to walk through the whole home, spot real issues, and have a longer, more personal interaction. The owner said the techs who bought into the battery program saw their sales numbers climb because they were showing real care. That is exactly how you build the kind of relationship that turns ordinary customers into wildly loyal customers.
Putting The Right Tech In The Right Seat For More Profit
Kenny made a point that most owners get backwards. The natural instinct is to take your most experienced tech and move them to install because installs are bigger jobs. The problem is that your strongest people person is often the same one quietly creating the biggest cross-sell numbers on the maintenance side. When you move them out of the homeowner’s house and into install-only work, you are pulling your best relationship builder away from the customers who matter most. You need to track average ticket value per tech so you can put the right person in the right seat and protect your relationships with loyal customers.
The Hidden Cost Of Tech Trips Back To The Parts House
I told Kenny about an electrical company on the East Coast where the wife stepped in for one day while her husband was out sick. She ended up at the parts house and saw fifteen techs from various companies milling around, drinking coffee, eating donuts, and visiting for at least thirty minutes each. When we ran the numbers, that little habit was costing them $130,000 a year. Your techs are not doing this on purpose, but every trip back to the office or the parts house is time that could have been spent in front of a paying customer. A simple digital inventory checklist before they leave the shop can stop the leak completely, and it protects the time you should be spending with loyal customers.
The Credit Card And Manual Billing Leaks Most Owners Ignore
Kenny closed the episode with two leaks most owners would not even think to look at. The first is absorbing credit card processing fees instead of passing them along, which can quietly eat three percent off every transaction. The second is manual billing, where you are mailing invoices, waiting for checks, and chasing down customers thirty days later for money you already earned. Both of these leaks add up fast in a home service business, especially when you serve a high volume of loyal customers each month. The fix is to digitize your billing, collect at the door, and pass along the fees so you keep more of the money you worked for.
About Kenny Ridgwell
Kenny is a data-driven marketing entrepreneur who has spent the better part of a decade merging art, science, and innovation into measurable growth strategies for his clients. After beginning his academic career as a biochemistry major, Kenny discovered a passion for business and marketing at the College of Charleston, where he graduated with honors. This distinctive blend of analytical rigor and creative thinking led him to launch Ridge Media in 2014 while still a student, ultimately shaping a unique approach to marketing that prioritizes experimentation, evidence-based decision-making, and tangible returns.
Under Kenny’s leadership, Ridge Media has grown into a firm that stands apart by applying the scientific method to the marketing landscape. Each campaign is viewed as a hypothesis to test, a puzzle to solve. By combining strategic storytelling with systematic experimentation, Kenny and his team have consistently cut through digital noise and driven meaningful, sustainable revenue growth for an array of businesses.
What sets Kenny apart is his ability to translate complex marketing analytics into actionable insights that resonate with founders, CEOs, and business owners alike. He’s dedicated to simplifying the marketing process—focusing on what works, discarding the fluff, and ensuring every decision drives measurable results. His curiosity, adaptability, and relentless pursuit of excellence make him an engaging thought partner for any podcast host looking to uncover the secrets behind successful, data-driven digital marketing.
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Diane’s Resources:
15 Profit Leaks Report
📖 Spot the common places where money slips out of a service business and learn the fixes that keep more cash with you. https://profitcoach4you.com/profitleaks
Profit Impact Call
☎️ Get a live review of your numbers so you can see where profit is leaking and walk away with a plan to save thousands. https://taxcoach4you.com/profitimpactcall/
Schedule a free Profit Impact Call with me where we’ll go over 12 main areas of your business together and save you $45k!
