Service Agreements That Are Worth Signing

A service agreement is worth exactly what its measurable commitments are worth. Most contain a response time, a rate card and a great deal of language that commits to nothing.

The commitments that matter

Response time by priority, with priority defined in the agreement rather than referenced vaguely. Four hours for emergency, next business day for urgent, five days for routine, is a typical structure.

Resolution time, or a defined alternative. This is the clause most often missing. A response commitment with no resolution commitment guarantees a visit, not a repair. Where parts are needed, specify what happens: a temporary measure, a loan unit, a written plan with a date.

Task lists for preventive visits, attached as a schedule. Without this, "quarterly maintenance" means whatever the technician does that day.

Reporting. Completed task list, measurements recorded, photographs, observations. Specify the format and specify that reports are required for payment.

Approval thresholds, so routine work proceeds and significant spend is authorised.

Rate protection. Fixed rates for a defined period, with a specified notice for changes.

Warranty on their work, commonly ninety days on labour.

Escalation, with a named contact and a time.

What to be careful with

Automatic renewal with long notice periods. A contract that renews for a year unless cancelled ninety days ahead is a contract you will renew by accident.

Exclusivity across all trades and all sites. It removes leverage and it means one vendor failure affects everything.

Coverage that excludes what fails. Read the exclusions before the inclusions. Compressors, control boards, and anything described as a consumable are common exclusions on apparently comprehensive contracts.

"Comprehensive" cover that is a maintenance visit plus a discount. Understand whether you are buying insurance or a schedule.

Their system as the record. If work orders live only in the vendor's platform, your history ends when the relationship does. Require export, or keep your own record in parallel.

Roof access exclusions, which quietly remove the assets most likely to fail.

Liability caps set below the value of what a failure could cost.

Full cover versus time and materials

Time and materials — you pay for what happens. Predictable rates, unpredictable totals. Correct for most operators.

Full cover — a fixed fee including repairs. Predictable totals, and the vendor now has an incentive to minimise cost per repair, which cuts both ways: they will fix things quickly, and they may fix them cheaply.

Full cover prices in the vendor's risk assessment. On old equipment it is expensive because they expect failures. On new equipment it is expensive because you are paying for coverage you will not use.

Where full cover genuinely helps: operators who need budget certainty above all, and franchisees who lack the expertise to manage repairs.

Where it does not: operators with good records who can see that their actual repair spend is well below the fee.

The preventive-only contract

The common middle position: a fixed fee for scheduled maintenance, with repairs at agreed rates.

This is a reasonable default. It puts the scheduled work on a calendar with a defined scope and keeps repair costs transparent.

Ensure the task list is attached. The whole value is in the scope.

Before signing

Get the worked cost example.

Check what happens at renewal and diarise the notice date.

Confirm the exclusions against your actual equipment.

Confirm geographic coverage site by site rather than by region.

Confirm out-of-hours is staffed.

Confirm you can export the history.

Ask for two references from operators of similar size, and ask those references about resolution rather than response.

Reviewing annually

Actual performance against the commitments, from your own records rather than theirs.

Actual spend against the alternative structure. An operator on full cover should check what time and materials would have cost, and vice versa.

Rates against the market, which requires occasionally getting a quote from the second vendor.

An agreement that has renewed three times without review is usually mispriced, and the direction is rarely in your favour.

The clauses most often missing

When reviewing a draft, these are the omissions worth catching before signature.

Resolution commitment, not just response.

Task list attached as a schedule.

Reports as a condition of payment.

Approval threshold, with a figure.

Parts markup, stated as a percentage.

Warranty on their labour, with a period.

Named escalation contact and a time.

Data export on termination, covering work orders and asset history.

Roof and confined space access explicitly included.

Rate protection period, with notice requirements for changes.

Notice period for renewal, diarised the day you sign.

Each of these is a single sentence and their absence is what makes an agreement unenforceable in the situations where you need it.