Landing the Plane on UpGage - Increasing Renewable Revenue and Customer Lifetime Value while improving your company overall
How UpGage is Transforming Our Business—and What’s Next
Over the past few blogs, we’ve explored the unexpected benefits UpGage has brought to our employees, customers, and bottom line. These unintended perks have been game-changing for growth. These have been the following (so far!):
Let’s recap some highlights:
In 2023, we achieved:
$32,250 in upsells
A $60,000 increase in customer lifetime value (LTV), with $7,500 in yearly renewable revenue (8-year average customer lifetime).
In 2024, we surpassed expectations:
$38,224 in upsells
$111,464 increase in LTV, with $13,933 in renewable revenue.
Combining both years, we’ve sold an incredible $163,000 toward future goals!
While the numbers are fantastic, I feel we’ve only scratched the surface of what UpGage can do!
A Personal Journey of Transformation
The past few years have been tough. Transitioning from landscaping to fertilizer services, stepping back from the business, and reevaluating my role left me feeling unsatisfied with its direction. But these challenges pushed me to rebuild. I tossed outdated systems, developed new ones, and weathered significant team turnover.
The result? A 15% net profit swing over two years, and the business is profitable again.
Throughout this journey, UpGage has been a cornerstone for cultural transformation and operational success. Now, I’m more focused and excited than ever to fully implement its potential.
Here’s where we’re headed with UpGage’s new features:
I have talked about the renewable revenue—we have now added this feature to UpGage so this metric is easily tracked alongside your other metrics there, so on any given day, you can see the impact your engaged employees are making on your business.
Goal setting for Techs will be next. This feature is built out already, and we are setting it to one per day or 5 per week. With an average of 20 stops per day, they will need to bring in an upsell opportunity for 5% of their daily work—pretty manageable, right? The impact on their income and the company bottom line will be massive, plus having a short-term goal like this will make it easy to train and mentor weekly to achieve this goal.
Additionally, we are looking at our reviews—how can we achieve one review per employee per week? What needs to happen to achieve this—stay tuned for info on this as we develop a plan. Imagine 6 Techs in the field, take out the beginning of the season when reviews are tough to come by, 30 weeks remaining, one review per week = 180 quality new reviews! $750 in review commission per Tech keeps them really, damn, motivated to keep performing. AND reduced marketing spend. How? Getting those reviews is pure gold that you get to mine with increased Google presence—they will rank you much higher than the “Chuck in a Truck” with 10, and the leads are prequalified because they know your reputation. I don’t know about you, but my Techs need that $$$ much more than a marketing firm does to run subpar ads for you. $750 per Tech is an investment in them and your company—never an expense.
Let’s Talk
We’re just getting started with UpGage and are thrilled about what’s ahead for our Technicians and company. But enough about us—what are you struggling with?
Set up a call with me and share your biggest challenge. No sales pitch, just a genuine conversation to explore solutions.
Looking forward to connecting!
Stay tuned for updates as we continue this journey with UpGage!
About the author:
Chris Imlach is a Co-Founder of UpGage and 20 year Green Industry veteran. After spending 18 years as a full service landscapers Chris and his team has streamlined the business to be fertilization only under their Green Sphere brand. Chris' goal with developing UpGage is to short cut other owners journeys to success, help them go faster, make more money while developing a kick ass company culture!
