Automatic Service Reminders: What Does Skipping Them Actually Cost an Equipment Dealer or Service Company?

Most equipment dealers and service companies sense, in a general way, that some aftermarket revenue slips through their fingers. Fewer can put a number on it — or on how much automatic service reminders could recover. This article walks through how to calculate that number yourself, and which assumptions actually hold up.

Why service gets forgotten

When a piece of equipment gets sold, its service history usually lives in one salesperson's memory, a calendar entry, or — at best — a spreadsheet. When that person changes jobs, or the spreadsheet stops getting updated, the knowledge of when the next service is due disappears with it. Customers rarely remember to reach out on their own, and if nobody reminds them, the service window closes without anyone noticing. Next time that customer needs service, they might just call someone else.

Three numbers that determine what you're losing

You can estimate lost aftermarket revenue with three numbers:

1. How many service needs currently go unnoticed. This varies a lot by company, depending on how systematic your tracking already is. Without any tracking at all, the number is usually higher than companies would guess themselves — because the untracked cases are exactly the ones that never show up in any report.

2. How many of those would convert into a booking if the reminder went out on time. Not every reminded customer books service right away, but some will — if someone reaches out before they forget entirely or turn to a competitor instead.

3. What a single service visit is worth on average. This varies significantly by equipment type — a service call for an industrial welding machine is a different price bracket than inspecting a light hand tool.

Multiply these three together with your total unit count, and you get a rough estimate of the aftermarket revenue you're losing each year.

Worked example

Take a company tracking 200 units out with customers:

• About 25% of service needs currently go unnoticed → 50 units a year
• Of those, roughly 20% would convert with an automatic reminder → 10 completed services
• Average value per service visit: €700

10 × €700 = €7,000 a year in lost aftermarket revenue that would likely have been realized if the reminder had gone out on time.

It's worth being honest about these figures: they're conservative, industry-typical assumptions, not guaranteed numbers. Actual conversion rates depend on your customer base, the type of service, and how quickly you follow up after the reminder goes out. The most accurate way to assess your own situation is to use your own real numbers instead of general assumptions.

Time gets left out of the math too

Beyond the lost sales, manual tracking also costs time — every reminder sent means someone looking up the customer's contact details, writing a message, and sending it by hand. Once that's automated, the time saved scales directly with the number of reminders sent, and it's worth including in the calculation even though the euro figure for recovered revenue is usually the bigger factor in the decision.

Calculate your own numbers

General assumptions point you in the right direction, but the best way to assess your own situation is to plug in your own numbers: unit count, typical service value, and an estimate of how many services currently go unnoticed. Try the ROI calculator →

If you'd like to see a concrete example of what automatic service tracking looks like in practice, explore the features or book a short demo.

More broadly, on why equipment aftermarket is worth treating as a revenue stream rather than an add-on, read "Aftermarket Isn't an Add-On — It's a Revenue Stream."