What 59,000 customers taught me about growth.

1. Most customers buy once

Only 4.2% of the customers we served came back for a second job. Nobody plans to get locked out twice. That means marketing never stops: every month you're buying the next customer, so what you pay to get one has to make sense on a single job.

2. The ticket didn't move in four years

Our average payment was $97 in 2023, $104 in 2024, $101 in 2025 and $97 in 2026. Growth came from more jobs, not bigger ones. If I did it again, I'd push harder, earlier, on the higher-ticket work customers already need: keys, batteries, tires.

Average payment in dollars, by year.

3. A quarter of customers still pay cash

Payments split about 75% card and 25% cash. Your systems have to handle both cleanly, from collection to payroll, or cash becomes the place money goes missing. We reconcile every dollar of technician cash to the job it came from.

4. People tip when you save their day

Customers have tipped our technicians $141,600. Nobody tips for a lockout they resent. Tips are a scoreboard for whether the experience felt like a rescue.

5. The form you use matters

Since 2023 more than 70,000 quote requests have been started on our website, and 22,750 of them became booked jobs. Every one of those people was a prospect: when someone stops partway, we often call them before they finish. On our dedicated instant-quote page, 46% of leads become a job, compared with about 35% across all our lead sources and 19% for phone-system leads. Generic contact forms and missed calls don't come close. Show a price, save the form as they type, and call back in 30 seconds.