Lifetime value (LTV).
What an average customer is worth in gross profit across their whole relationship with you, not the ticket on one job.
What is lifetime value?
Lifetime value, or LTV, is the gross profit an average customer produces over the years they stay with you. The working formula is average ticket × jobs per year × years retained × gross margin. A customer with a $420 average ticket, 1.4 jobs a year, retained four years at 45 percent margin is worth roughly $1,058 in gross profit.
Why it matters for home service businesses
LTV sets the ceiling on what you can afford to spend to win a customer. It also shows why retention beats discounting: a maintenance membership that adds one visit a year and stretches retention from three years to five can nearly double LTV without changing a single price.
How Lakehouse handles it
Job history, memberships, and invoices live on the customer record, so the inputs are already there. See memberships and reporting.
See how Lakehouse puts this to work for your shop.
Book a demoSee it on your own jobs.
Book a working session and free business audit with the Lakehouse team. Bring a real job, a real estimate, and a real question about running your business. We will show you how Lakehouse handles it.