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You’re not alone! A lot of businesses are doing the same this year. With inflation, insurance increases, rising salary costs, and everything else, it’s really no surprise, right?
Increasing your pricing kind of sucks. I don’t know if this is a Kiwi thing but when people talk about profits or price increases it can sound like something only a villain would do and it might evoke images of a business owner laying by a fire, with their pet tiger, rolling around in hundred dollar bills.
But really, it’s just about keeping the business finances healthy.
So, if you need to communicate a price change with your customer base, here’s a few tips:
First up, pick your communication channel. For some of you, an email out to your customer base will be appropriate, for deeper relationships, like clients you work closely with, you might need to tie it into a face to face conversation or a phone call.
Be very clear about what the price used to be and what it's increasing to.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but then you get a price increase email from say your power company or insurance company, they tell you the new price but not the old price so you’d have to know it off by heart or go and look it up. Which… I dunno, I’ve never bothered to do… so the price increase seems a little vague.
They do this on purpose but if you're like us and you have relationships with your customers and you value openness, you want to transparently share the old price vs the new price.
While you’re at it, be sure to let people know when the new price will be effective from.
Make sure you emphasize value. For example, if part of your reason for your price increase is your salary costs increasing, emphasize the fact that you are working to maintain a happy and talented team.
Also, if you have alternative options, like going on to a lesser package, for example, make these clear and accessible.
Last but not least, open a channel for communication so they know what to do if they have any questions.
