End of year letter

[Brandon]

The end of the year is almost upon us and I thought it would be a good time to do a price increase ready for the new year as I haven’t ever done one and quite a few customers always ask if the price is still the same.

I’m going to write a letter thanking them for a good year of having their custom and detailing what the price will be increasing to etc.

On top of this I also want to push for customers to sign up to GoCardless as currently sign up rate is poor despite numerous efforts to up-sell it.

I was thinking of offering a price increase of around £2.00 but as an incentive, lowering the increase to £1.00 if they sign up.

Has anyone tried anything like this or thinks this may work?

TIA ??

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[adamangler]

Is Christmas the best time for a price increase? 

Leave it till April imo.

 

[Brandon]

Is Christmas the best time for a price increase? 
 
Leave it till April imo.
 
 
 
 

I was thinking more January time.
Have you had a bad experience doing a price increase over Christmas?


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[adamangler]

No mate not at a it's just a hunch.

A lot of people overspend at Christmas and many are still paying for It well into the new year. I know from personal experience Christmas can be an expensive affair.

Just my opinion mate, I might be totally wrong I just think end of the tax year is a better time, people are recovering financially, end of the tax year and prices go up plus coming into better weather and people tend to be in a better state of mind than the depths of winter.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Brandon]

Yeah I understand totally what you mean. It’s just annoying as I keep putting it off and putting it off and finally I feel like I’m at a good place in customer base where if I lose a few it won’t matter as the increase will balance that out.

Lately I’ve had a ridiculous amount of customers on my debt list, despite regular payment reminders they just take their time. So it’s got to the point that GoCardless is a necessity!

Do you think a safer option would be sending the letter out in a smaller batch first and gauge the response from that before sending the rest?


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[adamangler]

Yeah I understand totally what you mean. It’s just annoying as I keep putting it off and putting it off and finally I feel like I’m at a good place in customer base where if I lose a few it won’t matter as the increase will balance that out.

Lately I’ve had a ridiculous amount of customers on my debt list, despite regular payment reminders they just take their time. So it’s got to the point that GoCardless is a necessity!

Do you think a safer option would be sending the letter out in a smaller batch first and gauge the response from that before sending the rest?


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Don't let me put you off if you want to do it mate. I'm no expert and there's no right or wrong answer it was just my thoughts on it. 

With go cardless I would send a bulk SMS to everyone asking them to sign up. You should get a few. A month later do the same maybe  offer an incentive like half price next clean if they sign up etc.

When. You rise the prices you could say due to admin costs your price will go up 1-2 quid but if you can sign up to GC your price will stay the same for another year as reducing admin costs. 

Try different approaches, I an to have my first increase next April and push the GC myself.

 

[dmw]

I increase my prices biannually in March, quite time of year and seldom lose any.
Some customers say "what again?",and I genlty remind them it was two years ago.

 

[Iron Giant]

I agree with @dmw  a price increase in March/April is a safer bet Easter break isn't far away peoples mindset changes for the year ahead holidays to look forward to etc. 

Regarding GoCardless you can try all sorts but people are just plain lazy or to busy, I stopped evening cash collections almost 3 years ago now. And the fastest sign up rate was when I changed banks and all the bacs payers got a letter informing them that they could no longer make payments via bacs as that account was now closed and they had to sign up to pay via GC . 

Your website payment page needs to be spot on so clients are comfortable with the info provided and thus feel that their bank acc details are safe when signing up. 

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

On top of this I also want to push for customers to sign up to GoCardless as currently sign up rate is poor despite numerous efforts to up-sell it.

This is because you still give them a choice, you still allow the customer to dictate to you how to run your business instead of taking control of it yourself.  

We ONLY accept GoCardless. We informed all clients of this a couple of months ago.  I was prepared for a 10 - 20% drop off rate due to this but calculated it worth it with the rate at which we generate new business and also the savings involved with having zero administration time and cost for collections.  

The cancellation rate was actually 4% which were replaced within the month  so no big deal there. 

I still struggle to see why so many on here will allow the customer to dictate terms to them, it's your business so lay the foundations and get it done. 

As for your 'end of year' letter really bad idea IMO

Remind people that they have the expense of you to look forward to all year at their most expensive time of year would not be my number one plan.   Also those that are just about on the wall (due to things such as short daylight hours) will be more inclined to use the pay rise as a reason to sack you off.  

It would be more beneficial to get a huge pile of Christmas Cards and drop one of them to each customer, two benefits.   Those that dont really know you, that you never see, end up thinking 'that's nice, what a nice chap'   and those considering a christmas drop out now don't as they feel a tad guilty after you were such a nice chap to them.  Also if you manage to get them all dropped off beefore December clean you'd be amazed at the goody bag you take away with you buy the end of it.  

Adam is totally bang on, Pay increases are for the summer time, when things are all sunny and people happier and thinking it will never end.  Not for the darkest, shortest most expensive month of the year. 

 

[Part Timer]

I told all my residential customers last November that in January the price was going up. I said even I couldn't put them up before Christmas. Not one complained or left, some had been paying me the same price for over 5 years so understood why.