How to raise your prices without losing customers

What it costs 6 min read

What to work out before you move your number, how to tell the customers you want to keep, and an honest account of who leaves when you do.

You worked it out at the kitchen table. The number you charge has not moved in three years and everything you buy to do the job has.

You already know what has to happen. What stops you is a short list of names, the ones who have been with you since the start, and the picture of telling them.

Work out what has actually moved

Before deciding anything, get the real numbers on a page. Not a feeling that things are dearer, the actual difference.

Look at what you pay for the materials you use most, compared with what you paid when you set the price. Fuel. Insurance, which usually goes up quietly. Your registrations, your subscriptions, the tip fees, the hire rates. Then the one people leave out, which is the cost of your own time going up because you are better at the job than you were.

Write the old number and the new number side by side. Two things come out of that. You will know whether you need a small correction or a real move. And when somebody asks you why, you will be answering from a page instead of from nerves.

The price you quote is not the money you keep

The gap between the two is where most trades lose the argument with themselves.

Between quoting a job and being paid for it there are the unpaid hours. The drive out to look at it. The evening writing it up. The three quotes that went nowhere. The phone calls about a start date. The trip back because a part was wrong, which was not your fault and cost you an afternoon anyway. The invoice chased twice.

If your price only covers the hours with a tool in your hand, you are working the rest for nothing. That is why a business that looks busy can end the year with nothing in it.

Raise it on new quotes first

The easiest version of this costs you no conversations at all. From a chosen date, every new quote goes out at the new number.

New customers have no old price to compare it against. They are comparing you to whoever else they called, which is a different question entirely and one you may well win.

Give it a month. You will learn more from four quotes at the new number than from two weeks of thinking about it. If they are landing at the same rate as before, the price was not the thing holding you back, and you now have evidence rather than a worry.

Tell your regulars before they find it on an invoice

The way to lose a good customer is not the increase. It is the surprise.

Tell them ahead of the work, not on the bill. Give a date it starts from. Honor anything you have already quoted, without being asked, and say so, because that single sentence does more for the relationship than the increase costs it.

Do it in whatever way you normally talk to them. If you call that customer, call. If you text, text. A formal letter from somebody who has been texting you for six years reads as though a company took over.

Say it plainly and stop talking

One or two sentences. "From the first of next month my rate for a standard service is going up. Anything already quoted stays at the old price."

Then stop. The instinct is to keep going, and everything after those two sentences makes it worse. Do not apologize. Do not blame the economy in general terms, because it sounds like an excuse even when it is true. Do not list your personal costs, because it invites a negotiation about whether you needed the new van.

You are not asking permission. You are telling somebody a number, the same way the people you buy from tell you.

Who actually leaves

Some people will leave. Anybody who promises you otherwise is guessing, and nobody can tell you the number in advance.

What is worth knowing is which ones. The customers most likely to go are the ones who chose you on price to begin with, and they are also the ones who call at five on a Friday, question every line, and pay late. Losing them frees the time that was funding them.

The customers who stay are the ones who have been buying you turning up. That was never the cheapest option and they knew it.

The version to watch for is the customer who stays but goes cold, and the fix for that is the same as everything else here: tell them before the invoice, not after.

Who you hold the old price for, and why

You are allowed to make exceptions. Do it deliberately and quietly rather than by flinching.

There are customers where holding the old number is a decision that makes sense. The pensioner on the same round for nine years. The one who has sent you four jobs without being asked. The commercial client whose work fills your dead season.

Two rules keep it from spreading. Decide it yourself before anybody asks, not in the middle of an awkward call, because a discount given under pressure is one you will resent by the third visit. And keep it between you and them, because a held price that becomes common knowledge turns into a waiting list.

What to have ready before you send the first new number

Set aside an hour and get all of this down before anything goes out.

• The new number for each thing you sell, written down where you will not have to invent it on the phone
• The date it starts, and what happens to jobs you have already quoted
• The one sentence you will use, and nothing after it
• The list of regulars who get told directly rather than finding out on an invoice
• Your quote template updated, so the old number cannot escape by accident
• The price on your website changed the same day, if you publish prices at all
• What you will say if somebody asks you to hold the old rate, decided in advance
• A note of who leaves, so that next time you know what it actually cost you

Questions people ask

How much should I put my prices up by?

Enough that you do not have to do it again in six months. Small repeated increases irritate people more than one clear move, because each one is a fresh conversation.

How often should I review my prices?

Once a year, at a time you pick, so it is a date in the calendar rather than a reaction to a bad month. Reviewing does not mean raising.

Do I have to give notice before raising prices?

For work already quoted, yes, and honor the old price. For new work, no notice is required. For regular ongoing customers, notice is a courtesy that costs you nothing and buys a lot.

Should I put my prices on my website?

It depends on the trade. A published price works when the job is repeatable and hard to argue about. It works badly when every job is different, because the number gets read as a quote and every conversation starts with a correction.

What do I say when somebody says another quote was cheaper?

Say what your price includes and let it sit. There is nearly always a reason another number is lower, and if the customer wants that arrangement, the honest thing is to let them have it.

Will I lose customers if I put my prices up?

Probably some. That is the real cost of the decision, and it is worth doing with your eyes open. The question is what you keep afterwards.