Telling Customers the Price Is Going Up: The Announcement That Keeps Them

If your prices change in January, sometime this fall someone on your team has to write the email. It's one of the hardest messages a company sends, and on a small team it's often drafted in a hurry by whoever has a free afternoon, reviewed by the owner the night before it goes out, and followed by a week of tickets the support team wasn't warned about.

A price increase doesn't have to cost you the relationship. Customers can accept a fair increase explained honestly. What they don't accept is being surprised, being confused about what they'll pay, or feeling that the company hoped they wouldn't notice. Every one of those is a communication problem, and support is where it lands.

Bring support in before the email is written

The usual mistake is treating the announcement as a marketing message and support as the cleanup crew. Your support team knows things the people writing the email don't: which customers are already unhappy, which plans confuse people, which questions come up every time anything about billing changes. Ask them before drafting. Ask what they expect customers to ask, and write the answers into the announcement itself.

Then give support the full picture before the email goes out: the new prices for every plan, the exact date they take effect, what happens to customers on annual plans or in the middle of a contract, whether anyone keeps the old price and for how long, and who can approve an exception. An agent who learns about a price increase from an angry customer can't help that customer. Put all of it in a single internal note, and make sure the answer to “what happens to my current bill?” is in there, because that's the question that comes first.

Give people time

Check first what you've already promised. Your terms of service or customer contracts may require a specific notice period for price changes, and if you sell subscriptions that renew automatically, the rules that apply to you may require notice of changes as well. That's the minimum. Beyond it, more notice is almost always better: it gives customers time to budget, to ask questions, and to decide calmly rather than discovering the new price on an invoice.

Announcing in the fall for a January change also lets you answer questions before the busy end of the year, rather than during it.

Write the announcement plainly

A good price-increase email answers five questions in the first few lines, before any explanation:

• What's changing. The old price and the new price, for this customer's plan specifically — not a link to a pricing page.
• When. The exact date, and what that means for their next bill.
• Why. One or two honest sentences. Costs went up, the product does more than it did, or both. Don't dress it up as a benefit to them.
• What they can do. Switch plans, lock in the current price by paying annually if you offer that, or cancel — with clear instructions for each.
• Who to ask. A real reply-to address or a link to support, not a no-reply.

Resist the urge to bury the number under paragraphs about how much you value them. Customers notice when the actual news is in the fourth paragraph, and it reads as evasive. Put the number first and let the appreciation follow.

Prepare the answers before the replies arrive

Before sending, write saved responses for the questions support told you to expect: “Why is it going up?” “Can I keep my old price?” “What does this mean for my annual plan?” “How do I downgrade?” Write them in your own voice, and make sure every agent gives the same answer. Few things damage trust faster than two customers comparing notes and finding they were told different things.

Decide in advance how exceptions work. Long-standing customers, nonprofits, or customers in a genuine hardship may ask for a break. Whether you grant one is a business decision; what matters for support is that there's a rule, that it's written down, and that agents know who approves it. Improvised exceptions become precedents.

Some replies will be angry. Treat them like any other angry email: acknowledge the specific frustration, restate the facts plainly, and offer what's actually available. Don't argue about whether the increase is fair. The customer is allowed to think it isn't.

Make cancelling easy and honest

Some customers will decide to leave. Let them. A cancellation that's hard to complete after a price increase turns a customer who was leaving quietly into one who's leaving loudly. Handle these requests the way you'd handle any cancellation: acknowledge the decision, offer one relevant alternative if there is one — a smaller plan, a pause — and then process it cleanly. Ask why, and log the answer. If price turns out to be the reason behind most of what you see, that's information the business needs.

Watch the queue for a few weeks

Replies to a price announcement don't all come on day one. Some arrive when the email is read, more when a reminder goes out, and another wave when the first invoice at the new price lands. Tag price-related tickets so you can see the volume and the themes, and send a short reminder before the change takes effect for anyone who didn't open the first message. After the first billing cycle, look at what came in and write down what you'd do differently next time.

The bottom line

A price increase is a business decision, but the announcement is a customer-service job. Involve support before the email is drafted, and give them every detail before customers have it. Honor whatever notice you've committed to, and give more if you can. Put the new price, the date, and the options in the first lines, in plain language. Prepare consistent answers and a written rule for exceptions. Make cancelling easy for those who decide to go. The increase is the news. How customers find out about it is the part you control.

— Tom