- Joined
- Jul 8, 2005
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- Location
- Victoria, BC
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- www.johnsphotography.ca
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I don't know that I would go so far as to say 'no' price increases for existing customers; that could cause issues, particularly if a new customer talks to an old one. "So Bill, how much did Ruth charge you for that catalogue job? Three hundred quid! What???? She charged me eight hundred Sod her, I'll find someone else!"Think it's important to me, that my existing clients enjoy the benefit of no price increase. The ones that are good enough to come back to me time and time again. I could even send out a bulletin about price increases, while stating that it will not apply to existing customers, as loyalty is important to me.
What I would do is send out to all of my customers that due to increased costs of rent, gumdrops, and whatever that you will have to be raising your prices significantly over the next year. As of now, rates have increased from 'X' to 'Y', however as a customer loyalty bonus, you will receive 'Z' percent discount on all work. People understand prices go up. They don't like it, but they understand it. Using a tiered increase plan and discounts for previous customers, I think you can mitigate most of the damage that these increases could cause.