Raising prices for spring: the letter and the timing
Tell them in January, anchor the new number to the renewal, give one honest reason, and don’t apologize twice. The letter, the calls that follow, and why prices raised while the water is hard are an arrangement — not an argument.
· 6 min read
How do you raise prices without losing customers? Tell them in January, anchor the new number to the spring renewal, give one honest reason, and don’t apologize twice. That’s nearly the whole method. The rest is holding your nerve through the two or three phone calls that follow.
The mistake isn’t raising prices — costs went up and everyone on your lake knows it. The mistake is the April surprise: a customer who finds the new number on the bill after the dock is already in the water has been handed a reason to feel cornered, and cornered customers make calls they wouldn’t otherwise make. January exists so that nobody is surprised in April.
Why January is the month
Three reasons, all practical. The customer has time to decide the increase is fine, which is what almost all of them decide when given room. You have time to absorb the rare cancellation and fill the slot before the season. And the increase lands next to the renewal — “here’s what this spring looks like” — instead of next to a bill, where it reads as a charge instead of an arrangement.
Decide which prices move, not just how much
An even raise across the whole price list is the lazy version, and it usually means your most underpriced work stays underpriced. If you measured your season, the minutes tell you where the real gap is — the service that takes fifty minutes and is billed like twenty moves the most, and the work you price fairly may not need to move at all. Rebuilding the price list from last season’s minutes is the companion piece to this one; do that arithmetic first, then write the letter.
The letter
Four sentences, in this order. What’s changing: “Starting this spring, a dock section is $95 and lift installs are $240.” One honest reason: “Our insurance and crew wages both went up this year.” What isn’t changing: “Same crew, same two visits, and we’ll have you in as soon as your bay opens.” The renewal: “You’re on the spring list as always — nothing to do unless something’s changed at the property.”
Notes on each. The number is stated plainly, not framed, not softened with percentages — “$95” reads honest and “a modest 6% adjustment” reads like a company that hired someone to write letters. The reason is singular; two reasons read as an excuse being assembled. And the word “unfortunately” appears nowhere. You’re allowed one sentence of warmth at the end. You’re not allowed to apologize twice, because the second apology invites the customer to agree that something regrettable is happening.
The calls you’ll get
Out of a couple hundred letters, expect a handful of calls. Most just want to hear a person confirm it, and the honest reason from the letter, said out loud, ends the conversation warmly. One or two will push. Decide before the letter goes out what you’ll do — a long-tenured customer you’d hate to lose can be held at the old number for a year, and that’s a decision worth making person by person rather than a discount policy worth announcing.
And a few silences are the goodbye. A customer who leaves over a fair increase was priced wrong for years, and the slot they free up gets filled at the new number by somebody on the waiting list you’ve been telling “maybe next spring.”
Change the list once, and history keeps its numbers
Whatever you decide, it should be typed in exactly one place. In LakeOps that’s your price list — one row per service and item type, and every job after that completes at the new number without anyone re-typing a price. The customer you’re holding at the old rate is one override row with their name on it, not a parallel list to maintain.
Just as important is what the change doesn’t touch: a job snapshots its price when it completes, so raising the dock rate in February rewrites nothing about last fall. When a customer calls in June asking why this spring cost more than the removal did, both numbers are sitting there, each true to its season.
The timing in one line
Decide in December, mail in January, update the price list the same week, and by the time the ice goes out the new numbers are simply what things cost. Prices raised while the water is hard are an arrangement. Prices raised while your barge is in their bay are an argument.