HOW TO RAISE TREATMENT PRICES WITHOUT LOSING CLIENTS
When running a business, keeping your prices in line with the rising cost of living is super important, especially with all the new Covid health and safety measures that up your treatment costs. There’s often a lot of fear around increasing your treatment prices, worrying that it will upset your regular clients who are used to paying a certain price. However, it’s a vital part of running a business and isn’t something you should shy away from. Here are our top tips for raising your prices without losing clients.
1. Know your worth
There’s a lot of time, effort and investment that goes into running a beauty business. From paying utility bills and rent to ordering stock and promoting yourself on social media, all of these things cost you time and money, so factor them into your costings. That’s not to mention the investment you made in yourself by going on all the relevant training courses to ensure you’re offering the very best treatments to your clients.
2. Be open and honest
All businesses, no matter what sector they are in, regularly increase the prices of their goods and services. The best way to communicate any price increases to your clients is openly. It may be that they never considered all of your outgoings and will appreciate your honesty.
3. Give your clients some notice
Being charged more than you expected isn’t a nice surprise for anyone, so if you’re planning on increasing your prices, be sure to give your clients some notice. Post your updated price list on social media and send out a text or email to your clients so they are aware ahead of their next appointment.
4. Offer added value
As well as increasing profitability for you, look at simple ways you can enhance your service to boost value for your clients. Upgrading to luxury products or offering a loyalty programme gives an incentive to clients to keep coming back.
5. Make it an annual occurrence
Introduce a yearly costing review and factor in treatment prices as part of this. Small, steady increments are easier to take than a large jump in price every few years. Plus, your clients will come to expect it and understand your reasons behind the increase.
6. Be available to chat
It’s inevitable that some clients may have questions about the increase, so be sure to make sure yourself available to ease any concerns. Have some responses to FAQs ready to go so that you can reply without taking up too much of your time. You can also set automated responses on social media or emails with your working hours and an estimated response time so that clients know you’ll get back to them when you can.
7. Stand your ground
When it comes to difficult clients, it’s easy to back down and apologise to prevent losing them, but you should always stand your ground with your prices. Always remain polite and professional, but having confidence in yourself, your skills and your treatment justifies your RRP.
8. Just do it
Price increases are easy to overthink, so once you’ve decided on your new treatment prices, it’s best to start the process sooner rather than later to make sure you go through with it.
Following these steps will help to make this daunting process run a lot smoother for you and your clients.
