You’ve done it. Your maid services business is in full operation and you have regular clientele providing consistent income. Everything seems to be running smoothly, but you feel as if you are about to throw a wrench in the works. You’ve realized that it’s time to raise your prices. You may need to raise the costs of your maid services for several reasons including tax increases, supply costs, or simply not quoting a high enough price on the first bid. It’s not an easy subject to broach with your clients; but there are ways to take the sting out and keep your clients happy at the same time.
The first thing to do is make sure you are increasing the price of your services by the industry standard of 3-5% yearly. Raising your prices any higher than that raises red flags and you may begin to lose clients. However, if you have been in business for several years and have not raised your prices, it is acceptable to increase your rates by 3-5% for every year you have not had a rate increase. It’s easy to justify when you can show your clients that your costs have increased by a similar amount. Remember, you are running a business, not giving away your valuable time and services.
The best way to make sure that you are not raising your prices almost immediately after taking on a new client is to provide proper quotes from the start. A seamless way to do this is to use an online rating software, like Compass Wave, to make it easier for your maid services company to quote jobs accurately and correctly every time. When clients are initially quoted with the same rates, it becomes much simpler to institute a price increase across the board rather than backtrack to increase low quotes. Having a safeguard like this in place is a solid step to keeping your financial goals intact while lessening the headaches that come with inconsistent quotes.
When it comes to sharing the news of rate increases with your clients, the best and most straightforward approach is to talk to them. Yes, it’s that simple. Do not keep it a secret and spring it on them at the last minute in an invoice. Keeping an open line of communication with clients by sending them an email or a letter explaining your price increase and timeline will keep your clients informed and you will have time to answer any questions that arise. Being a transparent business owner shows that you care about your clients, your clients do notice your efforts, and transparency can (and does) increase client loyalty.
Have confidence in your maid services business model. Communicate with authority and do not apologize for raising the cost of services. That will make it easy for clients to open the door for a discussion to oppose the increase. Inflation is a fact of the business world and your company’s services are worth the price of the increase. Stay confident and stand behind your rate increase with facts and transparency.
