Thirty-one rates and one price rise
Your costs have gone up and you have decided to raise prices. The headline rate is simple. The problem is everyone else. There are founding members from when you opened, who you promised would keep their rate. There are members on three different January offers from different years, a student plan, an off-peak plan that nobody is sure is still sold, couples' memberships and a handful of personal arrangements made by the previous owner.
Your management system shows thirty-one distinct amounts being collected. Someone exports the list, sorts it in a spreadsheet and starts deciding who goes up by how much. Then the notices: your terms say members must be told a certain time in advance, so emails need to go out by a particular date, each with the right old and new price. Then each direct debit amount needs changing on the right date.
Rates accumulate, records do not keep up
Every promotion and exception made sense at the time. Over the years, they pile up, and the reason for each one fades.
- Rates are stored as amounts, not as named plans with rules.
- Promises made to some groups, like founding members, are not recorded against their accounts.
- Notice periods and how to give notice are in your terms, but not built into the process.
- Direct debit amounts are changed individually, by hand.
- Members on paid-in-full or annual plans need different treatment.
So a decision that takes the owner an afternoon becomes weeks of spreadsheet work and hundreds of individual changes.
Where price rises go wrong
Mistakes are visible to members immediately: a founding member who was promised a fixed rate and received an increase notice, a member charged the new rate without proper notice, a notice with the wrong amounts. Each generates a complaint, and some lead to cancellations that would not otherwise have happened.
Doing it carefully by hand takes so long that some gyms delay necessary price rises, or apply them only to new members, leaving a widening gap between old and new rates. That can be a sensible choice, but it should be a choice, not a result of admin being too hard.
Rates modelled, notices and collections automated
- We pull every active member's current plan and collection amount from your gym management system and payment provider.
- Each amount is grouped into a named rate, with any promises or exceptions you tell us about recorded against it.
- You decide the change per rate: an increase, no change, or a move to a current plan. The model shows how many members each decision affects and the change in monthly collections.
- Notices are generated for each affected member with their own old and new amount, the effective date and what they can do if they do not want to continue, following your terms.
- Notices are sent on the date that gives the notice period your terms require, and delivery is recorded.
- On the effective date, collection amounts are updated through your payment provider's API, and exceptions are listed for a person.
- Members who reply with questions are grouped, so staff can answer common ones once.
| Rate group | Your decision | Member notice |
|---|---|---|
| Founding members | No change, as promised | None, or a thank you |
| Standard monthly | New price | Old and new price, effective date |
| Old January offers | Move to standard | Personal notice explaining the change |
| Student and off-peak | Smaller change | Their own amounts |
| Paid in full | At renewal | Notice before renewal |
How much to charge, and how much notice to give, is your decision, following your terms and any advice you take. We make it happen accurately.
A price rise that runs itself
The owner decides once, per group, with a clear view of the effect. Notices go out on time, each with the right figures. Collections change on the right date. Staff know what members have been told and can answer questions confidently.
And the rates are now named and documented, so the next change, whenever it happens, starts from a clean list rather than another export.
The same model also helps with smaller decisions, such as retiring an old off-peak plan or offering long-standing members a move to a better plan, because you can see exactly who is on what and why.
Is this your membership list?
- Your members are on many different collection amounts.
- You are not sure why some members pay what they do.
- Price rises involve exporting to a spreadsheet and changing amounts by hand.
- You have delayed a price rise because of the admin.