Price change season
Your suppliers put their prices up, and you need to pass on some or all of the change. On paper that is simple. In practice your customers sit on several versions of your terms, some with price change clauses written as a fixed amount, some linked to an index, and some legacy deals that were agreed with no increase at all. Some customers are on bundles; some pay per service.
Finance builds a spreadsheet with every customer, works out who gets what increase, drafts a letter, and mail-merges it. Then someone updates each tariff in the billing platform. Customers who did not receive the letter because it went to an old contact complain when the new bill arrives. A few were increased who should not have been.
It takes weeks, and it repeats every year.
Why the same change lands differently
- Different terms versions set out price changes in different ways.
- Some customers have contract-specific agreements that override the standard terms.
- Billing contacts are out of date, so notices reach the wrong person.
- Tariffs are updated manually in the billing platform, customer by customer.
- Nobody keeps a record of which notice was sent to whom, and when.
What the rules require for notice and how price changes must be presented is set by the regulator and your terms; you and your adviser decide the approach. The admin behind it is what we build.
The cost of a messy price change
| Problem | Result |
|---|---|
| Notice sent to an old contact | Complaint when the new bill arrives |
| Increase applied against the terms | Refund and credibility lost |
| Increase missed on some accounts | Supplier rise absorbed without knowing |
| Tariffs updated by hand | Errors, and days of admin |
| No record of notices | Hard to show what was sent |
Price change season also lands on top of everything else. Finance are building the spreadsheet in the same weeks they are running the normal bill, chasing debts and reconciling carrier invoices, and account managers are fielding calls about the letters while trying to renew contracts.
The price change run we build
- Each customer's services are listed with their terms version and any contract-specific price agreement.
- You set the change for each product and terms version, and the rules for special agreements. The run calculates each customer's current and new prices, and flags anything it cannot decide.
- A review screen shows the effect across the base, by customer, product and terms version, before anything is sent.
- Personal notices are generated from your approved template, showing each customer's own services, old and new prices and the date of change, and sent to the billing contact on record. Bounced emails are flagged for another route.
- Every notice is recorded: to whom, when, which version, and whether it was delivered.
- On the effective date, the new prices are applied in your billing platform through its API or import, and a check confirms the next bill matches the notice.
Price changes with it running
The spreadsheet disappears. Finance set the change once, review the effect, approve the notices, and the run does the rest. Customers receive a clear notice about their own services. Account managers can see what their customers were told before those customers ring. And the record of what was sent and when sits against each account.
The review stage also shows where supplier increases are not being passed on at all, which is useful information whatever you decide to do about it.
The second year is easier than the first. The terms versions, special agreements and billing contacts have all been cleaned during the first run, so the next price change starts from a reliable list. Customers who joined during the year are already on the right terms version, because it was recorded when they signed.
Does your price change look like this?
- Price change notices are mail-merged from a spreadsheet.
- Tariffs are updated in billing one customer at a time.
- Some customers complain they never received notice.
- You are not sure which terms each customer is on.
- There is no record of what each customer was sent.