The email that raises the price without apologizing
You'll walk away with the email written that announces the increase as a fact, not an apology, ready for you to update the date and price and send.
By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026
Once you know how much you're raising the price and the date the new price kicks in, you still need the words that put it in front of the customer.
You sit down to write it and one of two things happens. Either you end up with an email that starts by apologizing, or one that spends three paragraphs justifying itself with electricity, rent, and material costs. The email that works does neither. It announces.
Both versions cost you real money. The one that apologizes brings you customers asking you to keep their old price, even though you already decided not to. The one that justifies itself pulls you into an argument about whether your costs are a good enough reason, an argument you're not going to win over text.
The three sentences, in the order that avoids the argument
- 1What's changing, and starting when
The new price, tax included if your customers are individuals, and the date it takes effect, side by side, like a plain fact: "$32 starting March 1." Not "we're forced to raise our prices." - 2What stays the same
The service, the appointment length, the products you use, whatever the customer already knew about you. This sentence is what keeps the increase from reading like you changed everything about how you treat them, not just a number. - 3What happens to appointments or packages already booked
If someone already has an appointment set or a package purchased before that date, say so here: that gets charged at the old price. And if they're on a recurring plan, tell them that if the new price doesn't work for them, they can cancel. It's the question every reader asks themselves, and if you don't answer it, you'll get it on WhatsApp a minute later.
Three sentences, nothing more. If you add a fourth to explain why you're raising the price, you've turned a notice into a debate, and you'll lose that debate even if you're right.
The same channel you already use with them
If you usually talk to this customer over WhatsApp, send the notice over WhatsApp, with the same three sentences, not by email just because it sounds more formal. The formal channel isn't what matters most: what matters is that it's the channel where they actually read you. If instead you keep an email list for notices and promotions, that's the place.
The structure doesn't change, and neither does the subject line if you're sending an email: put the date in the subject, "Price change starting March 1," and anyone who just skims their inbox will get the important part without opening it.
The notice doesn't apologize
- "We're sorry to inform you that..." sounds like there's something to apologize for.
- It invites people to ask why, and from there, to negotiate it.
- "Starting March 1..." is just a fact, like store hours or an address.
- It doesn't ask for permission or forgiveness: you're changing a condition, the same way you'd change your hours on a Thursday.
Which one do I pick? Start with the fact whenever you can. Only if the increase is big and sudden, add one sentence of context without apologizing, something like "with the new location, appointments now run fifteen minutes longer." Never "we're sorry" or "with rising costs": that's already an excuse, not context. Compare it to this: no one signs a rent increase letter by apologizing first; the letter states the date and the number.
If you let your regulars keep their regular price
Maybe you've decided your regular customers get to keep their current price for a while, with an end date for that exception. If so, the email needs one more sentence: how long it lasts and what ends it.
Without that condition written down, the old price turns into a new price with a different name, and a year from now you'll have to make the same decision again, with the same customer. And if they skip a month of booking, that month they lose the old price: you don't need to repeat it every time, it's already been said once, in this same email.
If instead you decided the increase applies to everyone equally, don't add anything: the email with the fact and the date works as is for anyone who gets it, no extra sentence needed.
The costliest mistake: over-explaining
The email, as is
Notice what's missing: no long greeting, no reason given, no "I hope you understand." The subject line already tells the story, so even someone who just skims it gets the point. Swap in the name, the date, and the two prices, and the same text works for all fifty people on your list, once you've already decided who keeps their old price and who gets the new one.
The email is already written. What's left is what you say back when someone reads it and tells you they're leaving over the price, and that's what the last lesson of the course covers.
- The three-sentence email: what's changing and starting when, what stays the same, what happens with what's already booked
- The sentence that starts with the fact, not the apology or the reason
- If you keep the old price for existing customers, the condition and its end date written into the same email
- The whole text, ready for you to change the name, the date, and the price today
Test yourself
Answer before opening each one. If one gives you trouble, go back to the section that explains it.
1. You write the notice and it comes out as: "We're sorry to inform you that, due to rising costs, we're forced to raise our prices." What do you change first?
The beginning. You rewrite it starting with the fact, the date and the new price, and you cut "sorry" and the reason. Explaining the reason invites an argument; apologizing invites a request to keep things as they were. The order of the sentence decides whether what follows is a notice or a negotiation.
2. You have longtime customers keeping the old price as long as they keep booking every month, and new customers who start out at the new price. Do you send both the same email?
The same body, not the same email. For anyone keeping the old price, you add the sentence with the condition and the date it stops applying; for everyone else, the email with the fact and the date works as is, without that extra sentence.
3. A customer writes to you before the date arrives, asking why you're raising the price. Do you send them the list of costs you decided to leave out of the email?
No. You repeat the same info they already have: the new price, the date, and that anything booked before still gets the old price. Adding the reasons there opens up exactly the debate the email was written to avoid.
The email's sent. What comes next is the message that's actually going to be hard to answer: the one from the customer who threatens to leave.
NextYou repeat the new price, you don't negotiate it customer by customer