Raising Prices

With the world in pandemic and many businesses suffering, we may be asking ourselves as lash artists, “Should I lower my prices to keep my books full?”. On the other hand, maybe you were even thinking about raising your prices before you were forced to close your doors during quarantine. When is the right time? And how do you give yourself a raise without upsetting customers?

The Right Timing

The best time to raise your prices is when your clients are the happiest with the service they are receiving. Some questions to ask are: Do I have availability to service most of my clients in a timely manner within reason? Have I recently added new services or new perks to being a client such as a referral program or supplying aftercare? Are my clients having the utmost professional and relaxing service possible? Making sure that your clientele as a whole are satisfied with your services will allow you to avoid backlash when raising your prices.

Offering Incentives to Offset the Increase

Clients will be happy to pay higher prices when the perceived value of the service is higher. There are several ways to do this. Some easy ways to add value to your service are:

• Referral cards (Free fill after so many referrals, a discount after referrals, etc.)
• Complimentary services that minimally affect your cost of service such as hand massages, under eye or lip treatments, aromatherapy, or lash shampooing.

Strategic Planning

Choosing a specific strategy to raise your prices can be very effective in having fewer unappreciative clients. Some tried and tested methods are:

• Raise your prices by not actually raising your prices. Are you offering an hour fill price? Changing your fill times to 50 minutes instead allows you to gain time and in the process paying yourself more per hour without the sticker shock of a price raise.
• Give more service options. Having options for clients who cannot afford the price increase allows you to keep more of your clientele. Offering services like mini fills, outer corner lashes only, or lash lifts will give your clients more opportunities to stay in their price range.
• Bundle services or offer package deals that ensure client return but offer a discount when clients prepay. This not only ensures client loyalty but booking multiple services during one appointment allows you to increase your bottom line in a narrower time frame.
• Raise your prices in intervals. Giving your clients fair warning of price raises or by increasing it in increments reduces the sticker shock and allows clients the time to adjust to new pricing.

Raising prices may not be easy, for you or your clients, but using the above tactics will help you to not only weed out clients who don’t value your time and expertise, but will also increase your bottom line and career enjoyment.