Price increase letter to HVAC customers
Copy it, replace the bracketed bits, send it. Below the letter: the text-message version, how much notice to give, and what to say when they push back.
Hi [NAME], Your [PLAN NAME] maintenance plan comes up for renewal on [DATE], and the renewal price is [NEW PRICE] a year, up from [OLD PRICE]. What stays exactly the same: - [N] tune-ups a year — [HEATING] before winter, [COOLING] before summer - priority booking when something breaks - [PERCENT]% off parts and labour on repairs - no overtime charge on [WEEKEND / EVENING] callouts Why it has moved: we pay our technicians to hold current certifications, and the good ones get offers from bigger firms every month. That, plus parts and van costs, is most of it. Separately, and so it does not catch you out later: if your system still runs on R-410A, any repair that needs a refrigerant top-up is now priced at [NEW REFRIGERANT PRICE] per [UNIT], because the supply is being phased down and the price has roughly [DOUBLED / RISEN BY PERCENT]. If your system is over [N] years old, ask us at the next tune-up whether repairing it still makes sense. We will give you a straight answer. The renewal goes through automatically on [DATE]. If you would rather not renew, reply to this email or call [PHONE] before then. [YOUR NAME] [BUSINESS NAME]
How many customers can this price rise lose?
10% ÷ (40% + 10%) = 20%
Open the full calculator, with your prices and customer count →30 days before the plan renews — never mid-term on a plan they have already paid for
5–10% on maintenance plans; more on refrigerant work
The text-message version
For the customers whose entire relationship with you lives in a phone. Send it before the visit, never on the invoice.
Hi [NAME], [BUSINESS] here. Your maintenance plan renews [DATE] at [NEW PRICE]/yr (was [OLD PRICE]). Same [N] tune-ups, same priority booking. Reply or call [PHONE] before [DATE] if you want to change anything.
Why it is going up, in words you can use
“Rising costs” persuades nobody because everyone says it. Name the actual driver in HVAC and heating maintenance instead:
- the refrigerant phase-down: R-410A is being squeezed out, so what is left costs far more per pound, and the replacement A2L systems need new tools and training
- equipment prices rose in steps and never came back down
- certified technicians are scarce, and keeping one means paying what the next firm will offer them
- the plan price was set before any of it, and renews automatically, so nobody ever revisited it
When they push back
You will hear these within a week. Having the answer ready is the difference between holding the price and folding on the phone.
- "Why is refrigerant so expensive now?"
- Tell the truth, because it is on your side: "Production of R-410A is being cut back by law, so there is less of it every year and the price shows it. It is not our margin — it is the cost of the gas." Customers accept a regulation far more readily than a markup.
- "I'll skip the plan and call you if something breaks."
- "You can — the one thing to know is that plan customers get booked first in a heatwave or a cold snap, and those are the weeks everyone calls at once." Do not oversell. The first July without a plan does the selling for you.
- "The big company advertises a tune-up for [LOW PRICE]."
- Loss-leader tune-ups exist to find a repair to sell. Say: "Ours is priced to be the whole visit, not a way in the door. If we find something, we tell you and you decide." Then leave it.
Is a price rise even the right move for you?
Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the money is in a service plan for customers you already have, or in the job you are quoting below cost without realising. Describe your business in one sentence and you will get three specific moves back — priced per month, with the arithmetic written out so you can put your own numbers in.
Free, no signup, about thirty seconds. If one of them is a price rise, you will get the number to put in the brackets above.
Give me three movesMore letters: trades and repairs
Other trades
A template, not legal advice. If you have a written contract with these maintenance plan customers, check what it says about notice periods and price changes before you send anything — the contract wins over any template, including this one.