Price increase letter to pool service 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], Before we open the pool on [DATE], here is the rate for this season. Weekly service, chemicals included: [NEW PRICE] (last season: [OLD PRICE]) The honest reason is chemicals. Chlorine prices have jumped around a lot in the last few years, and because your rate includes them, I have been taking the hit every time they spiked. The rest is fuel and parts. If you would rather have a lower base price, there is another option: Weekly service, chemicals billed at cost: [ALT PRICE] a week, plus whatever the pool actually uses that week Most customers stay on the all-in rate because it is predictable. The billed option tends to work out cheaper for covered pools and ones that do not get much use. Either is fine — just reply with which you prefer before [DATE], and if I do not hear, I will keep you on the all-in rate. Same day, same tech, same checklist: skim, brush, vacuum, baskets, filter check, water test. [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 →before opening, or 30 days — never mid-season
8–12% on the weekly rate, or a switch to chemicals billed separately
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. This season's weekly rate is [NEW PRICE] incl. chemicals (was [OLD PRICE]), or [ALT PRICE] + chemicals at cost. Details in your email — reply with your pick before [DATE].
Why it is going up, in words you can use
“Rising costs” persuades nobody because everyone says it. Name the actual driver in pool service instead:
- chlorine and pool chemicals have swung wildly in price, and the flat weekly rate absorbs every swing
- fuel on a route that is mostly driving between short stops
- filters, pump parts and test reagents
- labour: a good pool tech can find work anywhere
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.
- "I'll do it myself this year."
- "No problem at all — if it gets away from you, call me before it goes green rather than after." A green-pool recovery is a paid job in its own right, and a surprising share of DIY customers are back by July. Leave the door wide open.
- "Why does the price include chemicals I can buy at the store?"
- This is exactly why the billed-at-cost option exists. Point them to it. Customers who can see the chemical cost stop suspecting it, and the ones who stay all-in do so knowing what they are paying for.
- "Can you come every other week instead?"
- Only if the pool can take it. Say: "In peak summer, fortnightly usually means an algae treatment in between, which costs more than the visit." If they insist, price fortnightly at more than half the weekly rate — the drive is the same.
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: home and outdoor
Other trades
A template, not legal advice. If you have a written contract with these weekly pool customers, check what it says about notice periods and price changes before you send anything — the contract wins over any template, including this one.