Over in another forum that mustn't be mentioned on here, Matt upped prices of all his customers and lost a grand total of.... one customer. He's now earning more cash for the same work.
Vin
I put my prices up every-two-years, and it normally starts off with me feeling quite anxious about it. I do it in portions because I still secretly suspect that my customers will dump me for it. So I do it area-by-area for the first week, and then no cancellations come in, and I just finish the job and increase the rest (where it's needed).
The worst I had one year was three cancellations, all by customers who I wasn't keen on anyway.
The end product is always more money for less work.
My advice is to start off doing it area by area. I always use a letter and I don't give any flannel (i.e. I don't make excuses for putting up my prices such as blaming it on rising insurance or fuel costs; that always sounds like waffle to me; but I do remind them that we are regular, insured, and take our business seriously).
And really, for run-of-the-mill domestic work, what's a £1 increase anyway?