Playbook · Pricing and billing
Should I raise prices on my existing customers?
For anyone who sells something people already pay for, a shop, a studio, a service or an app, and whose costs went up while the price stayed put.
In short
A board of named AI experts — The CFO, The Customer and The Strategist — takes your situation, asks three things first, and hands back a decision memo: raise or hold, by how much, for whom first, and the words to tell customers. You see one price before anything runs.
Before the board starts
What the board asks first.
What decides this: how big the increase is, how your customers buy from you, and what they would switch to.
How big an increase are you thinking about?
A small rise and a big one are different decisions.
How do most customers pay you?
People on a monthly plan feel a rise differently from people who buy once.
What would a customer do instead if they left?
Your real ceiling is the next best option they have.
In your own words.
What you get back: A decision memo: raise or hold, by how much, for whom first, and the words to tell customers.
A real run
One person’s version,
and what the board said.
I run a small dog-grooming salon with about 180 regular customers who book every 4–6 weeks and pay per visit. My rent and supplies went up about 15% this year and I have not changed prices in two years. I am thinking of raising prices by around 12%. If a customer left, the alternative is a chain salon 10 minutes away that is about 10% cheaper but has long waits.
An example person, written for this page. Everything below is what the board delivered, word for word.
Raise existing-customer prices by 12% with one uniform, clearly communicated change. Do not grandfather customers or use retention discounts unless measured behavior later requires intervention.
What would change it: Reverse the increase if the competing chain reduces its waits to near parity while remaining approximately 10% cheaper.
The CustomerRaise prices by 12% because reliable scheduling, Buster’s comfort, and peace of mind outweigh a cheaper but slower competitor.
The CFORaise prices 12% now to recover most cost inflation while preserving the salon’s convenience premium and profitability.
The StrategistRaise prices by 12% now, using speed and personalized service to defend the premium while monitoring churn.
Create and approve the customer price-increase notice
Questions
Fair questions
about this playbook.
What does running this cost?
Reading this page is free. Running it is a board: on Free it seats 3 experts and its card shows up to 135 credits before anything runs. A board never bills above its card. Nothing is charged until you confirm.
Is the example real?
Yes. The board above ran on a SynthBoard test account with the situation shown. The call, where each expert stood, what would change it and the first step are what it delivered, in its own words. The situation was written as an example; it is not a real person.
What happens when I run it with my situation?
You answer the same three questions with your own facts, then your Chief of Staff shows the board — The CFO, The Customer and The Strategist on Free, more seats on a paid plan — and its one price. The board researches, argues it out and hands back the piece, with the first step and what would change the call.
Can the experts be wrong?
Yes. They are AI and can be wrong. That is why every board seats someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer, and why the piece says what would change the call.
Keep reading
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The playbookSynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.