← all posts
Make things better by making better things.
The climbing gym I use recently hiked its rates. The problem isn’t the rate itself, but how the rates were justified. Now, a feature that has existed for 2 decades, allowing you to use any gym in their network, has gone away. To retain that privilege, you must now pay an extra $10 per month.
The issue isn’t the money (it’s already expensive). The issue is how your best customers are being treated, not to mention the litany of problems this creates. What if one partner only goes to one gym closer to their home? What if the location you choose doesn’t offer yoga on Wednesdays? What do you do when you’ve climbed all the routes in your grade?
The easiest thing to do is to raise prices. The hard work would be to create and understand the user experience that makes you special. (I’ll also add that the email announcement was clearly not written by a human.) The bottom line: A few will leave, some will upgrade, but everyone is unhappy about the situation. And they are not the only player in town. It’s just so tempting to raise prices and call it a strategy. But when you are not making real decisions and rely on the default/textbook answers, that isn’t real design or leadership.