Difficult customer conversations: price increases and service failures
For account managers, service delivery managers and customer service team leads at managed service providers and other service businesses who must tell customers about a price rise or a failure in the service. Complete 'Explaining policies and difficult conversations' first; this course goes deeper on two conversations it doesn't cover in detail. You'll check that a price increase is allowed and can be explained, write the announcement, handle pushback within your authority, and communicate a service failure while it's happening and afterwards. Legal examples are from the UK (CMA guidance on price variation terms, the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015); principles carry across, but contracts and law differ by country. This course is not legal advice: your contracts and your company's approval rules apply, and questions about liability or contract terms go to whoever owns them in your company.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 88 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Check that a price increase is allowed by the contract and that its basis can be explained before announcing it
- Write a price-increase message that states the amount, the reason, the effective date and the customer's options
- Respond to pushback on a price increase using only options you're authorised to offer
- Communicate a service failure while it's happening: what's affected, what's being done and when the next update comes
- Explain a service failure afterwards, including what will change and any remedy the contract provides
Course outline
- 1.Checking that a price increase is allowed and can be explainedLesson · 16 min
- 2.Writing a price-increase messageLesson · 17 min
- 3.Responding to pushback using only authorised optionsLesson · 16 min
- 4.Communicating a service failure while it's happeningLesson · 17 min
- 5.Explaining a service failure afterwardsLesson · 12 min
- 6.Difficult customer conversations: price increases and service failures: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Difficult customer conversations: price increases and service failures: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Competition and Markets Authority: Unfair contract terms guidance (CMA37), updated July 2026, paragraphs 6.52 to 6.55 on price variation terms
- Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, section 13: implied term about care and skill (legislation.gov.uk)
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49: service to be performed with reasonable care and skill (legislation.gov.uk)
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 54: consumer's rights to enforce terms about services (legislation.gov.uk)
- Atlassian: Incident communication best practices
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