Dear Customer,
Starting from 21st July 2021, customers paying by quarterly direct debit will see a small price increase on their account.
How much are we increasing our service fee by? £3.88 inc VAT monthly (£3.23 ex VAT)
Why are we increasing our fees?
Firstly, price increases are never welcome, but after 17 years of no increases, external costs have increased to the point we must pass on some of these fees to our customers. We have limited these to the bare minimum.
- Since 2004 we have not increased our fees. Through inflation alone, a service which costed 10 pounds back in 2004 would now cost £15.70 (an increase of £5.70 or £6.84 inc VAT!). Source: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
- In 2018, Google mandated the use of SSL certificates for all websites or otherwise it would mark your website as “not secure” for visitors and negatively effect their website ranking. WebHealer shouldered the cost of this additional layer of security as decided by Google since then with no price increase. This is an annual increase in costs to us as a result of Google’s decision making. Source: https://security.googleblog.com/2018/02/a-secure-web-is-here-to-stay.html
- The price of domains & hosting services from our suppliers has increased annually at a rate between 3-7%. This is totally outside of our control.
- Payment processor fees including direct debit & banking fees have increased. Unfortunately with Brexit, our ability to shop around has been limited and therefore we are forced to shoulder these fees.
- We have invested in additional security and updates to keep your website safe online. Unfortunately, there are many bad actors online and the resources required to keep your website ahead of viruses, hackers and malware has only increased. As the Internet has grown over the years so too has the risk from hackers etc and WebHealer have borne the cost of keeping these issues at bay.
- We are now offering additional services as part of our package including an online payment link system and a full, professional email service. These are included as part of your service. The view is to open up new opportunities for your practice or give you the ability to reduce your outlay elsewhere by bringing this all under one roof with WebHealer.
- We have invested in a new platform which gives upgrade options to keep your website modern and ahead of current trends.
- We have launched free training tutorials on the latest marketing techniques so you get the most out of your service with WebHealer and gain new clients.
- Throughout the Covid-19 period, we maintained our staff on full hours so as to service our customers and be there when they needed us to adapt to online practice or updating with the relevant messaging for their clients. If you need any changes to your site – our team are here to assist as part of your monthly fee. We won’t charge extra for any changes you wish to make to your website (reasonable limits apply!)
Are you going to keep increasing your prices?
As is probably obvious from the fact we have maintained our pricing without change for 17 years, we are not a fan of increasing our service cost whatsoever. We therefore envisage no further increases until at least 2023 as we have “locked in” supplier fees until then.
What do you need to do?
In short, nothing, as we will handle the modification of your direct debit. If you need to speak to us, please reach out and our team would be happy to hear from you.
We very much appreciate your custom and trust you understand the reason for this slight increase. We value your custom and look forward to servicing your website / online marketing / email / booking system and other needs well into the future. Our team are here for you with any concerns or queries you might have.