Xfinity Annual Price Change:
Every year, we needed to let retail customers know their prices would be increasing. Each year I worked with Comcast I was the dedicated writer for this suite of communications, which went to each Xfinity retail customer in the US.
A notorious bad-news message, annual price change was part notification and part customer education. I needed to explain what was happening, how it affected customers, and why it was happening. Ultimately, we wanted to remind customers why their services were worth the price increase.
Messaging was under a lot of scrutiny from leadership at every level, from product teams to PR to the president of consumer services. Each year, we’d go through more than 30 rounds of revisions before we’d settle on a final.
Deliverables:
Annual price change demanded a mastery of version control and coordination. It required:
- Print letters delivered to all retail customers at least 30 days before the price change. But it wasn’t just one version of the letter. We created up to 8 versions with slightly different messaging according to customer location, service tiers, and state regulations.
- Emails that corresponded to the letters
- Bill messages in customers’ statements for months surrounding the price change
- Channel lineup cards sent to all TV customers
- Text messages and push notifications sending customers to view their account
- My Account banners and alerts in customers’ online portals
Outcome:
There’s no easy way to deliver news about a price increase. While I wish customers didn’t have to pay more, I’m proud of the work we did here to empathize and be transparent with customers. I was very invested in this project’s message—and flowing 30+ rounds of edits into 8 different versions of a letter and all the other notifications would keep me very busy every year.