How much would you pay (or me charge) for this?

[cheaperthanchips]

I'm offering a reduced rate for a service I offer. My clients are professionals who are usually well paid. However, I want to offer a very reduced rate for a limited number as part of 'paying back' (for clients who may be temporarily short of funds.)

If the usual rate was £95, what do you think of the reduced rate:

£10
£15
£20

They'd need 4 bookings as it's a course.
I don't want to do it free as they need to have some skin in the game, even as a nominal fee.

Why not just offer reduced rates to those in receipt of income related benefits

I think just do that, like many other therapists do, don’t mention a fee. You could reword to say “for a small nominal fee” if you don’t want to make it totally free for fear of them not being committed.

not sure why you feel the need to reinvent the wheel, why not just do what others do?

Yes, I’d do something like this-maybe include students and pensioners too. I had reduced rate therapy when I was a student and it saved my life (mind you it was still £30 an hour and this was 10 years ago so £10 is VERY cheap)

I think what you do does actually make a difference.

I'd frame it as: 'Session fees up to £95, with rates on a sliding scale based on income.'

I agree with this.

If it's 4 sessions I would probably say £95/session but the 4th one is free.

Echoing the thoughts of others, I'd say something like "reduced fees or pro bono spaces are available; please contact me to discuss if you feel you would benefit from this"

I would offer a payment plan over 5 months, £20 a month so it's affordable monthly but actually you make more so benefits both parties. Or if I've read it wrong and that £95 per session not total do £380 over a year and charge £32 a month giving you £384.

Or have a caveat for household income under a certain amount (could be labour intensive and cost more if doing this though) or if in receipt of UC or other qualifying circumstances which will be easier to evidence as you'll just need to see a letter.

Why not just say “reduced fees available [insert your reasons why you’re offering] please contact me in confidence to discuss eligibility”. That way you can decide on a case by case basis how much you want to knock off.

I would do it as "pay what you feel" with a minimum/suggested amount. I would also do it for a specified limited time only every so often rather than an ongoing thing.

I definitely wouldn't mention free spaces in any public context or marketing as you'll get people constantly badgering you about it and taking the pee, and you'll likely even get existing paying customers asking if they can get a refund or a free session because they've been paying full price and they're annoyed as they see it as being ripped off.

Also there are many places offering free/reduced counselling and CBT sessions that are funded by councils, the lottery, other organisations etc. It's not the practitioner personally taking the hit out of their own pocket.

In cases where I KNEW the person was short of money, I was asking people to ‘pay from the heart’. So whatever they felt they could pay but was also right to me iyswim.

Just be mindful of ‘chancers’ who tell you they have no money but find funds for a big hols, etc….

There are problems with offering discounts

1. the discounted clients will tell their friends and they too will ask & expect discounts

2. adversely effects client perception - her service must be massively over priced if she can offer such a massive discount and still continue in business. You only have to think of "Black Friday special offers" being nothing of the sort

3. given your criteria for potentially offering a discount, how would you know when your client's financial situation improves and therefore no longer qualifies.

4. you should never discount below your overheads costs, so you need to know room rental, insurance, supplies, travel, advertising costs etc etc per client

5. will you have a limit of the number of clients you are offering this massive discount to ? You should otherwise you will be undermining your business big time.

6. are these long standing clients, who have fallen on bad times ? If they are why not offer them a free session for Christmas or their birthday - would make it seem more personal and you would be controlling your exposure

7. there are very sound arguments for never offering discounts, ever for services. If you want to 'give back' there are other ways - donating a service to a raffle, training someone up, giving talks to the WI / other professionals

8. if you do want to proceed with offering a massive discount, don't offer the 'full / usual' service. Discounted cost = reduced service

9. basically discounts are messy, time consuming and have negative business impacts beyond the loss of the immediate income

For my business I will give 10% mates rates only. I never donate a service / item to raffles.

Maybe you misunderstood or it wasn't clear.

There is no way I have fees on my website anyway. I want to be clear in my own mind what a nominal fee is.

What you have suggested is exactly what my wording says!

The question was what is a fair nominal fee.

It's giving back, like counsellors do all of the time.

There would be a set time limit of 4 sessions.

I state that I only do this occasionally for 1 or 2 clients. I decide who to offer it to based on what they tell me. There is an element of trust of course but it would become very evident during the process if they were lying.

I did something similar but not exactly the same years ago when a very long term client had some financial issues (which were genuine.) He paid upfront for a lot of sessions but we agreed on a discount compared to what he's paid originally.

Re asking people to pay what they feel they can - tried this only couple of months ago. Slightly different as I make stuff, rather than offer a service.

I'd thought about asking people to pay what they felt my work was worth for a while. Chatting to a potential buyer, who was a collector of what I make, so knew the business. The item was priced at £95, I said what would you offer and her reply £10. Which I thought was just down right insulting, wouldn't cover my overheads etc.

edited for spelling

I'd take the discount and not rebook once your prices went back to £95 because I'd know they were only worth £10.

That sort of pov is quite enlightening to me.
That the value of what you have to offer is only linked to how much one pays. It’s something well known by ‘marketing circles’ (if you want your service to be seen as valuable, you need to charge a high value price) but I had never seen someone expressing it so blatantly before.

Fwiw I’ve done what the OP is proposing before but only to selected people that I knew were struggling financially. I never advertised it.
And interestingly, the people who ‘paid from the heart’ always paid me close to the amount they ‘should’ have paid as often as they could. They clearly didn’t think that because they had paid let’s say £10 before, the service wasn’t worth more than that….

I think there can be a difference if you already have a professional relationship with a client - as you say there will already be a trust relationship. But for new clients - messy, messy, messy

I agree with this.

Having CBT means being 100% honest with the practitioner. If they were lying, I'd soon realise. If I didn't realise 'in time' so what? They would be 'stealing' but I'd have the moral high ground.

They would be told at the start that the discount applied to a course of sessions and no more.

The whole thing is under my control.
I decide who to offer discounts to, it's limited in terms of time, it's open to abuse, yes, but on the whole most people are honest.

My only outgoings are fixed costs of running a business and the rental of a room on a use-by basis. So at a minimum they have to pay to cover that.

I'd offer a reduced rate for people on benefits but more like £50, if your prices are £95. Is it a service you'd need quite regularly?. I once saw a councillor/therapist who did reduced rates. Instead of £60, they did it for £35 for people on low incomes.

I don’t think a professional offering their services for less to people who need them but are financially straitened as a result of their personal issues is bad business, condescending or anything other than a good way of helping people who need help but would at the current time struggle to afford it.

I offer to reduce my fee or offer pro bono when I think it’s merited. It’s up to me to decide when I can do it and when I can’t. I think most adults have the nous to realise professionals can’t work entirely for free and it doesn’t mean I’m skinning the majority who are charged the full fee. It is my job, after all, not my hobby, and I have plenty of paying clients.

If someone who could well afford my services asked me to do it for free cos they heard I periodically help those in need I’d say we need to keep those spaces for people who’re struggling 😬 If they don’t like that then they can fuck off and find someone cheaper (that’s the silent part).

How's about you say ‘please contact me to discuss reduced fees for the course if you aren’t earning at full capacity as a result of your current challenges’ or whatever.

Personally I’d be too embarrassed to try and lie my way into some cut-price therapy when I’m capable of paying the usual fee. Imagine telling lies to a bloody therapist! And if people think that means the whole thing is over-inflated they probably ain’t suitable clients for CBT. There are apps after all, they can get on with it.

I would set the discount price at £20. Clients have to pay to feel value. If it's too cheap they won't show or take it seriously. £5 is a glass of wine/one and a bit coffees and is low enough to be considered free. £10 is still devaluing your service.

When you invoice put:
1 x session @ £95 = £95
1 x discount @ £75 = -£75
Total = £20

That way they know the true value of your service, that they are getting a discount and when the discount finishes they know the true price.

If you don't write the full price down, and say it verbally, people may not remember it's a discount as it's just the price they pay.

Seeing it in writing shows your value and the value of the discount.

For one, you’re probably losing potential clients by not having your fees on your website. People who require your services generally want all the information upfront without having to make contact. I have recently started therapy and only contacted therapists who listed their fees.
I pay £75 for an hour of therapy, with a 10% discount if I book and pay for 6 sessions in a block. I’m happy with that. I’d find it strange if I was suddenly offered a few sessions for only £20. I would feel like you’d been overcharging me tbh.

This is tricky. I think you should probably state something like "reduced prices are available by application/invitation for individuals who are struggling financially".

Then you need to figure out what constitutes a low income/the criteria for applying a reduced rate. Perhaps there might be a sliding scale? I think it's quite a grey area... someone mentioned people on benefits earlier, but in many cases people on benefits have more disposable income than people who don't qualify... one category isn't more or less deserving of therapy/CBT despite having low reserves to pay for it. I suppose you might need to consider whether you require proof of income (and what that might be/whether data protection allows you to ask for it in terms of "legitimate interest" guidelines) or whether you take peoples word for it.

I'd be tempted to state your services are usually worth £95 and then ask what people feel they can afford, perhaps saying that "clients in your situation often pay between £20-70 per session"... that way there's an expected minimum, but the maximum is (relatively) uncapped.

Do a % off across the board e.g. 75% off even if its a weird number, makes more sense and shows original value rather than just arbitrarily picking a low number

I think you might find people would be reluctant to return to paying full price after the reduced prices
if it were me, I would probably make use of the reduced sessions and then wait until they were reduced again