Making it easier to outgrow usage limits in your Channels plan

The problem with hard limits

When you select a paid Channels plan your usage is capped to your plan limit plus 20% by default. This gives you plenty of headroom to exceed the limit of your plan when unexpected usage growth occurs, allowing you time to take action to upgrade and providing necessary protections for our systems so we can reasonably control and predict usage. Hard limits mean we can ensure we always have the right amount of infrastructure provisioned to support peak demand.

However we know that on rare occasions customers can and do hit hard limits; for example during a very successful sales event or following the launch of a new product or feature which encourages outstanding levels of engagement. Despite usually being a sign of success, hitting your hard limits can be a frustrating experience when it happens unexpectedly. Making sure that we continue to enable you to grow seamlessly is very important to us.

We understand how important it is to find a balance between ensuring you have overhead for unexpected events without over-paying for capacity you simply don’t need just to avoid ever running into hard limits. Customers want to be able to easily pay for additional capacity as needed while still keeping their costs clear and under control. We’ve reviewed our approach to hard limits across all paid plans, and our new and upcoming features are designed to help you avoid your hard limits and prevent unexpected bills.

Tiered and overage pricing for Enterprise plans

We are now offering overages and tiered pricing components to our Enterprise customers. This means you’ll be able to commit to a specified usage level at the beginning of the contract and then choose a pre-defined overage for large usage increases, or move to a new tier within the contract term. For some customers we may also be able to offer a combination of both.

With these new agreements you can:

1. Clearly commit to a plan for increased usage in advance which will only be activated as and when required
2. Keep costs under control while having a much more generous overhead built in to your plans
3. Arrange to keep a hard limit cap at the top of your plan plus 20% (or potentially more on request)

We believe these new plans provide the right balance between adding the flexibility to help you avoid surprises, while having confidence in a structured and streamlined agreement.

Existing and provisional enterprise customers who are interested in tiered pricing can reach out to their account manager or contact the sales team.

Increased hard limits for Growth Plus customers

Before now customers on our highest self-service tier (currently Growth Plus) had limited options when coming close to limits. The solution may have meant needing to move on to an Enterprise plan at short notice. Now, top tier customers who experience exceptional usage will be allowed to use up to 3x their plan limits for up to 5 days for one billing month. Growth Plus customers will have access to this from today.

Additionally once you move onto the Growth Plus plan you will be immediately assigned a dedicated account manager who will reach out to discuss your future requirements for growth and where appropriate help you move onto one of our Enterprise plans.

Monitoring your account usage

For all of our customers, both self-serve and Enterprise, we offer a number of tools and integrations to help monitor your account usage and take action before you hit your plan limits. At the moment you can easily upgrade your account through the dashboard or contact your account manager. This guide explains the options available to you.

We recommend checking that:

1. The contacts on your account are up to date and relevant. Are you alerting the right team in your organisation when you are approaching your account limits?
2. You have account summaries turned on so you can review usage over time and predict in advance when you may want to consider upgrading
3. As well as email you are taking advantage of Slack and/or Webhook limit notifications

On the roadmap: Automatic upgrades for self-serve customers

It is already easy to upgrade a self-serve plan at the click of a button day or night, however we’re exploring the possibility of adding automatic upgrades as a feature that can be enabled in your account dashboard. In the future, if you unexpectedly hit your plan limits you can choose to be automatically be moved to the next plan (up to an agreed limit) to prevent any interruption to your service. If you are interested in our plans for this feature you can submit feedback here.