Churn
Involuntary Churn
Dunning
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Gal Cegla
Jan 30, 2025
Involuntary churn, the unintentional loss of customers due to payment failures, poses a significant challenge for subscription-based businesses. Addressing this issue is crucial, as involuntary churn can account for nearly a quarter of total customer loss.
Root Causes of Involuntary Churn
Payment Failures: These are the primary contributors to involuntary churn and can be categorized as:
Soft Declines: Temporary issues such as insufficient funds or exceeded credit limits.
Hard Declines: Permanent issues like closed accounts or invalid card numbers.
Expired Payment Methods: Customers may forget to update their payment information when their credit or debit cards expire, leading to failed transactions.
Technical Issues: Problems within the payment processing system, such as gateway timeouts or integration errors, can prevent successful transactions.
Fraud Prevention Measures: Overly stringent security protocols can sometimes flag legitimate transactions as fraudulent, causing unintended payment declines.
Strategies to Mitigate Involuntary Churn
Account Updater Services: Utilizing services that automatically update expired or replaced card information can significantly reduce payment failures.
Dunning Management: Dunning refers to the systematic communication process initiated by businesses to recover failed payments and prevent involuntary churn. This involves a series of well-timed actions, including:
Retry Logic: Automatically attempting to process the payment multiple times after an initial failure.
Customer Notifications: Informing customers promptly about payment issues and guiding them to update their information.
Multiple Payment Methods: Offering a variety of payment options, such as credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers, provides alternatives if one method fails.
Payment Routing Optimization: Directing transactions through the most efficient payment gateways can enhance success rates by considering factors like transaction amount, currency, and geographic location.
How FlyCode Can Help
FlyCode offers advanced solutions to address involuntary churn by focusing on payment optimization and recovery. Key features include:
Payment Optimization: Instead of relying on fixed retry intervals, FlyCode implements dynamic retry strategies tailored to individual customer behaviors and payment histories, increasing the likelihood of successful transactions.
Smart Recovery Notifications: enhance customer engagement by being personalized, timely, and action-oriented. They are tailored to customer preferences and payment histories, sent at critical moments like before due dates or after failures, and provide clear instructions to resolve payment issues efficiently.
By leveraging these features, businesses can effectively reduce involuntary churn, recover lost revenue, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.