Achieve Your Dunning Benchmarks with SubscriptionFlow

A few years back, the trend of getting subscriptions was not established. So, it used to be easier for customers to keep track of the due payments against the subscription plans. However, with time, the corporate sector kept improvising the subscription business model and many new businesses moved towards subscriptions. Customers also find subscriptions a convenient option. And today almost every other person is utilizing the subscriptions for:

• Newspapers and magazines
• Schools, colleges or universities
• Online courses
• The daily need for grocery
• Pet food and treats
• Medicines and Healthcare
• Gyms and clubs
• Wine and beverages
• Personal care
• OTT platforms

When a customer needs to keep the follow-ups for so many subscription packages, the chances are high that subscription payment gets cancelled for one or two subscription plans because of any reason. The point is, the reason for online payment failure is not always technical.

So, the issue of payment failure is here, and it needs to be managed for which you need better dunning management practices.

Our team is here to share a few things that will help you achieve dunning benchmarks speedily and effectively.

Also Read: Some Effective Methods Beyond Dunning Management To Recover The Lost Revenue

Automated Customer Messaging

Most of the time, when businesses need to manage payment failure, there is another issue—involuntary customer churn. That means when the payment gets cancelled, the customer leaves the platform as well. Here, customer intention is not the reason for the churn.

Coming toward managing churn and payment failures, automated messaging is a must. Reminders and messages are the best way to get paid for subscription charges in time. The benefit of automated messaging is that you will need to micromanage the dunning process. Many SaaS subscription management platforms are now offering automated messaging and email sharing—dunning processing. When you opt for such platforms, there remains no need to keep track of dunning messages and emails.

Reduction in Customer Abandonment

As it has been mentioned that payment failure is directly linked with the involuntary churn rate, however, automated dunning is the way to reduce customer abandonment. Today, customers are attention hungry, you need to make them feel special all the time. The psychological factor behind involuntary churn is that when online payment fails, the customer feels abandoned.

However, dunning makes you prioritize the customers who are on the verge of churning. And this prioritization again is a tactic to bring neglected customers back into the limelight that increases the chances of customer retention. So, a direct effect on the customer abandonment rate.

Now that it is proven that dunning is a way to achieve customer retention benchmarks, you need to know what should your dunning communication be like.

Also Read: Dunning Management As An Effective Way to Recover Payments

Essentials of Dunning Communication

Dunning is an art! And as a subscription business retailer, you need to master this art. And we are sharing some of the essentials of doing this:

1. The Subject of the Dunning Email or Message

The subject of the dunning email should be self-explanatory. For instance, you can keep it in the following ways:

• Instant Action Required
• Act Now!
• Payment Could Not be Processed
• Payment Failed
• The Payment Declined
• Oho!
• Payment Issues

So, there are many ways to keep the subject direct, attention-grabbing, and explanatory.

2. Length of Dunning Message or Email

The next very important thing is to keep the length of the dunning email or message precise and short. However, the elements of the dunning message should not be forgotten while you are considering the factor of short length.

3. Cause of the Payment Failure

The causes of payment failure can be various, however, some of the most common causes include:

• Issues at the merchant account side
• Expiry of the card of the customer
• The invalidity of the billing address
• Credit card limits
• The failure at the payment gateway side
• The payment method is not supported

Other than these, there can be a lot more reasons for payment failures. However, you need to mention the cause in the dunning email or the message so that customer knows you are not responsible for the failure of the payment.

4. The Tone of the Dunning Message

The most important factor in an overdue payment reminder message is the tone of your message. Many people commit the mistake that when they ask for the payments, they become rude. However, you need to make sure that you are polite. The tone of every dunning email or message should be predefined. Your tone should remind customers:

• The product value
• Customer-focused pricing policy
• The customer-retailer goodwill relationship

5. How to Pay

At the end of the dunning message, you need to give some links from where the customer can retry to pay his subscription charges. Or if the customer is already churned, then provide him with the guide to re-subscribe. Dunning is also a complete customer experience, and you need to make it perfect from beginning to end.

6. Contact Link in Case of Dispute

The emphasis on the tone, while you are doing dunning, is not unnecessary. Sometimes, the issues are quite complicated and customers behave aggressively. So, your dunning message must have a contact link in case there is any dispute regarding failed payment.

Also Read: Everything You Need to Know about Dunning Management for SaaS Business and how it can Reduce Churn

It is hoped that you will deal with the issue of payment failure better in the future. However, SubscriptionFlow is the subscription and dunning management platform that can help you implement dunning process best practices and achieve dunning-related targets. Contact us to schedule a demo!