Best Practices for Automatic Failed Payment Follow-Up

Max Classic
#1

I’m looking for a new way to handle failed payments.

We initially just used the automated emails sent out by IS, but that was insufficient. People couldn’t change their CC info easily, and the emails weren’t perfect.

Next we moved to FortaPay to help, and it works, but has some limitations.

It can only apply tags (or start/stop action sequences) based a few payment criteria. You can’t stop/start subscriptions, and the triggers are limited.

Furthermore, it doesn’t catch everything. We went through a few weeks where the system wasn’t tagging anyone. Then it started tagging inconsistently, and now it seems to be back on its feet. I don’t like being dependent on a service that is that inconsistent.

As you can see, our experience has been less than efficient.

I would like a more reliable and feature rich solution. Any ideas?

Thank you,

  • Sean
#2

@Sean_Edwards,

Generally most would use billing automation to trigger an email requesting a client to update cc info with a link to an IS webform that would allow them to do that.

#3

In addition to using Billing Automation triggers to cancel until they update their cc, another option which we use is to create a $0.00 product and name it Credit Card Update and add that to an order form. Here’s a link to ours to serve as an example: https://scy89446.infusionsoft.com/app/orderForms/Credit-Card-Update

You will need to then manually assign that cc to the subscription and reactivate the subscription.

5 Likes
#4

We do as Cheryl suggested and have been doing this for ourselves and our clients for over 10-years. People complain about the need for manual intervention, but I feel it’s a good way for me to keep a pulse on my business, check in to ensure that things are working, as well as ensure that it’s running the way it is intended to run. The idea of full automation is great, but it’s too easy to get lulled into the idea that you can “set it and forget it”, when we all know that there are updates & tweaks necessary to keep everything running.

2 Likes
#15

@Sean_Edwards Automation is great but cash is life’s blood for your business. I recommend creating a saved report for Past-due Payments and pinning it to the top-left corner of your dashboard so you can monitor and personally chase down people who aren’t responding. Better to reach them and get the card number over the phone, than turn off the subscription and risk having them decide not to renew once their subscription’s been suspended.

2 Likes
#16

lol bill, automation IS cash. You know how much money isn’t spent when you don’t have to do things that are handled automatically? Automation is the BEST way to save labor costs, including your valuable time which is better used on other things.

#17

@Cheryl_Hunt . Would you mind sharing how you got your cc update order form to omit the product info and skip to the payment screen?

#18

Hi @Joshua_Toole, it looks like that was two years ago. A developer who worked for us then must have created it. I’m not a coder so I don’t know what was included to make that work but if you’re good with code, the source code may help. I’m sorry I don’t more with not having implemented it myself.

#19

@Joshua_Toole,

Generally jquery is used in the order form to hide a $0 product and allow the customer to just submit the form with new cc data.

#20

@Cheryl_Hunt @John_Borelli Can you guys recommend anyone who is good with code modifications on these order forms? I’ve almost got it working with this order form, but I can’t figure out how to get it to skip the first page and go straight to the payment page:

“https://dv202.infusionsoft.app/app/orderForms/Credit-Card-Update”

Anymore guidance would be appreciated!

#21

@John_Borelli is who I would suggest :slight_smile:

1 Like
#22

Thanks, @Cheryl_Hunt, and hello, @Joshua_Toole!

Sorry for delayed response as I’m in the middle of a move :wink:

It sounds like all you need is to use the jQuery method .click() to activate the button click once the form loads.