Failure to pay: How to Handle Them In Your Membership Site

Jul 28, 2022

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When you build a membership site it's exciting to finally create passive income with an online-based business. But, there will be times when problems may be encountered, for instance, a failure to pay, that put a pause in your regular income.

It's a difficult circumstance, but be assured that there are a few easy solutions to this issue!

In this article we'll look at the reasons why the online payment process may not work on your membership website.

We'll also talk about the ways your online business can handle these failed payments as gracefully as possible, we'll also go over strategies to avoidfailed payments in the first place.

Let's go!

How do you avoid a failed payment?

The benefit of running an online store is the ability to accept payments in a number of ways (credit/debit cards, Stripe, PayPal, digital wallets, etc. ).

But, when a failed payment occurs, business owners quickly realize that these easy payments can be an opportunity and a drawback.

The most common causes of non-payments include:

  • The card is canceled or expires. card
  • A lack of funds on the credit/debit cards
  • Incorrect bank account or card information
  • A bug in your payment gateway
  • A hold is placed on the card or account of the client in connection with the bank's fraud prevention

How Do Failed Payments Impact My Small Business?

No matter if a failed payment is your fault, it can negatively affect your business as a member.

  • There is a chance that you will not be able to withdraw your cash at the time you'd like, or you may lose that income altogether.
  • A member whose payment fails could not be willing to deal with the hassle of returning to make another payment. Therefore, you may lose a customer.
  • Customers may lose faith with your business in the event of the payment is not successful, and they may be reluctant to return.

A customer's loss is an extremely serious repercussion. If you have a website that has lots of payments that fail, those consequences can be disastrous. Therefore, it's crucial to be aware of what you should do in the event that your site experiences a lot of failed payments.

How Do I Handle the issue of a failed payment?

Failed payments happen. It's just part of being a business on the internet. So when they happen to you, ensure you're ready to deal with the circumstance.

Below are a few useful suggestions.

Don't panic.

The first thing you should do when a failed payment arises is keep your mind on the right track.

As we mentioned, failing payments happen to the best of us. The more calm you are, the greater the chances that you will not annoy your customer in a rash reaction. You're allowed to be a bit worried However, make sure that you're relaxed so you can handle the situation in a manner that is appropriate.

Make sure everyone is informed.

This is a crucial issue! If a payment is not made Don't presume that the customer is aware of it.

First, you should reach out to your customer to inform them of the problem. Not only is this good customer service but also lets your customers know that you're aware and how important they are to you.

Provide an option.

After alerting your client to the problem, you'll want to offer the solution to resolve the problem.

If the issue lies in your hands, tell them know you've fixed the problem. If it's something on their end, provide clear steps on how to resolve the issue.

The more simple and concise your instructions, the better the likelihood that your customers will be able to follow your directions.

Make sure you are professional.

A failed payment can be embarrassing for both you and your client. But it's important to remain professional, both for the benefit of the customer and for your own benefit.

Do not take a failed transaction or the lack of answer from your customer's take it to. What you need to do is explain the problem, offer a solution, and let the customer wait. It isn't possible to force members to return to your membership site, and you would never want to!

Get some lessons from this experience.

And lastly, use the chance to gain from this mistake. If it was a problem that you caused or not are able to make use of the incident to gain knowledge and learn from the past and improve in the coming years!

Tips to Prevent Failed Payments from the beginning

The saying goes: Prevention is the most effective treatment. Same goes for failed settlements.

There are, however, many ways to get ahead of the issue of failed payments before it starts.

includes features to assist with failed payments that are integrated with the payment gateway.

We'll then go over some of the basic settings that can be used to prevent payments from failing, and we'll talk about several solutions that are specific to gateways. We'll also let users into an amazing software that continues to recover lost transactions long after the gateway gives up.

configurations for payment failures

It has an excellent setting for recovering failed payment. For it, go to the WordPress dashboard > Settings > the Emails tab.

When you are looking through the list of automated emails, you'll see an option titled, "Send Failed Transaction Notice". Simply click the checkbox to activate the setting.

When enabled, this feature will email every customer who has a problem with their payment.

There's a default message that comes with the program however, you are able to alter the message any way you'd like. For example, you might add a link to the account of the user so they can easily and quickly modify their details for payment.

Rectifying failed transactions with Stripe

If you're using this Stripe Payment gateway you are able to set up the possibility of establishing a custom retry schedule.

To get this functionality you must go to the Stripe Dashboard > Settings > billing > subscriptions and emails > Manage failed payment to set it up so that a member's card is charged again at the end of X time.

You can also utilize Stripe's Smart Retries. This awesome feature allows you to determine the best time to charge, and then attempts to charge the customer's credit card at the same date and time.

Recovering failed payments with PayPal

It's not necessary to setup or alter with PayPal's payment recovery.

In the event of a failed transaction, PayPal will complete three attempts over fifteen days (each attempts 5 days apart). If all attempts fail after the 15 days, the subscription is automatically cancelled.

Recovery of failed payments using Authorize.net

When it comes to payments recovery The Authorize.net payment gateway is also fairly straightforward (though still useful! ).

If you enable this Automatic Retry feature, a member's subscription will remain in the "pending" status until the card is updated.

The Churn Buster Plugin

Of course, long after the payment processor has given up, Churn Buster is still busy working hard to recover the failed transactions should they occur. It even has features that can enhance the timing of strategic transactions and frequency of card retries and can result in better chances of success.

Churn Buster's retry scheduling algorithm is highly effective in helping in recovering failed payment attempts that are caused by issues like daily limits on spending or temporary hold-ups, as well as processing timeouts.

The greatest benefit? Churn Buster gives new customers an unbeatable 14-day trial.

Final Reflections

Whatever sort of online business have, failed payments can appear on your doorstep at any time. Make sure you remain cool and manage the situation with a sense of professionalism and calmness.

Keep in mind that prevention is the best medicine. We hope that our suggestions will assist you in handling your failed payments like a boss!

Did you have to deal with a failed payment? What was your approach to dealing with it?