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Failed Payments: How to Handle Them In Your Membership Site

Jul 28, 2022

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If you've created an online membership website it's exciting to earn a steady income through an online business. There are instances where problems can arise, like failed payments, that put a pause on your recurring income.

It can be an extremely stressful scenario, but you can be confident that there are simple methods to deal with this situation!

In this article, we'll discuss the factors that lead to online payments may fail on your membership website.

Also, we'll discuss how your business online can manage these failed transactions in the most graceful way possible and we'll go over some methods to preventfailed payments in the first place.

Let's get to it!

How do you avoid a failed payment?

One of the advantages of operating an online business is that you can accept payments using a range of different ways (credit/debit cards, Stripe, PayPal as well as digital wallets etc. ).

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

Most common reasons for failure to pay include:

  • A cancelled or expired debit/credit card
  • A lack of funds on the credit/debit cards
  • Incorrect bank account or card number
  • There is a problem with your payment processor
  • The hold was placed on the account or card of the customer in connection with the bank's fraud prevention

What are the consequences of failed payments for My Company?

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

  • There is a chance that you will not be able to withdraw your cash at the time you'd like and you could be unable to access your income at all.
  • If a customer's payment is not successful, they might not wish to endure the stress of making another payment, so you could turn away a potential customer.
  • A customers might lose trust with your business in the event of the payment is not successful in the event of a payment failure, and they might never return.

The loss of a client is an extremely serious repercussion. If your site experiences a lot of failed payments The consequences are devastating. It's essential to understand what to do when the payment fails to be made.

How do I handle the issue of a failed payment?

Failure to pay is a common occurrence. It's just part of conducting business online. So when they happen to you, make sure that you're prepared for the situation.

Following are a few helpful tips.

Don't panic.

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

As we mentioned, failing payment can happen even to the most seasoned of us. The more calm you are more likely that you will not annoy your customer by overreacting. It's okay to be alarmed, but make sure you're relaxed so you can handle the situation appropriately.

Be sure that everyone is aware.

This one is extremely important! When a failed payment occurs do not assume that your client knows about it.

So first, reach out to your customer to let them know of the issue. Not only is this good customer service, it also lets your customers know that you're aware of them and how important they are to you.

Offer a solution.

After alerting your client to the problem and notified them of the issue, it's time to present the solution to fix it.

If the issue is at your own end, inform them know that you've solved the problem. If the issue is on their end, provide easy-to-understand steps on how to fix the problem.

The more simple and concise your instructions are, the greater the chance that your client will follow through.

Keep it professional.

A failed payment is embarrassing for you and your client. But it's important to remain professional - for the good of the client as well as your own benefit.

Do not take a failed transaction or a lack of a reply from your client to heart. What you need to do is inform the customer of the issue and offer a solution and then wait. It isn't possible to force members to go back to the membership site, and you don't need to!

Take a lesson from this experience.

Last but not least, use the chance to gain from the mishap. If it was a problem on your end or not, you are able to always use the situation as a learning experience to learn from the past and improve in the coming years!

Tips to Prevent Failed Payments from the beginning

You know how the phrase says: Prevention is the best medicine. Same goes for failed payment.

If you're lucky, there's several options to prevent the problem of failed payment before it begins.

comes with built-in functions for unsuccessful payments that are integrated with your payment gateway.

Below, we'll go over the general guidelines for failing payments in addition to a discussion of several solutions that are specific to gateways. Last, we'll clue users into an amazing plugin that keeps working to recover lost transactions long until the gateway is no longer able to process them.

configurations for payment failures

There is a useful setting for recovering your failed payments. To find it, got to your WordPress dashboard > > Settings > the Emails tab.

If you look through the list of automatic email messages, there's an option titled, "Send Failed Transaction Notice". Make sure to check the box and allow the setting.

If enabled, this function will send an email to anyone whose payments have failed.

The default message is displayed that comes with the program however, you are able to alter the content however you prefer. For example, you might include a link to the member's account page in order to let them easily and quickly update their payment details.

Recovering failed payments with Stripe

If you are using Stripe as your Stripe payments gateway it is possible to set up a customized retry timetable.

To get this functionality, go to your Stripe Dashboard > Settings > billing > subscriptions and emails > Manage failed payment, and set it up so that a member's card is charged again after X amount of time.

You can also make use of Stripe Smart Retries. This amazing feature determines the best time to charge, and then attempts to charge a card of the customer at that moment.

Paying back failed transactions with PayPal

There's nothing to set up or alter with PayPal's payment recovery.

If a payment fails, PayPal will complete three retries over fifteen days (each attempts five days apart). If all attempts fail after the 15 days, the subscription is automatically cancelled.

Recovering failed payments with Authorize.net

For payments recovery, the Authorize.net payment processor is pretty easy to use (though nevertheless, it's a great option! ).

If you activate this Automatic Retry feature, a cardholder's subscription will remain in a "pending" state until the card is updated.

The Churn Buster Plugin

Of course, long after the payment provider has given up, Churn Buster is still busy working hard to recover any failed payments that occur. There are even capabilities that enhance the timing of strategic transactions and frequency of the retries and can result in better results.

Churn Buster's retry scheduling algorithm helps to recover failed payments that are caused by issues like daily spending limits temporarily held, holds for a short period, or processing timeouts.

The best part? Churn Buster offers new customers the opportunity to try a 14-day free trial.

Final thoughts

No matter what type of online business you have, failed payments can sneak up on you in any moment. Make sure you remain at peace and deal with the issue with a sense of professionalism and calmness.

Keep in mind that prevention is the most effective treatment. We hope that our suggestions will help you handle your failed payments like a boss!

Have you ever had to resolve a late or a late payment? What did you do?