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Failed Payments Problems with Payments in your membership site

Jul 28, 2022

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If you've created your membership site, you're full of excitement to finally create the passive income you want from an online-based business. There are instances where problems can be encountered, for instance, a failure to pay or a delay in your regular revenue.

It can be an extremely stressful situation, but rest assured that there are simple solutions to this issue!

In this article we'll go over the factors that lead to payment online might fail in your membership site.

In addition, we'll talk about ways your online business can deal with these unpaid payments with the least amount of difficulty, as well as a look at strategies to keep fromfailed payments at all costs.

Let's get to it!

How do you avoid a failed payment?

One of the advantages of operating an online business is the ability to accept payments in a number of different methods (credit/debit cards, Stripe PayPal and digital wallets etc. ).

If a non-payment payments occurs, the business owner quickly learn that these convenient payments can be an opportunity and a drawback.

The most common causes of failed payments comprise:

  • The card is canceled or expires. card
  • Insufficient funds on the credit/debit cards
  • The incorrect bank account or card details
  • A bug in the payment gateway
  • A hold is placed on the customer's account/card because of the bank's security prevention

What are the consequences of failed payments for My Small Business?

No matter if a failed payment was your fault or not, it could negatively impact your membership business.

  • You may not have the ability to access your funds at the time you'd like and you could have to forfeit that money completely.
  • The person who is unable to pay may not want to go through the trouble of making a new payment. You could turn away a potential customer.
  • The customer may lose confidence with your business in the event of an order isn't paid in the event of a payment failure, and they might not want to come back.

The loss of a client is a serious consequence. If you have a website that has a lot of failed payments the consequences could be disastrous. So it's important that you know what you can do if the payment fails to be made.

How do I handle the issue of a failed payment?

Failure to pay is a common occurrence. This is a common occurrence when being a business on the internet. If they do happen to you, ensure that you're prepared for the circumstance.

Below are a few useful ideas.

Don't panic.

The first thing you need to do when a situation of payment failure occurs is to remind yourself to stay calm.

We've said it before, failed payment can happen even to the most seasoned of us. The more calm you are, the greater the chances that you don't upset your client in a rash reaction. There's no need to panic, but make sure you're calm enough to handle the situation in a manner that is appropriate.

It is important to inform everyone.

This one is extremely important! If a payment is not made Don't presume that the customer has no idea about it.

The first step is to reach out to your customer to let them know of the issue. This is not only good customer service, it also shows your customer that you're aware and that they're important to you.

Offer a solution.

After alerting your client to the problem You'll need to provide a solution for how to solve the issue.

If the issue lies at your own end, inform them know that you've solved the issue. If the issue is at their side, offer clear steps on how to resolve the issue.

The more simple and concise your instructions, the higher the chances your customer will adhere to your instructions.

Make sure you are professional.

Failure to pay can be embarrassing for both you and your customer. But it's important to remain professional for the sake of the customer and for your own personal benefit.

Do not take a failed transaction or an insufficient response from your customer to the heart. All you can do is explain the problem, offer a solution, and let the customer wait. There is no way to force a customer returning to your membership site, and you wouldn't want to anyway!

Learn from this experience.

Last but not least, take the opportunity to learn from this mistake. No matter if it was due to an error on your end and/or not, you are able to always use the situation as a learning experience to do better in the future!

How to Avoid Failed Payments In the First Place

It's true that the old expression goes: Prevention is the most effective treatment. The same goes for failed payment.

Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to get ahead of the problem of failed payment before it starts.

has built-in features for failed repayment recovery, which work with your payment gateway.

In the next section, we'll review general settings for failed payments as well as several solutions that are specific to gateways. Then, we'll let into a fantastic plugin that keeps working to record lost payments for a long time after the gateway has given up.

configurations for payment failures

It has an excellent setting for recovering failed payment. For access, go to your WordPress dashboard > > Settings > email tab.

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

Once enabled, this function will send an email to any customer whose payment fails.

There's a default message from the beginning however, you are able to alter the message any way you'd prefer. As an example, you could include a link to the member's account page so they can swiftly and conveniently modify their details for payment.

Recovering failed payments with Stripe

If you are using Stripe as your Stripe Payment gateway it is possible to configure a custom retry schedule.

To get this functionality, go to your Stripe Dashboard > Settings > Billing > Subscriptions and emails > Manage failed payments to set it so that the customer's account is charged at the end of X time.

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

Paying back failed transactions with PayPal

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

If a payment fails, PayPal will complete three Retries in 15 days (each attempts five days apart). If none of the attempts succeed after 15 days, the subscription will be cancelled automatically.

Recovering failed payments with Authorize.net

When it comes to payment recovery it is the Authorize.net payment gateway is also pretty simple (though nevertheless, it's a great option! ).

If you turn on Automatic Retry, if you enable the Automatic Retry feature, a member's subscription will remain in the "pending" condition until the card's update.

The Churn Buster Plugin

And of course, long after the payment processor is gone, Churn Buster is still busy working hard to recover your failed payments should they happen. There are even capabilities that improve the strategic timing and frequency of retries to cards and can result in better success.

Churn Buster's optimized retry schedule is highly effective in helping to recover failed payments due to things such as daily limits on spending temporarily held, holds for a short period, or processing timeouts.

The most appealing part? Churn Buster offers new customers a free 14-day trial.

Final Thoughts

No matter what kind of business online you are operating, misplaced payments may appear on your doorstep in any moment. Be sure to remain cool and manage the situation in a calm and professional manner.

And remember, prevention really is the best treatment. Hope that these tips aid you to handle those failed payments like a boss!

Did you have to resolve a late payment? What did you do?