Card failures enter a smart recovery sequence — optimally timed retries, friendly multi-channel nudges and a grace period — recovering most of the revenue that used to quietly churn.
Typical results
−33%
involuntary churn
0
awkward payment-chasing calls
1 tap
to update a card and pay
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Around eight percent of monthly charges failed, mostly on expired cards. The billing system retried once, emailed a generic notice into spam folders, and cancelled — customers who never chose to leave discovered their account closed, and finance chased the rest one by one.
Before and after
Failed payments recovered
4.1×Involuntary churn
−33%Finance hours chasing payments per month
−100%The automation
We built a dunning engine on top of the billing platform: retries are scheduled at statistically better moments, customers get a friendly update-your-card message over email and WhatsApp with a one-tap payment link, accounts keep access during a defined grace window, and high-value accounts escalate to customer success before any cancellation.
How it works
- 01
Charge fails
A failed card payment enters the recovery sequence instead of a dead end.
- 02
Smart retries
The charge retries at statistically better moments, not just once.
- 03
Friendly nudges
Email and WhatsApp messages carry a one-tap update-your-card payment link.
- 04
Grace period holds access
The account stays active while the customer sorts out payment.
- 05
Revenue recovered
62% of failed payments come back on their own, and involuntary churn falls by a third.
Starts from
- Failed charges
- Account data
Delivers
- Update-card nudges
- Recovered revenue
- CS escalation
The impact
Sixty-two percent of failed payments are now recovered automatically, involuntary churn fell by a third, and finance stopped spending hours on awkward payment-chasing calls entirely.
Questions about this automation
How are the retry times chosen?
Instead of one retry the next day, failed charges are retried on a schedule built around common decline reasons, for example a few days later for insufficient funds or right after a card update. Retries stop once payment succeeds, and hard declines such as a stolen card skip retries and go straight to an update-card message.
What do customers receive when a payment fails?
A friendly email, plus a WhatsApp message for customers who opted in, explaining that the payment did not go through, with a one-tap link to update the card. Reminders repeat during the grace period at a calm pace, and each one stops as soon as a successful payment is recorded in the billing system.
What happens to high-value accounts and the grace period?
Accounts keep full access during a defined grace window, such as fourteen days. Accounts above a set revenue threshold also open a task for customer success before any cancellation, so a person reaches out first. It is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages, starting with retries and email.