If you’re in the subscription billing business, you need to look out for involuntary churn. There are three ways you can decrease your involuntary churn rate: send pre-dunning emails, optimize your website or app, and give customers lots of payment options.

What is involuntary churn?

Involuntary churn is when a failed payment results in a canceled subscription. This can happen for a number of reasons. For example, if a credit card has expired or its funds are maxed out the payment will fail. It can even fail due to bad connectivity! 

Pre-dunning emails 

Send out an email a few days before the payment is due so the customer can check that their account has sufficient funds and is ready for the payment. If you can see that a customer’s card is going to expire soon, it’s best to be proactive about getting them updated. Send them an email 30 days before the payment reminding them to update their payment details. If they still haven’t done it, you can send another email 7 days before. 

Make sure that the tone in your pre-dunning emails is polite. It should sound like you’re offering a helpful heads up, not a threat to cancel their account. Include an eyecatching call to action button that will take the client directly to the page where they can update their details in a matter of seconds. 

Optimize your website or app 

A pre-dunning email might do the trick, but you can reach your customers while they use your website or app. To get those card details updated, you should optimize your website or app. 

Set up in-app notifications reminding users that their card information is going to expire soon. You can also create pop-ups in the check-out process so customers stay on the page to update their details. Most importantly, optimize the page where updates can be done. This way your user will be able to update their card information quickly and easily. 

Think about payment options  

Always start with what your customer wants. Find out how your customers want to pay and give them those options. A standard debit order works for many but not all. 

Revio now offers DebiCheck as a payment option for debit order skeptics. This proudly South African debit order solution gives your bank the full details of what you have agreed to and ensures that it has your electronic permission before paying anything out. This makes users feel comfortable entering into the debit order in the first place.

Additionally, your system should have a backup payment method set up and ready to go for every customer. 

What about voluntary churn? 

Now we’ve spoken about customers losing their subscriptions involuntarily, but what about when they’ve done it on purpose? Voluntary churn is when a customer chooses to cancel their subscription because they no longer want to continue their relationship with your business. 

These losses could help you gain insight that will help you retain more subscribers in the long run. Reach out to get feedback on why they’ve chosen to end the relationship. This could expose issues with your service delivery or your pricing structure. Use this feedback to improve your overall offering.