Collect failed online payments automatically
The inability to collect online payments can occur for a variety of reasons, including expired credit card information and payment processor failures. To counteract these issues, Cleverbridge provides revenue retention tools and an assortment of automated customer emails.
If you're a client handling your own subscriptions, you're also being supported by our retention tools:
- Account Updater
- Expiration Date Checker
- Dynamic Transaction Routing
- Retry Logic
To assess the impact of the Cleverbridge's revenue retention tools on your revenue streams, see Payments.
Revenue Retention Tools
The Cleverbridge Revenue Retention Tools increase the acceptance rate of credit cards after online payment failures or expired card detection, allowing you to enhance subscriber retention, prevent service disruptions to your customers, and minimize negative experiences caused by authorization declines.
Our Revenue Retention Tools include the following:
Account Updater
If the customer's credit card information changes, the Account Updater attempts to acquire the updated payment details automatically, without the need for customers to manually provide the information. To achieve this, the Account Updater identifies customers with outdated credit card information a few days before their renewal date. Then, it contacts their credit card companies and requests the most current card details. If this information is available, Cleverbridge updates their payment profiles, ensuring automatic billing on the renewal date for customers.
As merchant of record, Cleverbridge collaborates with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to ensure the timely updating of your customers' credit card information:
- Credit card issuers transmit electronic files containing updates when there are changes to a cardholder's account information.
- Before subscription renewals, Cleverbridge submits account numbers to its acquirer on behalf of relevant customers.
- The credit card company processes these submissions against its database, responding to the acquirer with electronic files, compliant with PCI standards.
- Cleverbridge retrieves these files daily to keep your customers' payment information current.
You can customize the timing when the customer's credit card information is checked. For more information, contact Client Experience.
Expiration Date Checker
If Cleverbridge is unable to update the customer's credit card information through the Account Updater, we use Expiration Date Checker on the renewal date to try and update the card's expiration date based on certain rules and logic. To validate the new expiration date, we attempt a renewal transaction. Upon successful validation, the customer is billed automatically, and their credit card information is updated in the Cleverbridge platform. If the validation is unsuccessful, Cleverbridge automatically sends a Reminder > Payment expiration email, urging the customer to update their payment details. For more information, see Customer email types.
Upon successful validation of the identified expiry date, a history entry is generated, which you can view in the History section of the Purchase viewer.
Dynamic transaction routing
In case of a credit card payment failure due to a generic decline, an invalid CVV, or a transaction error, Cleverbridge automatically redirects the transaction to an alternative acquirer network to re-attempt the payment immediately.
Retry Logic
If the credit card that Cleverbridge has on file is accurate, yet the payment processing fails, one of the following issues might be the cause:
- The credit card limit has been surpassed.
- The card issuer closed the cardholder's account.
- The cardholder missed several payments leading to the suspension of the account by the card issuer.
- The cardholder's account was flagged for potential fraud
When any of these issues occurs, the credit card owner often resolves the problem quickly, making the card available for transactions once more. As a result, our Retry Logic comes into play, aiming to re-process failed payments.
Our Retry Logic includes three types of retries:
| Retry Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Dynamic Retries (DR) | Dynamic in nature, DR use a machine learning approach to determine the optimal time for scheduling payment reattempts after the initial payment decline. DR enhance the likelihood of successfully collecting payments, and boosts the overall retry success rate, consequently minimizing involuntary churn. To enable DR, contact Client Experience. |
| Self-Service Retry (SSR) | Designed for clients managing their subscriptions, SRR is initiated through our RetryPayment API at a time of your choice. SSR can be activated upon request. For more information, contact Client Experience. |
| Static Retry (SR) | Following a predefined retry schedule, this automated process attempts retries multiple times as necessary. |
Retry Logic options
By default, Cleverbridge triggers the Retry Logic once, taking place 5 days after the initial failed payment. However, you can customize the following Retry Logic options for your client account:
| Customizable Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Schedule Multiple Retries | You can plan up to 4 retries within the 14-day period following the initial failed payment. Cleverbridge provides 2 retries at no cost. Any additional retries are subject to negotiation. |
| Change Retry Schedule | Retries can be scheduled up to 14 days after the initial failed payment. Our recommendation is to schedule the cadence with retries on the 3rd and 14th day for better results. |
| Combine Retry with Account Updater | To enhance the retry success rate, you can combine the Retry Logic with a second Account Updater attempt. You may schedule the Account Updater call to take place between the initial failed payment and the retry. |
To modify the Retry Logic configuration for your account, contact Client Experience.
How Retry Logic is executed
The Retry Logic procedure involves the following steps:
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Analyze Reasons for Decline: Cleverbridge reviews payment provider return codes for unsuccessful billing attempts. A hard decline, such as expired or invalid card, results in no retry attempt, while a soft decline, such as temporary issues like exceeded credit card limit, allows for another billing attempt.
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Schedule Retry: By default, retries occur five days after an unsuccessful billing attempt, but customization is possible. For details, contact Client Experience.
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Send Retry Payment Notification to Customer: Cleverbridge automatically sends a Subscription > Retry payment notification email, notifying customers of a failed subscription payment with a retry in X days.This email can be deactivated; check Customer email types for details.
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Check for Subscription Changes: Before a new billing attempt, checks are conducted to avoid redundant retries:
- If the subscription is canceled or the customer successfully makes another payment, no charge occurs.
- If the payment details are altered, the old data is not retried.
- If the original transaction is no longer valid for a retry, no additional attempts are made.
- Execute Retry Logic: On the scheduled retry date, the Retry Logic is activated:
- If the billing attempt succeeds, the subscription is renewed and an automatic Invoice (receipt) email notifies the customer of the successful payment.
- If the billing attempt fails, the subscription is put on hold. An automatic Subscription > On hold notification email informs the customer of the deactivation due to payment failure. For more information, see Customer email types.
A corresponding history entry is generated, which you can view in the History section of the Purchase viewer.
To prevent double-charging customers for a subscription, use our Retry Logic carefully in combination with winback campaigns, which utilize our ChangePaymentSubscriptionURL. For more information, contact Client Experience.
If you handle subscriptions yourself, our Retry Logic s available on request. For more information, contact Client Experience.
The Cleverbridge Revenue Retention Tools support Visa, Mastercard, and American Express credit cards, covering over 97% of cards transactions in the United States. For further information about the credit card information exchange with these providers, see the following:
Automated customer emails
Cleverbridge communicates with your customers partly through emails automatically sent by the Cleverbridge platform and triggered by events like purchases or subscription sign-ups.
To learn about the assortment of emails we offer, including payment reminders and those addressing online payment failures, see Customer email types.