Webinar: 5 Best Practices for Better Customer Retention

Transcription

1 Webinar: 5 Best Practices for Better Customer Retention

2 Housekeeping Rules 1. All lines are on mute 2. Use the Questions Box on the right feel free to type questions or concerns in at any time during the webinar--> 3. Questions will be answered throughout the webinar (so keep em coming!) 4. Unanswered questions and parking lot items will be followed up on after the Webinar 5. This presentation is being recorded for later playback and sharing 6. Feedback forms will be provided at the end of the session 2

3 Speakers Adriana Iordan Senior Director, Product Management Avangate Radu Ionescu Senior Product Manager Avangate 3

4 5 Best Practices for Customer Retention Proactive Retention 1. Revenue Recovery Strategies 2. Updated Cards Handling Active Retention 3. Self-Service Customer Portals 4. Retention Optimization Key to Success 5. Reporting & Analytics 4

5 Proactive Retention Hard Declines Hard declines are permanent authorization failures that cannot be recovered and should not be retried. Range from 10-20% of total declines. Reasons include: Stolen or lost cards Invalid credit card data Account closed Recommendations: Alternative payment methods Call center & marketing Soft Declines Soft declines are temporary authorization failures which may be successful after a subsequent attempt. Reasons include: Insufficient funds Card activity limit exceeded Processing failures - timeouts Expired cards Recommendations Recycling strategies - payment routing Expired cards optimizations 5

6 Proactive Retention Revenue Recovery Strategies Must have for soft declines Intelligent Payment Routing (Gateway Failover) Route payments to the appropriate gateway Recover lost subscription renewals (soft decline) Configurable Retry Logic Minimize failures Up to 20% recover rate Account Updater Service Ensure recurring billing continuity for active subscriptions Seamless updating of credit/debit card accounts (handling stale expirations) 10-40% increase in retention Dunning Management Communicate the payment failure clearly to your customers. Handling Expired Cards 6

7 Proactive Retention Intelligent Payment Routing - Always have a backup plan Use an alternate processor to retry failed payments. Purchase First Auth Attempt Payment Failure Soft Decline Failover Retry Route transactions according to: transaction type, localization payment methods, customer billing country, average order value or authorization responses Results range depending on rules, up to 60% when using local credit cards e.g for Brazilian cards 7

8 Proactive Retention Authorization rate Intelligent Payment Routing - Results Single Payment Gateway vs. Intelligent Payment Routing % 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% May June July May June July Single payment gateway 73.23% 85.63% 84.65% Intelligent Payment Routing 91.23% 90.76% 89.61% 8

9 Proactive Retention Account Updater Customer Account Changes Available Services Visa Account Updater MasterCard Automatic billing service Discover and American Express have similar programs Coverage: United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even some European markets 9

10 Proactive Retention Account Updater - Benefits For Businesses For Cardholders Increased retention rates, sales and collection of funds. Decreased credit / debit card declines and customer service costs. Improved operating efficiencies. Reduced processing costs by cutting down the number of declines and chargebacks. Avoid potential usage interruptions for services / subscriptions. Support seamless, automated account updates. Boost customer satisfaction through uninterrupted usage. Simplify the account updating process by not requiring cardholder action. 10

11 Proactive Retention Account Updater Results Number of Authorized Cards via Account Updater 3-10% matches updates of total submitted cards March April Updated cards May June Authorized cards Authorization rate of over 70% recovery for the updated cards 11

12 Proactive Retention: Expired Cards Handling Recover up to 90% of Declines Related to Expired Cards 1st Try: Add 3 Years 2nd Retry: Add 2 Years 3rd Retry: Add 1 Year Basic approach first try adding 3 years to the date on file, then 2 years, then 1 or 4 years test, measure and optimize Example: For a card scheduled to expire on 01/14, the first authorization attempt would be made using 01/17. Other options dependent on processors you work with sending the expiration date field blank, adding 4 years, etc 12

13 Proactive Retention Configurable Retry Logic Credit Card Account Updater (~11% get updated out of total number of cards on file) External Stale Expiration Updates On-going New Number/Fraud Expiry Dates Optimizing Credit Cards sent for Authorization Credit Card Retry Logic -1 day Renewal Date 1 day 2.9 days 5 days 7.5 days 10 days 12.5 days -24 hrs. 0 hrs. 22 hrs. 70 hrs. 120 hrs. 180 hrs. 240 hrs. 300 hrs. 13

14 Proactive Retention Dunning Management Proactive Approach Identify subscriptions at risk due to card expiration deadlines and reach out to customers Enable subscribers to update their card data in your customer portal Post Mortem Approach Communicate failed recurring payments to your customers using automatic notifications Invite to change / update payment information if hard declines What to Track? Open, click, conversion rates and revenue recovered Bounce rate (log soft and hard bounces to optimize your campaigns) 14

15 Active Retention Simply put, retention is a measure of: Product engagement utility, onboarding experience, user experience, adoption and usage, upselling Customer experience self service support, quality, proactive segmented outreach according to CLTV, marketing Value perceived price and packaging, trial experience Applies to Customers and Trial Users 15

16 Active Retention Self-Service Customer Portals 65% of users expect self-service access to their subscriptions to: Manage renewals and upgrades Update personal or billing info Access support 16 Tip: Introduce self-service cancellation within the app or in the customer portal - to put customers in control.

17 Active Retention Self-Service Customer Portals Analysts suggest that up to 5% of your monthly subscribers could click cancel at some point. When that happens: A/B test various strategies to retain them Remind them of the value they will lose Offer them discounts to continue Forward to support to address product/service issues Tip: If a subscriber moves forward with cancellation, implement exit surveys and follow-ups immediately (ideally within a day) either online or via call centers. 17

18 Active Retention Self-Service Customer Portals On average ~10% of users log in and update their credit cards to avoid loss of service ~1% of customers turned on recurring billing for their subscriptions 18

19 Active Retention: Chargebacks Industry Averages Distribution of Initiated Chargebacks Initiated Chargebacks Timeline Chargebacks 86 % Network Statistics A Gartner study revealed 86% of cardholders did not contact the Merchant/Vendor prior to launching a dispute with their issuing bank. The Study identified that on average: 14% 28% 58% Cardholder contacted Merchant Cardholder contacted Merchant after dispute was filed Cardholder did not contact the Merchant 19

20 Active Retention: Chargeback Management Stop Chargebacks Before They Happen Clear communication is a must, including notifications sent before processing renewals Card descriptor customization Implement chargeback resolution service Make sure that a subscription cancelation flow is available to your customers (via customer portal or by phone) Track chargeback reasons and trends 20

21 Reporting Key to Success Overall Authorization Rates Account Updater Retry Logic 96.76% of retries are successful on the first retry attempt 1.45% of retries are successful on the second retry attempt 0.17% of retries are successful on the eighth retry 21 attempt

22 Reporting Key to Success Managing Your Subscription Business Must-Have Reports for the New Services Economy Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Cohort Reporting and Analytics Renewals and Expirations Report Renewal Forecast Report Trial Conversion Rates Report 22

23 Reporting Key to Success Cohort Analysis 24

24 Conclusions Proactive Retention Revenue Recovery Strategies Updates of Cards Handling Retention Revenue Impact Breakdown 20% Hard Declines (Non-Recoverable) Active Retention Self-Service Customer Portals Retention Optimization 10% 12% Dunning Intelligent Payment Routing 27% Expired Cards Optimization Key to Success Reporting & Analytics 30% 31% Retry Logic Account Updater 25

25 Thank You! For more information on how you can increase your retention rate please visit or write us at Download Whitepaper on Best Practices for Better Customer Retention

26 Thank You.