I had big(ger) hopes for the second year of my site, e.g. that I’d make double the income as my first year as my userbase continued to grow while recurring payments rolled in.
I’m finding, however, that the recurring payments (Stripe) are failing at about a 40% rate. This is not a bug; it’s just a result of generic declines by the issuing bank, cards expiring, cards reported stolen, credit card numbers now being incorrect. It’s a bit of a bummer.
I’ve tried following up with the user via e-mail each time, but I rarely get a response. Since then I’ve set up Stripe to automatically send a link to a payment update page for the user via e-mail. I’ve also reduced the number of retries from the default of 3 to 2 just so I don’t see the failures so much (I find that once they fail once, the retries won’t help).
How do you all manage your expectations of revenue growth and renewals? Has it been two steps forward one step back?
I guess at the end of the day, if the subscription has value, these lost customers will come back.
If you have any strategies or comments, feel free to share.
Cheers,
M. B. | Englishcurrent.com