As much as this sounds like an 80s classic thriller, this blog is not about a terminator voice calling your members and saying “I’ll be back” when the call is put on hold.

Surprisingly, the Hollywood rendition of robots is not panning out the way it was portrayed decades ago. In fact, automated tools can be incredibly useful in certain areas of operations and managing payments.

So the questions becomes, are there tasks that are better performed by humans? Specifically, should robots (or automated recordings) be calling your members to resolve payment declines?  

The Dreaded Decline

Nobody likes a declined payment. Members don’t, you don’t, your staff doesn’t, even the antagonist from that thriller movie is rolling their eyes about it. But payment declines happen, some of which don’t require contact with members or banks. But even the most tightly run club will have scenarios that require calling members, explaining the reason for the declined payment, and setting up a plan for repayment. These conversations can be extremely sensitive for your members.

In fact, data shows 1 in 3 members will terminate their membership within 30 days of a declined payment, so these conversations can have a substantial impact on your club’s revenue.

Your club deserves a solution that doesn’t jeopardize relationships with these members. But you also deserve a solution that doesn’t require hundreds of staff hours to contact each and every one of them. The time commitment of resolving declines is why many clubs turn to an automated service for making these phone calls.

However, a personal touch is key to maintaining trust in these conversations and preventing members from terminating.

So what does an efficient payment solution that includes a human element to resolve declines look like? With more than 30 years of experience resolving declines, the Gains payments and billing team has the experience and breadth of industry knowledge to more efficiently and effectively recover your lost revenue without jeopardizing your relationships with members.

In fact, for every 1000 declines, the Gains team saves an average of 33 hours of work for your staff and has a 71% recovery rate.

Aside from scenarios that require contact with members, Gains is designed to prevent declined payments before they can even happen. These services include an automatic card account updater that updates member credit cards numbers, and strategically sorting declines and resubmitting so you can retain more revenue and save time. To learn more about how Gains can be your way to paid, connect with a specialist today or check out our Questions to Ask Your Software Provider guide below.

‍