Switching to Churn Buster: 3 Steps to a better experience with failed payments

Switching to Churn Buster is a snap. Whether you’re switching from an in-house system or a third-party tool, it’s surprisingly simple to get up and running. Churn Buster does all the heavy lifting to get you set up fast, with advanced options for later on as your account grows and warrants more focus on optimization.

So let’s walk through the steps to start recovering more revenue with Churn Buster.

1. Sign up for a plan ✅

First, choose your vertical:

Then select your plan level and click “Get Started" to enter the signup flow.

To create your account, you’ll need on hand:

  • Credentials to connect Stripe, Braintree, or ReCharge
  • Credit card for billing

Using a different payment processor, or a combination of tools? Just reach out to support@churnbuster.io to connect via our API.

2. Turn off your previous dunning system 🛑

During setup, you will be given instructions on how to adjust settings for your particular billing tool to work seamlessly with Churn Buster. These settings are designed to avoid sending duplicate emails and strategically place your retries — as well as end-of-retry-sequence behavior — to work nicely with Churn Buster campaigns. 

This step alone often increases recovery out of the gate. Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions about the recommended settings.

Switching from an in-house dunning system

Been a while since you looked at this code? Maybe someone else built your custom failed payments logic, and you're not even sure where it exists. This is commonly the case, and it can feel overwhelming at first, but the steps are often straightforward.

Here's how to prepare for turning on Churn Buster:

  • Consult your payment processor documentation for API or webhook events related to failed payments.
  • Search your codebase for any references to these payment events.
  • Isolate actions triggered by failed payments.
  • Look for emails being initiated, subscription cancelations, account lockouts or anything else that may seem relevant.
  • Comment out or remove code to disable emails, subscription cancelations related to failed payment attempts, or any custom logic to retry payments after a recurring payment fails.


When is the right time to turn on Churn Buster?
Up to two days before disabling internal systems, or soon after doing so. Customers will not start being emailed right away, but recovery campaigns will begin to populate in Churn Buster.

What if something gets missed, and emails aren't totally disabled?
Sending a few extra emails through your previous system will be ok, but you may wish to monitor your email service provider to correct for this quickly. With Churn Buster running, you'll have more visibility into what's happening behind the scenes, and can fine-tune the new process as you go.

3. Launch 🚀

Now you’re ready for launch! Your new recovery campaign comes pre-loaded with:

  • A retry sequence to maximize recoveries with fewer emails sent
  • Email templates and a delivery schedule based on best practices
  • Mobile-optimized, no-login card update pages

You have full visibility into what’s happening in order to gather data over the next 60-90 days before iterating.

The account ramps up gradually as the system monitors for your customers’ next failed payments. By default, the first email is sent a few days after the next failed payment, so you have plenty of time to make changes if needed.

While in the account, here are a few things you can do to immediately level up:

Add teammates

On the Team page, send invites for your teammates to access the account.

Improve email deliverability

The Deliverability settings page includes DNS records to authenticate your sending domain. This makes your emails look personal, legitimate, and trustworthy in your customers’ inboxes. It’s not necessary, but it is highly recommended and only takes about 5 minutes of your time.

Review/customize your campaign

The default email templates have been tested at-scale, so they are a great starting point even when used as-is. But every business is unique, and a more customized approach can yield improvements as you collect more data. 

The Campaign Scheduler unlocks infinite potential to analyze and tweak your recovery campaigns to fit your specific needs:

  • Customize email messaging to match your brand voice
  • Add a branded/stylized look to your emails with the click of a button
  • Change the sender address on a per-email basis
  • Extend or shorten the campaign window

Subscribe to email notifications

Sign up to notify yourself or your support team when campaigns start, payments are recovered, campaigns are lost, or emails bounce.

This allows you to stay close to the customer experience, especially as things get rolling.

Common questions

ARE THE CUSTOMERS CURRENTLY IN A DUNNING SEQUENCE GOING TO RECEIVE EXTRA EMAILS WHEN I SWITCH CHURN BUSTER ON?

Because customers will be at different stages of dunning when you switch systems, some may receive additional emails. These customers are retained at a lower rate compared to those who are first contacted by Churn Buster.

Churn Buster will surface campaign issues like email bounces, so you'll identify and address campaign issues that went unnoticed in your prior setup.

WILL CUSTOMERS WHO ALREADY WENT THROUGH A CAMPAIGN IN MY PREVIOUS SETUP GO THROUGH A NEW CHURN BUSTER CAMPAIGN?

Campaigns begin when recurring payments fail. So customers without more retries scheduled will not be added to a Churn Buster campaign by default. 

If you’d like to start campaigns for previously past-due customers, simply retry payment on their past-due subscription. You’ll then see a campaign created in Churn Buster.

‍MY OLD SYSTEM HAD PRE-DUNNING EMAILS. DO YOU?

Pre-dunning has been discontinued in Churn Buster.

This outdated practice notifies customers about billing issues that aren't actually issues. (Learn more here.) Customers will still receive emails after there is a confirmed issue — and only after pre-email retries to the card-on-file fail to succeed.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF CHURN BUSTER CAMPAIGNS?

You can run campaigns as long as you need, with options for leaving subscriptions open or canceling them automatically if a recovery is unsuccessful.

HOW WILL I KNOW IT'S WORKING?

Your dashboard begins tracking results as soon as campaigns begin. You’ll see how recovery performance changes over time, as well as how campaigns are won: via card update or automated retry.

You also have the ability to search for customers and filter based on their campaign status so that you can detect issues, copy card update links, or inform your support team about a customer’s progress. Companies report having more visibility and a smoother billing support process after switching to Churn Buster.

Churn Buster makes a complicated job easy.

At this point, you now have automated, secure failed payments handling in place — with advanced features available as your company grows and collects data. Expect to run campaigns for 60-90 days to establish baseline performance with a few monthly cohorts running through to completion.

Customers won't slip away unnoticed, and they're now treated to a high-trust, low-friction experience at this crucial stage of the customer lifecycle. That's the Churn Buster way.