After doing a club processing all declined cards generate an email stating declined. How long do you give your club members to fix declined cards? I have formed another email to follow up usually the next week and give them 5 days. Is that too long?
Your mileage may vary, but I’m of the opinion that 5 days is too long and that you may want to try it every other day within the first week. Bonus points if you also call these members or offer incentives to update.
Some people think this is too aggressive.
I do the initial run, send the decline email and then do a second run of the declines about 2 days later, sending the decline email again. I may do a third run in the next day, but usually within a week of the initial run, we are then calling the declines.
So after the phone call, which I do as well. How long do you wait for a response. We had to cap our club so there is a waiting list for both of ours?? the waiting list is also a pain to monitor and follow up…
I let the card decline, email them 2x, then call every one. Then I send a letter asking them to update. Usually a month and a half after their card declined. I’ve actually got a lot of responses from letters. It’s not worth losing a club member just because their card declines.Updating credit cards for wine isn’t always first priority for people, so sometimes people are grateful when I call so they can check it off their list. If I don’t get response from the letter then I will assume they would like their club membership cancelled (as stated in letter). It sounds like in your case, since there’s a waiting list, ya snooze ya lose!
You may not want to assume that. After exacerbating the typical steps, we send emails to members with a subject line of: “Do you want to end your membership?” giving them an out to cancel. You’d be surprised how many people finally respond to that email, either confirming your assumption or, in a lot of cases, updating their information.
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That’s a good idea Ed! I’m going to try that. I think it is hard or uncomfortable for some people to cancel directly so giving them an easy out at the very end is a good way to clear things up.
Yeah, I think some people are afraid to cancel and giving them the opportunity to cancel provides better clarity on your Wine Club health and is also good customer service.
I bet you find a bunch of people finally respond with, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I’ve been in Ibiza the past month and have been blowing off emails. Yes, we want to stay in!”
I’m having trouble finding out how to do the same - have an automatic email go to decline cards. How did you set this up? thanks, MH
You can’t really automatically email declines easily. You can set up action emails for expiring cards, though.
Yes, I see that and we are, but often a “decline” has nothing to do with an expire. Thanks!
Right, but the functionality you are looking for does not natively exist in WineDirect. There are ways you can kind of do it, or if you are serious about this functionality, you could build a custom integration with a third-party ESP and trigger them using an API.
I email all declined cards during club processing. That’s the only time I’ve needed to mass email declines… you just have to do it by club which is a tiny bit labor-some.
I just wanted to say I am scrolling through relevant topics and your answers are always so helpful.
Thanks! That is really kind of you.