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Slash Involuntary Churn and Boost LTV with an Automated Dunning Workflow

Are you losing customers without even realizing it? For subscription businesses, involuntary churn from failed payments is a silent revenue killer. Each failed transaction chips away at your subscriber base, deflates your Lifetime Value (LTV), and makes your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) harder to justify. This preventable churn is a major roadblock to profitability.

This playbook provides a step-by-step guide to building a robust, automated dunning process that actively recovers failed payments. We'll connect your Stripe payment gateway to ActiveCampaign's powerful automation engine. When a payment fails, it will instantly trigger a custom, multi-channel communication sequence of emails and SMS messages (via Twilio). This isn't a generic, one-size-fits-all solution; it's a tailored workflow designed to gently remind customers, make it easy for them to update their payment info, and save the subscription—all on autopilot.

Expected Outcomes

  • Drastically reduce involuntary churn caused by failed credit card payments.
  • Increase Subscriber Lifetime Value (LTV) by retaining more customers.
  • Automate revenue recovery, freeing up your team from manual, time-consuming follow-ups.
  • Protect customer relationships with a thoughtful, non-aggressive recovery process.
  • Implement a scalable system that protects recurring revenue as your business grows.

Core Tools in This Stack

ActiveCampaign

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ActiveCampaign provides a customer experience automation platform that combines email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools to help businesses of all sizes connect and engage with their customers.

Key Features
  • Visual Automation Builder
  • Email Marketing (Campaigns, Newsletters, Triggers)
  • CRM & Sales Automation
  • Lead Scoring & Tagging
  • Landing Page Builder
  • Site & Event Tracking
  • SMS Marketing
  • A/B Testing
  • Advanced Reporting & Analytics
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Subscription, Tiered, Usage-based

Tier: Mid-range

Ease of Use

Medium

Twilio

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A customer engagement platform that provides programmable communication tools for developers to embed voice, video, messaging, and authentication into their applications via APIs.

Key Features
  • Programmable SMS and MMS Messaging API
  • Programmable Voice API for making and receiving calls
  • Programmable Video for building real-time video apps
  • Twilio SendGrid Email API for transactional and marketing emails
  • Twilio Verify API for user verification and two-factor authentication
  • Twilio Flex, a programmable cloud contact center platform
  • Global network reach and phone number provisioning
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Health & Wellness, Education & Non-Profit, Other

Pricing

Model: Pay-as-you-go, Usage-based, Enterprise plan

Tier: Low

Ease of Use

Moderate

The Workflow

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Integration Logic

  • Stripe Billing

    This integration uses Stripe webhooks as the trigger for key billing events (e.g., 'invoice.payment_failed', 'invoice.paid', 'customer.subscription.deleted'). When an event occurs, the workflow identifies the customer in ActiveCampaign using their email address and updates their contact record with relevant tags (e.g., 'Past Due', 'Active Subscriber') or adds them to specific automations (e.g., Dunning or Win-back campaigns). Simultaneously, for critical events like payment failures, a personalized SMS notification is sent to the customer via Twilio, including a direct link to resolve the issue.

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