Customer Management: #5 Never Let the Customer Slip

When Rahul started Knight's Watch Consulting, his focus was simple: deliver good work and keep clients happy. He offered one-time consulting projects, monthly advisory retainers and usage-based support for growing clients. Business was steady, and customers came in consistently.

But over time, Rahul noticed a troubling pattern.

Customers weren't always leaving because they were unhappy. Some missed payments. Some pause services during the slow period. Others forget to update expired cards. A few cancelled, planning to return, but never did.

His inbox started filling with conversations like:

"Sorry, our card expired. Can we sort this out next week?"

"We didn't realise the payment failed."

"We've cancelled for now, maybe we'll restart later."

Each of these moments felt small on its own. But together, they resulted in lost revenue and opportunities.

Rahul realised something important: Customer retention isn't just about preventing cancellations, it's about responding at the right moment, in the right way.

That's where Zoho Billing helped him spot risks early, reduce friction, and maintain customer relationships, even when payments failed or subscriptions paused.

Retention Mechanisms in Zoho Billing 

Most customers don't leave because they want to. They leave because something gets in the way. It may be a missed payment, short-term budget constraints or lack of follow-up.

Zoho Billing is designed to catch these moments early and turn them into retention opportunities rather than silent drop-offs.

Staying Ahead with Payment Reminders 

One of the simplest yet most effective retention tools is timely communication.

With automated payment reminders, Zoho Billing helps customers stay informed before and after invoice due dates. These reminders gently nudge customers instead of surprising them with service disruptions.

For Rahul, this meant fewer awkward follow-up emails and fewer "We miss this" conversations. Customers appreciated the clarity, and the payment became more predictable.

Reminders help by:

• Reducing unintentional payment delays.

• Setting clear expectations.

• Preventing minor misses from becoming churn triggers.

 Sometimes, a reminder is all it takes to keep a customer on track.

Recovering Payment with Dunning Management 

Not every payment goes through, and that's normal. Card expires. Bank limits change. Payment failed for reasons outside your control. What matters is how you respond when they do. 

​
Zoho Billing's Dunning Management automates follow-ups for failed payments.

​
Instead of a single failed charge leading to cancellation, businesses can set up multiple retries, both for attempts and notifications.

This structured approach helps:

• Recover revenue automatically.

• Give customers time to fix the payment issue.

• Avoid immediate service interruptions. 

In Zoho Billing, you can set up notifications and dunning automation not only for a subscription but also for other subscriptions. You can refer to our earlier post to know more.

​
For Rahul, dunning turned many "about-to-cancel" subscriptions into successfully recovered ones without any manual effort from his team.

Adding a Safety Net with Secondary Payment Method 

Even with reminders and retries, a single payment method can still be a point of failure. Despite the option to notify customers when their cards are expiring, some customers fail to update them on time, which can lead to involuntary churn.

​

Zoho Billing allows customers to add a backup payment method that serves as a fallback if the primary method fails. This small change had a significant impact on Rahul.

​

Instead of subscriptions lapsing, payments often succeeded via the backup method without the customer needing to intervene.

​

This reduces:

• Accidental service interruptions.

• Frustration caused by an expired card.

• Revenue loss due to avoidable failure.

 Sometimes, retention is just about removing friction that customers didn't even realise existed.

Using Free Plan as a Retention Safety Net 

In the previous post, we explored how a Free plan helps manage trials and failed payments. From a retention perspective, it plays a different role. Instead of cancelling a subscription outright when all payment attempt fails, Zoho Billing allows businesses to move customers to a limited-access Free Plan.

For Rahul, this changes the tone of difficult moments:

• Customers weren't locked out suddenly.

• Access was reduced, not removed.

• The relationship stayed alive.

Customers could continue engaging at a basic level and upgrade back when ready. This approach preserved goodwill and created more chances for recovery.

Identifying Risk Early  with Reports

Retention isn't just reactive; it's proactive. Zoho Billing provides reports that help businesses spot trouble before customers disappear.

Under Risk Report 

The Under Risk Report highlights customers at risk of churn due to payment failures or delayed renewals. Instead of discovering churn after it happened, Rahul's team could now reach out early with context.

"We noticed there were a few payment issues. Can we help?"

This early awareness made conversations more supportive and less transactional.

Lost Opportunities Report 

Not every lost customer is gone forever. The Lost Opportunities Report provides visibility into subscriptions for which the payment failed on the first attempt. For Rahul, this became a list of customers worth revisiting.

Some came back months later, Others needed a different plan or pricing model. Having this visibility turned past losses into future conversations.

This report, along with Abandon Cart Tracking, provides businesses offering both self- and sales-driven onboarding with a clear understanding of where and when a customer slips out.

Making It Easy to Come Back with Reactivations 

One of the biggest retention wins came from subscription reactivation. In-term reactivation, as explained in our previous post, makes a significant difference in your customer offering. Customers who cancelled earlier often return with:

"Can we restart from where we left off?

With Zoho Billing, Rahul could:

• Reactivate subscriptions mid-term

• Resume without creating a new invoice.

• Keep the original billing cycle intact.

Even better, reactivation could be enabled directly in the Customer Portal, allowing customers to resume services on their own without emails, calls, or delays.

This removed friction at the exact moment when customers were ready to return.

What Retention Strategies Does to Business? 

Retention is a process and not a single feature. Over time, Rahul learned that customers don't slip away all at once. They drift away through small, preventable moments.

Zoho Billing addresses those moments by:

• Reminding customers before issues arise.

• Recovering failed payments automatically.

• Offering a flexible fallback instead of a hard stop.

• Highlighting risk early through reporting

• Making it easy for returning customers.

 Each of these features works together to ensure customers don't slip away.

Zoho Billing helps businesses build these safety nets into their billing operations, ensuring minor disruptions don't become permanent losses. By staying proactive, flexible, and customer-friendly, companies can turn potential churn into lasting relationships and revenue. 

Up Next: Common Mistakes in Customer Handling

 

• Topic Participants

• Hari Hara Sudhan. S

  

• Sticky Posts

• Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

  Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

• Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

• Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

• Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

• Recent Topics

• Wrapping up 2025 on a high note: CRM Release Highlights of the year

  Dear Customers, 2025 was an eventful year for us at Zoho CRM. We’ve had releases of all sizes and impact, and we are excited to look back, break it down, and rediscover them with you! Before we rewind—we’d like to take a minute and sincerely thank you

• Customer Parent Account or Sub-Customer Account

  Some of clients as they have 50 to 300 branches, they required separate account statement with outlet name and number; which means we have to open new account for each branch individually. However, the main issue is that, when they make a payment, they

• Restrict Users access to login into CRM?

  I’m wanting my employees to be able to utilize the Zoho CRM Lookup field within Zoho Forms. For them to use lookup field in Zoho Forms it is my understanding that they need to be licensed for Forms and the CRM. However, I don’t want them to be able to

• Unknown table or alias 'A1'

  I would like to create a subquery but i am getting the following error: Unknown table or alias 'A1' used in select query. This is the sql statement:  SELECT A1.active_paying_customers, A1.active_trial_customers, A1.new_paying_signup, date(A1.date_active_customers), 

• in the Zoho creator i have address field based the customer lookup im selecting the addresss , some times the customer address getting as null i want to show as blank

  in the Zoho creator i have address field based the customer lookup im selecting the addresss , some times the customer address getting as null ,i want to show as blank instead of showing null. input.Billing_Address.address_line_1 = ifNUll(input.Customers_Name.Address.address_line_1,"");

• Question about upgrade and storage space Zoho Notebook

  After upgarding my Zoho Notebook plan, I am running into the following issue. I just upgraded from a free Zoho Notebook subscription to Pro Lite after I got a notification in my Window Zoho Notebook desktop app saying that I had run out of space. However,

• Printing to a brother label maker

  I see allot of really old unanswered posts asking how to print to a label maker from a zoho creator app. Has their been any progress on providing the capability to create a customized height & width page or print template or whatever to print labels?

• Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

  Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:

• Track online, in-office, and client location meetings separately with the new meeting venue option

  Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce meeting enhancements in Zoho CRM that bring more clarity and structure to how meetings are categorized. You can now specify the meeting venue to clearly indicate whether a meeting is being held online, at the

• Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.32.0)

  Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce the latest updates to Trident, which are designed to reinforce email security and protect your inbox from evolving threats. Let’s take a quick look at what’s new. Deliver quarantined emails. Organization admins

• Marketing Tip #5: Improve store speed with optimized images

  Slow-loading websites can turn visitors away. One of the biggest culprits? Large, uncompressed images. By optimizing your images, your store loads faster and creates a smoother shopping experience leading to higher sales. It also indirectly improves SEO.

• SMS to customers from within Bigin

  Hi All, Is there anyone else crying out for Bigin SMS capability to send an SMS to customers directly from the Bigin interface? We have inbuilt telephony already with call recordings which works well. What's lacking is the ability to send and receive

• Admins cannot see each others' Scheduled Reports?!

  Very frustrating that as an admin I cannot see what my reports my fellow admins have created and scheduled.  After asking about this on the help chat, I was told the issue is trust and security.  By giving someone Admin status, it means we trust them with those responsibilities. Please change this, it is not a good process to have to bother other users to change a report or change users within a report.

• Writer update results in BitDefender blocking it as malware

  After updating Writer to latest update, Bitdefender blocked the app and writer no longer runs.

• Missing Import Options

  Hello, do I miss something or is there no space import option inside of this application? In ClickUp, you can import from every common application. We don't want to go through every page and export them one by one. That wastes time. We want to centralize

• Zoho CRM Portal Field Level Permission Issue

  Hi Support Team, I am using the Zoho CRM Portal and configuring field-level editing permissions. However, we are unable to restrict portal users from editing certain fields. We have created a portal and provided View and Edit (Shared Only) access for

• Why am I seeing deleted records in Zoho Analytics syncing with Zoho CRM?

  I have done a data sync between Zoho CRM and Zoho Analytics, and the recycle bin is empty. Why do I see deleted leads/deals/contacts in Zoho Analytics if it doesn't exist in Zoho CRM? How can I solve this problem? Thanks

• Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

  Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if

• Collaboration with customers made easy with Zoom Meeting and Zoho Desk integration

  Hello everyone! We are happy to announce that you can now integrate your Zoho Desk account with Zoom Meeting. The integration bridges the gap between digital communication and human connection, empowering teams to deliver timely support when it matters

• CRM Canvas - Upload Attachments

  I am in the process of changing my screens to Canvas.  On one screen, I have tabs with related lists, one of which is attachments.  There doesn't appear to be a way to upload documents though.  Am I missing something really obvious?  Does anyone have

• TrueSync regularly filling up my local disk

  Seems that WorkDrive's TrueSync randomly starts filling up my local hard drive space. None of the folders have been set as "Make Offline" but still it seems to randomly start making file offline. The settings of the app is so minimal and is of no real

• Kaizen #194 : Trigger Client Script via Custom buttons

  Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting and useful Kaizen post. We know that Client Scripts can be triggered with Canvas buttons and we discussed this with a use case in Kaizen#180. Today, let us discuss how to trigger Client Script when a

• [Webinar] A recap of Zoho Writer in 2025

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce Zoho Writer's webinar for January 2026: A recap of Zoho Writer in 2025. This webinar will provide a recap of the features and enhancements we added in 2025 to enhance your productivity. Choose your preferred

• Picklist field shows "none" as default

  Hello, Is there an option to avoid showing "none" as the default value in a picklist field? I also don't want to see any option displayed. My expectation is to have a blank bar, and then when I display the drop-down list, I can choose whichever I wa

• Stage-probability mapping feature in custom module

  Hi, I'm building a custom module for manage projects. I would like to implement the stage-probability feature that Potentials has. Is this possible?

• Field Description is very small

  Hello, The field Description in the activity is very small. Why don't try open a new window, or a bigger popup, or increase the width of the "popup". Example:

• StatusIQ

  Please add StatusIQ to data sources. We using site24x7 and StatusIQ together and site24x7 integration is already there. Thanks and regards, Torsten

• In Zoho People, the Operations buttons are frequently not visible or do not appear consistently.

  In Zoho People, the Operations buttons are frequently not visible or do not appear consistently. We request you to please investigate and address this issue, as it is affecting daily HR operations and user access.

• Marketing Tip #14: Increase cart value with product bundles

  Bundling products is a great way to increase average order value while giving customers more convenience. Think “camera + tripod + memory card” or “soap + lotion + bath salts.” Bundles make shopping easier and feel like a better deal. It’s a win-win for

• Problem with Workdrive folders

  I'm having a problem a problem accessing files in a Zoho work drive folder when using the Zoho writer app. The problem folder appears grayed out in the Zoho work drive window in both the online and writer application. However I can open the folder in

• Add RTL and Hebrew Support for Candidate Portal (and Other Zoho Recruit Portals)

  Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to set the Candidate Portal to be Right-to-Left (RTL) and in Hebrew, similar to the existing functionality for the Career Site. Currently, when we set the Career Site

• Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

  We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will

• Zoho Books' 2025 Wrapped

  Before we turn the page to a new year, it’s time to revisit the updates that made financial management simpler and more intuitive. This annual roundup brings together the most impactful features and enhancements we delivered in 2025, offering a clear

• Can multiple agents be assigned to one ticket on purpose?

  Is it possible to assign one ticket to two or more agents at a time? I would like the option to have multiple people working on one ticket so that the same ticket is viewable for those agents on their list of pending tickets. Is something like this currently

• Edit default "We are here to help you" text in chat SalesIQ widget

  Does anyone know how this text can be edited? I can't find it anywhere in settings. Thanks!

• Can't change form's original name in URL

  Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

• Feature Request: Sync Leave Tracker to Zoho Mail / Calendar or provide option to download information

  Zoho Leave Tracker offers the option to sync the leave Calendar to Microsoft 365 and Google Calendar. Adding an option to sync to Zoho-Mail Calendar would avoid duplication and add significant value for users. An alternative would be to allow users to

• Compensation | Salary Packages - Hourly Wage Needed

  The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says 55.7% of all workers in the US are paid by the hour. I don't know how that compares to the rest of the world, but I would think that this alone would justify the need for having an hourly-based salary package option.

• Multiple currencies - doesn’t seem to work for site visitors / customers

  I am trying to understand how the multiple currency feature works from the perspective of the website visitor who is shopping on my Zoho Commerce site. My site’s base currency is US Dollars (USD) but my store is for customers in Costa Rica and I would

• Archiving Contacts

  How do I archive a list of contacts, or individual contacts?

• Next Page