Change Error Message to give customers clarity

Change Error Message to give customers clarity

Zoho,

When a customer tries to sign up through a hosted payment page and their credit card gets declined, they get the most ambiguous message:  "There was a problem processing the request. Please try again later or contact us at {admin email address} for further assistance."

We have only started using Zoho Subscriptions last week in production and have had multiple customers email and call us asking us why there is a "technical error" on this page. We had to explain that their credit card was declined. They thought the error message meant that there was an issue on our end/server. We had to explain to them that this is not the case.

Here are the issues that we see with the message as it is presented to customers:

1. Ambiguity of the Problem: The message doesn't inform the customer that the issue was specifically related to their credit card being declined. Instead, it only says that there was a problem processing the request, which could mean anything from a server error to a problem with their personal information.

2. Lack of Guidance: The instruction to "try again later" may not be helpful since the problem may persist if it's related to the credit card itself. If the card is being declined, trying again later likely won't resolve the issue. Also we use API to generate hosted payment page, so they can't access that page more than an hour later.

3.Increase in Customer Support Queries: Without a clear explanation, customers will end up contacting our support team unnecessarily, putting more strain on my support resources.

4. Loss of Trust: A lack of transparency might lead some customers to feel that the process is untrustworthy or unreliable.

Can you please update this error with specific details about the issue and guide the user on what steps to take next? Here's an example:

"Unfortunately, we were unable to process your request due to an issue with the credit card information provided. Please double-check your card details and try again. If the problem persists, contact us at {admin email address}, and we will be happy to assist you."

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