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

• MCP no longer works with Claude

  Anyone else notice Zoho MCP no longer works with Claude? I'm unable to turn this on in the claude chat. When I try to toggle it on, it just does nothing at all. I've tried in incognito, new browsers, etc. - nothing seems to work.

• Enable History Tracking for Picklist Values Not Available

  When I create a custom picklist field in Deals, the "Enable History Tracking for Picklist Values" option is not available in the Edit Properties area of the picklist. When I create a picklist in any other Module, that option is available. Is there a specific reason why this isn't available for fields in the Deals Module?

• The reason I switched away from Zoho Notebook

  My main reason for switching to Zoho was driven by three core principles: moving away from US-based products, keeping my data within India as much as possible, and supporting Indian companies. With that intent, I’ve been actively de-Googling my digital

• 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

• Ability to Edit YouTube Video Title, Description & Thumbnail After Publishing

  Hi Zoho Social Team, How are you? We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Social that enables users to edit YouTube video details after the video has already been published. Your team confirmed that while Zoho Social currently allows editing the

• Free Webinar : Unlock AI driven business insights with Zoho Inventory + Zoho Analytics

  Are you tired of switching between apps and exporting data to build customized reports? Say hello to smarter & streamlined insights! Join us for this exclusive webinar where we explore the power of the Zoho Inventory–Zoho Analytics integration. Learn

• Critical Issue: Tickets Opened for Zoho Support via the Zoho Help Portal Were Not Processed

  Hi everyone, We want to bring to your attention a serious issue we’ve experienced with the Zoho support Help Portal. For more than a week, tickets submitted directly via the Help Portal were not being handled at all. At the same time no alert was posted

• Hide/Show Subform Fields On User Input

  Hello, Are there any future updates in Hide/Show Subform Fields "On User Input"?

• Cloning Item With Images Or The Option With Images

  Hello, when I clone an item, I expect the images to carry over to the cloned item, however this is not the case in Inventory. Please make it possible for the images to get cloned or at least can we get a pop up asking if we want to clone the images as

• Archiving Contacts

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

• WorkDrive and CRM not in sync

  1/ There is a CRM file upload field with WorkDrive file set as the source: 2/ Then the file is renamed in WorkDrive (outside CRM): 3/ The File in CRM is not synced after the change in WorkDrive; the file name (reference) in CRM record is not updated (here

• Custom validation in CRM schema

  Validation rules in CRM layouts work nicely, good docs by @Kiran Karthik P https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/validation-rules/articles/create-validation-rules I'd prefer validating data input 'closer to the schema'

• Adding Default Module Image into mail merge field

  As with most people finding their way to these forums i have a specific requirement that doesn't seem to be supported by Zoho I have created 2 custom modules to suit my purpose 1 is an inventory type module that lists aluminium extrusions, and all relevant

• Sync Data from MA to CRM

  Currently, it's a one-way sync of data from the CRM to MA. I believe we should have the ability to select fields to sync from MA to the CRM. The lead score is a perfect example of this. In an ideal world we would be able to impact the lead score of a

• Is it possible to roll up all Contact emails to the Account view?

  Is there a way to track all emails associated with an Account in one single view? Currently, email history is visible when opening an individual Contact record. However, since multiple Contacts are often associated with a single Account, it would be beneficial

• Update CRM record action

  Currently, MA only offers a "Push Data" action to push data to a CRM module. This action is built to cover the need to both create a new record and update an existing record. Because it has been implemented this way all required fields on the CRM module

• Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

  Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

• Free Training - Explore What’s New in Zoho One 2025

  Greetings! We hope you have all had a chance by now to get hands-on with the new features and updates released as part of ZO25. Yes, we understand that you may have questions and feedback. To ensure you gain a comprehensive understanding of these updates,

• Good news! Calendar in Zoho CRM gets a face lift

  Dear Customers, We are delighted to unveil the revamped calendar UI in Zoho CRM. With a complete visual overhaul aligned with CRM for Everyone, the calendar now offers a more intuitive and flexible scheduling experience. What’s new? Distinguish activities

• 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!

• Quick way to add a field in Chat Window

  I want to add Company Field in chat window to lessen the irrelevant users in sending chat and set them in mind that we are dealing with companies. I request that it will be as easy as possible like just ticking it then typing the label then connecting

• How to create a two way Sync with CRM Contacts Module?

  Newbie creator here (but not to Zoho CRM). I want to create an app that operates on a sub-set of CRM Contacts - only those with a specific tag. I want the app records to mirror the tagged contacts in CRM. I would like it to update when the Creator app

• Zoho Sheet for Desktop

  Does Zoho plans to develop a Desktop version of Sheet that installs on the computer like was done with Writer?

• Where is the settings option in zoho writer?

  hi, my zoho writer on windows has menu fonts too large. where do i find the settings to change this option? my screen resolution is correct and other apps/softwares in windows have no issues. regards

• How to set page defaults in zoho writer?

  hi, everytime i open the zoho writer i have to change the default page settings to - A4 from letter, margins to narrow and header and footer to 0. I cannot set this as default as that option is grayed out! so I am unable to click it. I saved the document

• Develop and publish a Zoho Recruit extension on the marketplace

  Hi, I'd like to develop a new extension for Zoho Recruit. I've started to use Zoho Developers creating a Zoho CRM extension. But when I try to create a new extension here https://sigma.zoho.com/workspace/testtesttestest/apps/new I d'ont see the option of Zoho Recruit (only CRM, Desk, Projects...). I do see extensions for Zoho Recruit in the marketplace. How would I go about to create one if the option is not available in sigma ? Cheers, Rémi.

• How to import data from PDF into Zoho Sheet

  I am looking to import Consolidated Account Statement (https://www.camsonline.com/Investors/Statements/Consolidated-Account-Statement) into zoho sheet. Any help is appreciated. The pdf is received as attachment in the email, this document is password

• Zoho Projects Android app: Integration with Microsoft Intune

  Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce that Zoho Projects now integrates with Microsoft Intune, enabling enhanced security and enterprise app management. We have now added support for Microsoft Intune Mobile Application Management (MAM) policies through

• Cant't update custom field when custom field is external lookup in Zoho Books

  Hello I use that : po = zoho.books.updateRecord("purchaseorders",XXXX,purchaseorder_id,updateCustomFieldseMap,"el_books_connection"); c_f_Map2 = Map(); c_f_Map2.put("label","EL ORDER ID"); c_f_Map2.put("value",el_order_id); c_f_List.add(c_f_Map2); updateCustomFieldseMap

• About Zoneminder (CCTV) and Zoho People

  Hi team I would like to implement a CCTV service for our branches, with the aim of passively detecting both the entry and exit of personnel enrolled in Zoho Peeple, but my question is: It is possible to integrate Zoho People with Zoneminder, I understand

• Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

  Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,

• Create CRM Deal from Books Quote and Auto Update Deal Stage

  I want to set up an automation where, whenever a Quote is created in Zoho Books, a Deal is automatically created in Zoho CRM with the Quote amount, customer details, and some custom fields from Zoho Books. Additionally, when the Sales Order is converted

• How to show branch instead of org name on invoice template?

  Not sure why invoices are showing the org name not the branch name? I can insert the branch name using the ${ORGANIZATION.BRANCHNAME} placeholder, but then it isn't bold text anymore. Any other ideas?

• Admin asked me for Backend Details when I wanted to verify my ZeptoMail Account

  Please provide the backend details where you will be adding the SMTP/API information of ZeptoMail Who knows what this means?

• Kaizen #223 - File Manager in CRM Widget Using ZRC Methods

  Hello, CRM Wizards! Here is what we are improving this week with Kaizen. we will explore the new ZRC (Zoho Request Client) introduced in Widget SDK v1.5, and learn how to use it to build a Related List Widget that integrates with Zoho WorkDrive. It helps

• Set connection link name from variable in invokeurl

  Hi, guys. How to set in parameter "connection" a variable, instead of a string. connectionLinkName = manager.get('connectionLinkName').toString(); response = invokeurl [ url :"https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/freeBusy" type :POST parameters:requestParams.toString()

• Possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox with Zoho Creator's Sandbox?

  We are making some big changes on our CRM so we are testing it out in CRM's Sandbox. We also have a Zoho Creator app that we need to test. Is it possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox to Zoho Creator's Sandbox so that I can perform those tests?

• I Need Help Verifying Ownership of My Zoho Help Desk on Google Search Console

  I added my Zoho desk portal to Google Search Console, but since i do not have access to the html code of my theme, i could not verify ownership of my portal on Google search console. I want you to help me place the html code given to me from Google search

• Timeline Tracker

  Hi Team, I am currently using Zoho Creator – Blueprint Workflows, and I would like to know if there is a way to track a timeline of the approval process within a Blueprint. Specifically, I am looking for details such as: Who submitted the record Who clicked

• Primary / Other Billing Contacts

  If you add an additional contact to a Zoho Billing Customer record, and then mark this new contact as the primary contact, will both the new primary and old primary still receive notifications? Can you stop notifications from going to the additional contacts

• Next Page