As a business owner, it’s not uncommon to put your regular customers on a recurring billing schedule. Doing so allows you to easily accept payments in the future — without requiring your customers to re-enter their credit card data with each transaction.
Over time, however, your customers’ payment information can change — often without warning — due to:
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Expired credit cards
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Lost or stolen plastic
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Account upgrades
- Address or name changes
The next time you try to run a transaction, that sale will be declined. To run that transaction a second time, you’ll need to contact that customer and request his or her most up-to-date payment info.
Because of this extra step:
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You might lose a customer relationship.
- You’ll definitely lose time.
However, it’s possible to avoid this unnecessary friction by using an account updater service.
How Account Updater Can Save the Sale
Account Updater works behind the scenes to verify that your customers’ stored payment data matches what Visa, Mastercard and the other credit card brands have on file.
This verification process runs periodically to ensure that both sets of records remain in sync. Whenever discrepancies occur, Account Updater automatically “updates” the information in your payment gateway and instantly alerts you to this most recent change.
The next time your recurring billing customers are charged, the transaction goes through without a hitch.
For a brief overview of the different verification steps involved, be sure to check out this infographic.
What Are the Main Benefits of an Account Updater Service?
Account Updater is useful for any business that offers:
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Subscription-based services
- Loyalty programs.
With this feature enabled, the payments keep coming in like clockwork — without you having to manually resolve declined transactions. This makes customer retention significantly easier.
However, your customers also benefit from account updater technology. It reduces the risk of disruption to their regularly scheduled service. This makes for a much more streamlined customer relationship.
Making Account Updater Technology Work for You
Equipping your payment gateway with an account updater is a great way to:
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Improve customer retention
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Receive payments on time
- Reduce PCI scope
Having a fully automated system eliminates the need for manual updating. You and your staff can spend more time expanding your customer base rather than making calls to obtain new credit card information. Additionally, this reduces your PCI scope by decreasing your contact with actual payment data.
This valuable information was provided by our partner, BluePay. Integrated directly within our software, BluePay’s fast, easy, and secure payment processing solutions are guaranteed to fit the needs of your business.
