💵 Clients4.6GHL

Failed Payments

Recovers failed payments over five days with escalating emails and SMS, restoring recovered accounts and escalating unpaid ones to the team.

1 trigger 27 steps Advanced

What it does

When a payment fails, this automation launches a structured multi-branch recovery sequence. Across several conditional paths it handles first, second, third, and final attempt scenarios — each branch delivering a progressively escalating series of emails and SMS messages prompting the client to update their payment details. Wait steps are placed between each attempt to give the client time to act before the next message fires. Branches handle both successful recovery and final non-payment outcomes, ensuring every scenario has a defined next action rather than falling into a manual queue.

The value

Failed payments are silent revenue leaks — most businesses don't have a systematic way to recover them, so they either lose the client entirely or spend hours manually chasing. This automation recovers revenue that would otherwise be lost, automatically and professionally. The escalating sequence applies the right amount of urgency at each stage without damaging the client relationship. Every dollar recovered through this automation is pure margin — no additional acquisition cost, no new sales effort required.

Where it fits

This sits within the client retention layer — it's the financial safety net that protects MRR from payment failures and card declines. For any business on a recurring revenue model, failed payment recovery is one of the highest-ROI automations in the entire system. Industry benchmarks suggest 20–40% of failed payments can be recovered through a structured dunning sequence — making this automation a direct, measurable contributor to monthly revenue protection.

Overall purpose

Automatically recover failed payments by updating the customer's CRM status, notifying the internal team, sending daily payment reminders, checking for successful payment, and escalating unpaid accounts after five days.

The build — trigger → steps

Triggerentry point

Payment Failed

Payment Status = FailedProduct = Configured Product

Move Opportunity
Action
Move Opportunity · Failed Payment Stage
Remove Contact Tag
Action
Remove Contact Tag · payment made
Add Contact Tag
Action
Add Contact Tag · payment failed
Internal Notification
Notify
Internal Notification · Title: {{contact.name}} - Payment Failed!
Notify the assigned team member that a customer's payment has failed.
Slack Notification
Notify
Slack Notification
Notify the team of the failed payment.; Slack integration is currently a placeholder.
Failed Payment Email #1
Email
Subject: Oops! There Seems to be a Hiccup 🤖
Failed Payment SMS #1
SMS
Send SMS
Wait — 1 Day
Wait
Time-Based Wait · 1 Day
Payment Check — Day 1
If / Else
If Payment Status = Succeeded
If received: remove 'payment failed' tag, add 'payment made' tag, move opportunity to Active Customer Stage, then end. If not received: continue the sequence.
Failed Payment Email #2
Email
Send Email
Failed Payment SMS #2
SMS
Send SMS
Wait — 1 Day
Wait
Time-Based Wait · 1 Day
Payment Check — Day 2
If / Else
If Payment Status = Succeeded
If received: restore tags and move opportunity to Active Customer Stage, then end. If not received: continue the sequence.
Failed Payment Email #3
Email
Send Email
Failed Payment SMS #3
SMS
Send SMS
Wait — 1 Day
Wait
Time-Based Wait · 1 Day
Payment Check — Day 3
If / Else
If Payment Status = Succeeded
If received: restore tags and move opportunity to Active Customer Stage, then end. If not received: continue the sequence.
Failed Payment Email #4
Email
Send Email
Failed Payment SMS #4
SMS
Send SMS
Wait — 1 Day
Wait
Time-Based Wait · 1 Day
Payment Check — Day 4
If / Else
If Payment Status = Succeeded
If received: restore tags and move opportunity to Active Customer Stage, then end. If not received: continue the sequence.
Failed Payment Email #5
Email
Send Email
Failed Payment SMS #5
SMS
Send SMS
Wait — 1 Day
Wait
Time-Based Wait · 1 Day
Payment Check — Day 5
If / Else
If Payment Status = Succeeded
If received: restore tags and move opportunity to Active Customer Stage, then end. If not received: escalate to the team for manual follow-up.
Internal Escalation Notification
Notify
Internal Notification · Title: {{contact.name}} - Payment is Outstanding!
Notify the assigned team member that payment has remained outstanding for five days.; Include the customer's contact details for manual follow-up.
Slack Notification
Notify
Slack Notification
Escalate the overdue payment to the team.; Slack integration is currently a placeholder.

paymentsdunningrecoveryretentionemailsms