I built a full end-to-end dunning system that turned involuntary churn from a major revenue leak into a predictable, highly recoverable process. Over 6 months, the setup delivered:

68% drop in involuntary churn (2.5% → 0.8%)

75% payment recovery rate (up from 30%)

3x faster recovery time (18 days → 6 days)

$8.2k in recovered MRR every month (~$98k/yr)

32% backup-card adoption, significantly reducing future failures

I paired smart technical retries (6 optimized retries over 15 days, webhook-triggered logic, front-loaded timing) with empathetic multi-channel communication (email + SMS + in-app + human support escalation). This ensured we caught quick wins early, helped customers gracefully through complex issues, and protected revenue long-term.

A major win was introducing a backup payment method on Day 3, which became a game-changer. One in three customers adopted it, cutting future failures by 40% for those users.

The flow ends with a soft pause instead of immediate cancellation, preserving data for 30 days and giving customers a low-friction path to reactivate. Even after cancellation, I added a 20% win-back offer with a 30-day reactivation window.

Overall, this system didn't just fix failed payments, it built a recovery engine that protects revenue, improves customer experience, and compounds value month after month