The Numbers Guy looks at the Daily Retry Feature in SiteWatch® ARM®.

Over 72% of monthly pass customer credit cards that were declined on the first try are successfully recharged, resulting in $7,278 of "rescued revenue" for this carwash.

The Quick Overview:

Like all carwashes that automatically recharge passes, this East Coast full-service has its share of credit cards rejected every month. Rejections may happen because a card has expired, the customer has exceeded the credit limit, or the bank has issued a security hold. When monthly pass customer credit cards fail to clear on the first try, the owner of this full-service uses SiteWatch ARM to retry them automatically for 14 days.

In October 2008, when the Numbers Guy put this wash through his data cruncher, 5.8% of its monthly pass customer credit cards failed to recharge on the first try. This represented a loss of 241 customers. However, the wash’s owner uses the SiteWatch ARM Retry Feature to retry credit cards multiple times over a 14 day period. As a result, 174 of the rejected cards were eventually cleared; allowing the wash to retain 72.2% of the pass customers that otherwise would have been lost. This resulted in $7,278 of “rescued revenue” that the wash earned from recharging cards that were initially rejected. .

Here Are The Numbers:
Wash Profile Two Full-Service Sites
on the East Coast
Length of Time Offering Monthly
Passes		 Close to 3 Years

Number of Active
Pass Holders

 4,155
Recharge Method Passes Recharged First Day
of Every Month
Type of Plan Unlimited
Monthly
Number of Credit Cards
Rejected On First Attempt		 241
(5.8% of total)
Number of Rejected Cards
Accepted After 4 Days of Retrying		 104
% of Rejected Cards Accepted
After 4 Days of Retrying		 43.2%
Number of Rejected Cards Accepted
From 5-14 Days of Retrying		 70
% of Rejected Cards Accepted
From 5-14 Days of Retrying		 29%
Total Number of Rejected
Cards Accepted		 174
% of Rejected Cards
Ultimately Accepted		 72.2%
Total Number of Cards Ultimately
Rejected After All Retries		 67
% of Rejected Cards
Ultimately Rejected		 1.6%
   

The Bottom Line From The Numbers Guy:

There are many reasons why a monthly pass customer’s card will fail to be approved the first time. Many of them have nothing to do with the customer’s willingness or ability to pay for membership in the pass plan. Carwash operators who do not retry credit cards after they have been rejected the first time are missing an opportunity to retain valuable customers. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the wash in our study was able to retain almost 3 out of 4 of its pass customers by retrying cards over a 14 day period.

Another point we can infer from this study is that it pays to retry cards repeatedly, rather than just once. Although the wash in our study recaptured most of its customers in the first four days, a good share (29%) of rejected credit cards were finally approved after 5 to 14 days of trying.

It’s important to keep in mind that during the 14 day retry period, our study carwash allowed customers with rejected cards to continue using their club plans. This avoided negative customer relations; you do not want to be in a position of recharging a customer’s credit card the day after he or she was prevented from using the monthly pass plan because a credit card was rejected. By retrying cards, the wash is also performing a valuable service for its customers, who may not realize the credit card they have on file is out of date or otherwise invalid, and want to continue enjoying the benefits of having a monthly pass.

The SiteWatch Automatic Recharge Module has a Retry Feature that allows you to retry credit cards automatically after they’ve been rejected. This feature is simple to set up. You can set the parameters for the number of times a card is retried, how often it is retried and when it is finally canceled.