Recovery Rule Templates
Pre-built recovery strategies for SaaS, eCommerce, and media businesses.
Recovery rule templates are pre-configured retry strategies designed for specific business models. Instead of building retry rules from scratch, you can select a template that matches your industry and start recovering failed payments immediately.
Each template defines retry count, timing intervals, communication tone, escalation behavior, and terminal window -- all tuned to the payment patterns typical of that business type.
Available Templates
SaaS (Gentle)
Optimized for subscription software businesses where customer relationships are long-term and payment failures are often temporary (e.g., expired cards, insufficient funds after a billing cycle change).
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Max retries | 4 |
| Retry intervals | 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days |
| Communication tone | Empathetic |
| Auto-escalate to dunning | Yes |
| Terminal window | 30 days |
This template spaces retries gently to avoid alarming customers. The empathetic tone in dunning messages acknowledges that payment issues happen and offers help rather than urgency. After 30 days without recovery, the subscription is marked terminal.
The SaaS template is the default for new merchants. It works well for most B2B and B2C subscription businesses.
eCommerce (Aggressive)
Designed for online retail and marketplace businesses where failed payments on orders need fast resolution. The shorter intervals and urgent tone reflect the time-sensitive nature of order fulfillment.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Max retries | 6 |
| Retry intervals | 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days |
| Communication tone | Urgent |
| Auto-escalate to dunning | Yes |
| Terminal window | 14 days |
The first retry happens just 4 hours after the initial failure, catching transient issues quickly. Six total retries with escalating intervals give more chances to recover before the shorter 14-day terminal window closes.
Media & Publishing (Balanced)
Suited for digital media, news, and publishing subscriptions where churn sensitivity is moderate and readers may need extra time to update payment details.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Max retries | 4 |
| Retry intervals | 2 days, 4 days, 6 days, 8 days |
| Communication tone | Professional |
| Auto-escalate to dunning | No |
| Terminal window | 30 days |
This template uses evenly spaced 2-day intervals and a professional tone. Auto-escalation is disabled by default, giving you more control over when dunning emails are sent. You can enable it after selecting the template.
Selecting a Template
- Navigate to Settings → Recovery Rules
- Click the Templates button in the top-right corner
- Browse available templates and review their settings
- Click Apply Template on your preferred strategy
- Confirm the selection -- this will replace your current recovery rules
Applying a template replaces all existing recovery rules. If you have customized rules, consider exporting them first. In-progress recoveries will continue using the rules that were active when they started.
Customizing After Selection
Templates are a starting point, not a locked configuration. After applying a template, you can override any setting:
- Adjust retry intervals -- add, remove, or change the delay between retries
- Change the communication tone -- switch between empathetic, professional, and urgent
- Toggle auto-escalation -- enable or disable automatic dunning enrollment
- Modify the terminal window -- extend or shorten the recovery deadline
- Set per-decline-code overrides -- apply different rules for specific decline codes (e.g., shorter intervals for
insufficient_funds)
Changes take effect for new recovery attempts. Existing in-progress recoveries continue with their original rules.
A/B Testing Templates
You can run two templates side-by-side to find your optimal recovery strategy:
- Go to Settings → Recovery Rules → A/B Test
- Select two templates (e.g., SaaS vs. eCommerce)
- Set the traffic split (e.g., 50/50 or 70/30)
- Define the test duration (minimum 14 days recommended)
- Launch the test
LostChurn randomly assigns each new recovery attempt to one of the two strategies and tracks recovery rate, time-to-recovery, and revenue recovered for each group. After the test concludes, review results in Analytics → A/B Tests and promote the winning strategy.
A/B testing requires at least 100 recovery attempts per group for statistically significant results. For lower-volume merchants, extend the test duration to accumulate enough data.
When to Use Custom Rules
Templates cover the most common scenarios, but you may need fully custom rules when:
- Your business spans multiple models -- e.g., a SaaS product with an eCommerce add-on store
- You have specific PSP requirements -- some payment processors have rate limits that demand longer cooldown periods
- Your customer base has unique payment patterns -- e.g., payroll-cycle-dependent B2B customers
- Regulatory requirements dictate specific retry timing or communication rules in your region
To build custom rules, go to Settings → Recovery Rules → Custom and configure each parameter individually. See Retry Strategies for details on how each setting affects recovery behavior.
Next Steps
- Retry Strategies -- deep dive into how retry timing and scoring work
- Decline Categories -- understand which decline codes are eligible for retry
- Recovery States -- follow the full recovery state machine
- Quick Setup Wizard -- configure recovery rules as part of the guided setup