Managing Subscriptions

 

 

The Subscriptions module in your DermPRO store allows you to easily manage Memberships and/or Product Auto-Replenishment. Orders are automatically triggered at the appropriate times, and you will receive copies of the Order Confirmation emails just as if an order was manually submitted.

For management of existing subscriptions, both the patient and office staff have the ability to update subscription details such as frequency of delivery, addresses, payment method, shipping option, pause or cancel the subscription, and more, depending on the type of subscription it is and the terms of the membership or replenishment.

Managing subscriptions is the practice's responsibility.  The primary tasks that you will perform in Shop Manager associated with subscriptions are:  (1) reviewing Membership Status for membership subscriptions, and (2) managing payment failures for all subscription types. An email is sent to the patient and to the office whenever a payment fails, alerting the patient to update their payment method, and alerting the office to reactivate and retry the missed payment. There is more detailed information about payment failures later in this article.

 

The following video offers an introduction on how subscriptions work on your storefront.

 

 

 

 

How do I know if an order has a subscription?

There are two ways to determine if an order has a subscription.

1) In the order information screen, under the line item in the list of purchased items, there will be a periodicity listed. In the below example, you can see “Auto-Replenish and Save 5%: Every Month.”

 

 

2) If there is a subscription on the order, it will also create a subscription which can be seen in Shop Manager under Sales > Subscriptions. Each time a subscription is triggered for payment, it will generate an order unless the payment fails.

 

 

 

What can my staff view or change on a subscription?

Under Sales > Subscriptions the Subscriptions Grid will show you the following items:

• ID – the subscription id generated by the system.
• Description – Name of the item on subscription.
• Status – shows the current status of the subscription.

            o Active – This means the subscription is active, and they can see the frequency and the date of the Last Run and the Next Run.

            o Canceled – This means the subscription has been canceled.

            o Payment Failed – This means the subscription is still active, but they need to update their payment method.

            o Paused – This means the subscription is temporarily on hold, either at the request of the patient or the office.

• Firstname – first name of the subscriber.
• Lastname – last name of the subscriber.
• Created – the date the subscription was created.
• Last Run – the date the subscription last processed.
• Next Run – the date the subscription will process next.
• Times Billed – how many orders have been billed.
• Subtotal – a total of the subscription before shipping and tax.
• View – Click to view the subscription in further detail.

 

 

What changes can our office make to a customer’s subscription?

It is not typical that you will make changes to a subscription. Generally, the most common activity for managing subscriptions is to "Reactivate" and "Bill Now" when you have a subscription that has failed a payment.  However, there are many options to edit a customer’s subscription as described below.

From the DETAILS TAB:

• Cancel – allows you to cancel the subscription permanently.
• Pause – allows you to put a subscription on hold temporarily. To remove the pause, you should Reactivate the subscription and adjust the payment date as needed. You may also “Bill Now” if desired to release any pending payments.
• Bill Now – this will generate an immediate order as long as the payment method on file is successful.
• Reactivate (If Present) – this will allow you to reactivate the subscription.  Be sure to adjust the date if necessary or Bill Now if you want to immediately process an order.
• Skip – this will allow you to skip one full payment. 
• Description – this will allow you to update the name of the subscription item if needed.*
• Next Run – this will allow you to adjust the date of the next payment.*
• Frequency – this will allow you to adjust the frequency of billing to any option desired. It does not have to be something that you offer on the front end of your store for customers to choose from.*
• Length – this will be shown if you have a close-ended subscription (eg. 12 monthly payments that stop instead of renew.) You can also adjust this if someone needs to cancel after a future billing cycle. You would place the # of cycles that you want to process. For example, if the customer wants to experience 1 more cycle, you can place a 1 in the Length field and the system will generate 1 more billing and then cancel.*
• Notes – this is used to save notes about changes, anomalies, or events associated with the subscription. It's a good idea to add notes if the subscription missed some payments which were caught up either in-office or at a later date. For example, if a subscription had been failing and the patient gave you a card which your staff charged while they were in the office, you might make a note, "The Feb 2023 payment was charged in-office."

 

 

From the PAYMENT TAB you may make the following changes:

 

• Payment Account – allows you to switch between payment methods that are already stored on a customer’s account.  Please note that the customer is required to update their payment method. You may also save a credit card to the customer's account if you have the card information. Use the "Log In As Customer" button from the customer's account details in Shop Manager.

 

 

From the SHIPPING TAB you may make the following changes (Product Subscriptions Only):

 

• Shipping Method – allows you to switch between in office pickup or any shipping methods available on your store.
• Shipping Address – allows you to switch between customer’s stored shipping addresses, or add another one if needed.

The HISTORY TAB shows any activity for the subscription, including changes or orders.

 

 

 

What happens if a payment fails?

Payment Failure is the primary activity that requires your intervention in managing a subscription. When a payment fails, an order is attempted at the appointed time, but the order is not able to be created due to the payment failure. Instead, both the customer and your office staff (the recipient email is configured in Shop Manager > Settings > Store Configurations > Store Emails > Receiving Emails) will receive a notification that the payment has failed. It then becomes the customer’s responsibility to update their card information, and your responsibility to Reactivate the subscription and ensure the payments are back on track.

You will want to look for the patient to have updated their payment method, and you will reactivate and bill the subscription after they have. In many cases, however, the payment failure may have been due to the card not having available balance, and often when you reactivate and try billing a few days later, the payment will be successful even if the patient hasn't saved a new card to their account.

 

How do I know if a customer has updated their card information? What should I do if they don’t update their card information?

 

 

 

 

1. You can look in the History tab of the subscription to see if the customer updated their payment method. This is the easiest method. (example shown above)
2. You can monitor your Merchant Account for an indication that the customer has saved a new payment method. If your store's merchant account is BluePay/CloverConnect, you will see an AUTH transaction when a new credit card is saved to a store account.
3. You can check under the “Payment” tab of the subscription to see if there is indeed a new card that has been added to the customer’s account. If yes, and the customer did not apply the new card to the subscription, then you may toggle to the new payment method.
4. You can ask the customer to update their store account. If you have not heard from the customer and you also don’t see either of the above on the customer’s account we recommend that you proactively contact the patient to have them update this information in their store account.
5. You can ask the customer to provide you with the new card info. Use the "Log In As Customer" function from Shop Manager Customer account details and save the new credit card to their account on their behalf. 

 

 

What should I do when a payment fails?

 

1. Locate the customer’s subscription by going to Sales > Subscriptions.  Locate the customer’s subscription and click “View.”
2. Check the Next Run date and set it to a date in the future if it isn't already.
3. Click “Reactivate” from the top right-hand side of the screen.
4. Once you have reactivated the subscription, click “Bill Now” in the top right-hand side of the screen to process the missed payment. This will immediately generate an order, provided that a new payment method has been applied or the old payment method is now billing successfully. If you already charged the missed payment—perhaps while the patient was in the office—you can skip this step and proceed to step 4.
5. After charging the missed payment, review the payment dates and periodicity of the subscription, and enter the proper Next Run date to reflect the next time that the subscription should be billed. If you need to adjust the Next Run date you may do so from the details tab. 

 

 

Keeping Track of Membership Subscriptions Status

When you have Memberships that incorporate services that you will be providing to patients, it is very important that your staff checks the status of the member's Subscription when the patient comes into the office for treatments.  As mentioned in this article, it's common for a subscription to be in Payment Failed status, or even to have been paused or canceled by the patient. It is the practice's responsibility to manage subscriptions, keep them active, and check subscription status before delivering products or services benefits to patients who are members.