Recovery Methods
Every recovered payment is attributed to exactly one recovery method: the Churnkey touchpoint that caused the customer to pay. This page explains each method. The same explanations appear in your Payment Recovery dashboard when you hover over a method's value.
The methods at a glance
| Method | What it means |
|---|---|
| Emails | The customer clicked through a Churnkey recovery email and completed payment. |
| SMS | The customer clicked through a Churnkey recovery text message and completed payment. |
| Retries | An automatic card retry succeeded. This includes Precision Retries scheduled on high-success days and auto retries run before each email. |
| Payment Wall | The customer updated their card and paid through the in-app Failed Payment Wall. |
| Assisted | Churnkey drove the recovery, but not through one of its own campaign surfaces. Two cases: the customer saved a new payment method on the Recovery Flow and the invoice settled shortly after, or the customer paid on a link you generated yourself with the Recovery Link API. |
| Other | The payment was recovered with no identifiable Churnkey touchpoint. For example, the customer paid the invoice directly with your billing provider, or a provider-side retry succeeded. |
How attribution works
When a failed payment is recovered, Churnkey looks for the touchpoint that caused it, in priority order: a recovery email or SMS the customer was actively responding to, a Payment Wall payment, a successful retry, and then an Assisted card save or recovery link payment. Only if none of these apply does the recovery fall into Other.
Assisted recovery, explained
Most recoveries settle in the same session: the customer updates their card on the Payment Wall or Recovery Flow and the invoice is paid right then. Sometimes the card save and the payment are separated in time:
- A customer's payment fails and a recovery campaign starts.
- The customer opens the Recovery Flow, from an email or SMS, and saves a new payment method, but the charge doesn't complete in that session. The payment settles later, often on the next automatic retry against the new card.
- Days later, the invoice is paid and the campaign is recovered.
Without Assisted attribution, that recovery would land in Other, even though it only happened because the customer updated their card through Churnkey. The Assisted method captures these cases: a card saved through a Churnkey surface during the campaign, followed by the invoice settling.
Payments on a recovery link you generated yourself are counted as Assisted as well, for a different reason: the charge does complete in that session, but it happens on a link you placed in your own product rather than on a Churnkey campaign touchpoint. See the Recovery Link API.
What lands in Other
Other is reserved for recoveries Churnkey can't take credit for:
- The customer paid the outstanding invoice directly with your billing provider.
- A retry initiated outside Churnkey succeeded (for example, your payment provider's own smart retries).
- The customer resolved the failure some other way, with no Churnkey touchpoint we can identify.
A large Other share isn't necessarily a problem, but it can mean recovery features like Precision Retries or the Failed Payment Wall aren't enabled. Reach out to [email protected] and we'll help you read your breakdown.