SMS text alerts for billing OR add declined payment alert to zapier
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
We need a way to send SMS alerts to clients, when their billing fails. in 2025, majority of people do not check their emails, nor want to talk on the phone/answer a random phone number (i'm the same way and much rather read a text later on).
Previously, while using chargebee-We were able to build a ZAP in zapier, that sent a SMS text alert to clients when their chargebee billing failed, through a sms app called CLICKSEND (see attached). This worked perfectly, because clients would contact us almost immediately or they would at least notice a text, much faster than email alerts (that are probably sent to spam or a inbox with over 100+ unread emails).
As of today, we use the self checkout feature (which sadly does not support chargebee payment plans as of now), so we lost access to our billing sms alerts, because we are forced to use CRC Billing for now. We can not build a zap for declined billing now, because CRC Billing is not in zapier AND CRC does not have a "payment declined" trigger in Zapier. I also searched Coastal Pay and NMI in Zapier (since these are the merchant/gateway for CRC Billing) and also found nothing!
Answers to Keenan's Questions, that i'm sure he will ask:
- Why is SMS alerts important? Clients are more likely to see a text, instead of emails.
- How would SMS alerts be setup? Either CRC could build this within their software OR add a "declined payment" trigger/alert to zapier, so we can build our own zap as described in my request above, using 3rd party apps, such as CLICKSEND.
- What should the SMS say? Something in the lines of: "Your recent payment for (insert company name) has declined, please contact us to update your billing, etc"
- How often should a SMS be sent? Each time a payment declines, even during dunning.
- What benefit would this have on business? We have seen a decline in clients updating billing, since we were forced to use CRC Billing. When we had chargebee and was able to build a zap for SMS alerts, we recovered double the amount of payments.
K
Keenan Jones
Great to hear your perspective, Stirgus CreditRepair! I have a few more questions for you:
- What specific SMS service providers do you recommend integrating with for sending alerts?
- Are there any compliance or privacy concerns we should be aware of when sending SMS alerts?
- Would you prefer a built-in SMS alert feature or more flexibility with third-party integrations?
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
Keenan Jones
- I have used CLICKSEND for years and it's very affordable and easy to use.
- As far as compliance, these alerts are only sent to ENROLLED clients who give us authorization to text them. I do not use SMS for any other reason, so that don't affect me.
- Due to other weird compliance, i'm sure it's easier to allow CRC Billing to work with zapier or CRC add a "failed payment" trigger to zapier and allow us to use our own third-party provider. That way, this doesn't cost CRC anything extra and eliminate any sms issues within the software.