We’re excited to announce a major upgrade to the Smile Advantage platform: Automated Billing & Renewals. This feature eliminates the administrative burden of managing membership payments and renewals, letting your team focus on what matters most: providing excellent patient care.
The Problem with Manual Renewals
If you’ve been running a membership program, you know the drill. Every month, someone on your team has to:
- Track which memberships are expiring
- Send reminder emails or make phone calls
- Process renewal payments manually
- Follow up on failed payments
- Update member records
This manual process is time-consuming, error-prone, and often leads to members slipping through the cracks. Practices tell us they spend 5-10 hours per week just managing membership renewals.
How Automated Billing Works
With our new automated billing system, everything happens automatically:
Automatic Payment Processing
When a member signs up, their payment method is securely stored. When their renewal date arrives, we automatically charge their card and extend their membership. No manual intervention required.
Smart Retry Logic
Payment failures happen. Cards expire, accounts have temporary holds, or there’s a processing hiccup. Our system automatically retries failed payments using intelligent timing:
- First retry: 3 days after failure
- Second retry: 7 days after failure
- Final retry: 14 days after failure
This alone recovers up to 30% of initially failed payments without any staff involvement.
Automated Member Communications
Members receive professional, branded emails at key moments:
- 7 days before renewal: Reminder that their membership is renewing soon
- On renewal: Confirmation of successful payment
- If payment fails: Instructions to update their payment method
- After successful retry: Confirmation that their membership is active
Real-Time Dashboard Updates
Your dashboard shows exactly what’s happening with every membership:
- Upcoming renewals this week/month
- Successfully processed renewals
- Failed payments requiring attention
- Members who’ve updated payment info
The Impact on Your Practice
Practices using automated billing report significant improvements:
Time Saved: Average of 8 hours per week previously spent on manual renewal tasks
Higher Retention: 15% improvement in renewal rates due to consistent, timely processing
Reduced Churn: Smart retry logic recovers payments that would otherwise be lost
Happier Staff: Front desk team can focus on in-person patient interactions instead of chasing payments
Better Cash Flow: Predictable, automated revenue collection
Getting Started
Automated billing is now available to all Smile Advantage customers at no additional cost. Here’s how to enable it:
- Log into your Smile Advantage dashboard
- Navigate to Settings > Billing
- Enable “Automated Renewals”
- Customize your email templates (optional)
- You’re done!
Existing members will be automatically enrolled in automated renewals. New members are enrolled by default when they sign up.
What About Members Who Prefer Manual Payments?
We understand that some members prefer to pay manually or by check. You can easily mark individual members as “manual renewal” in their profile. These members will receive renewal reminders but won’t be charged automatically.
Security & Compliance
Your members’ payment information is protected with bank-level security:
- PCI DSS Level 1 Compliant: The highest level of payment security certification
- Tokenized Storage: We never store actual card numbers, only secure tokens
- Encrypted Transmission: All data is encrypted in transit and at rest
Ready to Automate?
Stop spending hours on manual renewal management. Let Smile Advantage handle the busywork while you focus on growing your practice and caring for patients.