How Tax Resolution Businesses Can Leverage Payment Processing To Increase Revenues

OBJECTIVE

Fix the issue of revenue loss for tax resolution merchants.

OVERVIEW

The tax resolution industry is a collection of businesses that specialize in helping individuals and businesses resolve tax-related problems with the IRS or state tax authorities. The industry offers numerous services such as tax debt relief, tax preparation, audit representation, penalty abatement and settlements. This industry offers its clients expertise, peace of mind and convenience for anything tax related. As the IRS has increased enforcement efforts, tax resolution businesses help clients navigate their tax problems. With the rise in demand for their services, more companies that offer these services have emerged, driving prices down. In addition, these businesses are increasing their investments in technology to streamline their services and provide more efficient solutions for their clients.

THE PROBLEM

It is common practice for tax resolution customers to opt for payment plans and subscriptions to cover their service fees. Most tax merchant businesses use niche billing systems that have limited and often out-of-date integrations to payment processing. In addition, tax resolution merchants are considered high risk by payment processors. These two factors result in unusually high payment decline rates.

Customers using tax resolution services tend to cancel the service altogether rather than update billing information or provide alternate payment methods. Therefore, a declined payment results in churn and further loss of revenue for tax resolution merchants. Before coming to Revolv3, most of our tax merchants had decline rates of 30%-70%! They needed a solution to turn their revenue loss into revenue gain.

“We had found ourselves burdened with account receivables that were either never collected or were collected but then resulted in a lost client.”  Jeremy, Director of Operations, Guardian Tax

OUR APPROACH

Use the Revolv3 Platform to Increase Payment Approvals‍

A dunning procedure (a process that attempts to collect updated billing information from customers) could give some lift in revenue, but not as much as first pass payment optimization that Revolv3 provides. Revolv3’s tech stack and integrations to WorldPay mitigates the risk profile of the tax resolution merchant. Therefore, when the tax resolution merchant processes payments on Revolv3, their transactions are fully vetted prior to authorization and then choreographed and routed in a way that will result in the highest likelihood of being approved.

Most tax merchants are small businesses that assumed there wasn’t a solution for declined payments. These accountants and lawyers were not aware that payment technology could be improved. Some had done some investigating but learned their risk profile did not allow them access to better systems that would improve their payment outcomes. Partnering with Revolv3 changed this.

Revolv3 payment experts provided one-on-one consulting on each of the tax merchant’s current payment systems. After carefully reviewing their statements, Revolv3 offered insight and education on how the current system was working/not working. Revolv3 went into detail to give specifics on how Revolv3’s platform is an enterprise solution that would utilize AI, machine learning and multiple integrations to get the merchant the revenue they have earned. Revolv3’s platform should not be confused with retry logic or decline management offered by other subscription payment processors. Revolv3 configured their new payment system to get the payment approved on the first pass, without trying again or contacting the customer.

“Revolv3 described how their payment platform first analyzes the data, packages it, then intelligently routes the payment to the processor that will have the highest likelihood of success. What makes their payment platform superior is focusing on the first pass, not retrying or dunning, both of which are a lot more expensive and would eat into our margins. We have saved 50% on processing costs and now have a very stable and robust solution.” - Lindsay, Chief Executive Officer, Tax Relief Advocates

Quick Change, Big Results

Implementation of Revolv3’s platform is relatively fast

Tax merchants, thrilled with the 50% processing cost savings and increased monthly recurring revenue, generally start evaluating their tech stack to make sure it is taking full advantage of Revolv3’s platform features. In many implementations, the CRM the tax merchant is using is very niche, and many times does not allow the merchant to take full advantage of account updater, dynamic MCC codes, chargeback management and automatic recycles. Moving to a CRM like Salesforce gives the tax merchant complete leverage of Revolv3’s

platform and all the previously mentioned features. The time spent on Revolv3’s platform gives tax merchants a greater understanding of payments and how they impact their tax resolution business.

“The main thing we learned is that our ability to collect what we had earned was being stymied by our technology and costing a lot! Revolv3’s reporting gives us real insight into our business. Before Revolv3, payments were a black box.”

Armed with easy-to-understand reports and truth in costs, tax merchants are pleased with the transparency of data and the personal support Revolv3 provides.

“With Revolv3 we have greater success, a better customer experience and a phenomenal experience managing our backend. Payments no longer just fail, and we lose a customer. We have visibility that we didn’t even know was available and are able to make more informed business decisions. Revolv3 is truly an enterprise solution for everyone; they demystified our payment system.” - Jeremy, Director of Operations, Guardian Tax

The customer goes on to compare Revolv3’s platform to other well-known subscription payment platforms like Stripe and Recurly; noting the aspects that have been the most valuable in this turnaround.

“Revolv3 is the most intelligent platform on the market. Other players simply retry payments, and use dunning, which often leads to high voluntary churn. With Revolv3, we are not limited by obsolete gateways and now use the best-in-class payment processor, Worldpay.”

THE RESULTS

• 12% Average Increase on Approvals
• 50% Savings in Processing Costs
• 50% Reduction in Credit Card Declines
• 100% Of Merchants Had an Increase in Revenue Collection Rate

“Knowing that we have white glove customer support and access to the most knowledgeable payment executives in the world, we can focus on our core competencies and let Revolv3 handle payments.”

“With Revolv3, we have improved our monthly recurring revenue and reduced our costs.”

If you’re interested in reaping similar benefits for your business, we invite you to Contact Revolv3 . Our team is ready to help you explore how our platform can be tailored to your specific needs and objectives. Embark on a journey towards a measured and methodical approach to your subscription business.