A member books, but have they paid?
The clinic offers a monthly membership for maintenance patients: a fixed monthly payment that covers a set number of visits, or a discounted rate. It suits patients who come regularly and gives the clinic predictable income. Payments are collected by direct debit through a provider such as GoCardless, or by card through Stripe.
Then a direct debit fails because the patient changed bank. The provider sends an email to an inbox someone checks weekly. The patient keeps booking. Two months later, the owner discovers several members have been using visits they have not paid for, and has to have an awkward conversation.
Why memberships drift out of step
- Payments and visits are in two systems with no link.
- Failed payment notifications go to an inbox, not to the booking screen.
- Reception cannot see a member's status or remaining visits when booking.
- Plan changes, pauses and cancellations are agreed verbally and applied later.
- Unused visits and rollover rules are applied inconsistently.
The costs of a loose membership scheme
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Failed payments unnoticed | Visits given without payment, awkward recovery |
| No status at booking | Reception unsure what to charge |
| Pauses not recorded | Patients charged while away, complaints |
| Rollover unclear | Disputes about unused visits |
| No overview | Owner cannot see churn or growth |
A membership is meant to make revenue calmer. When it is loosely run, it creates a steady trickle of small problems and conversations that nobody enjoys.
How we connect it
- Each membership plan is defined once: monthly price, visits included, rollover rules, minimum term and pause rules, all as your clinic decides.
- We connect your payment provider, such as GoCardless or Stripe, so payment events arrive the moment they happen.
- Each member's status, paid up, payment failed, paused or cancelled, and visits remaining this month appear where reception books appointments.
- When a payment fails, the provider's retry is used where available, the member receives a polite message with a link to update their details, and reception sees a prompt at the next booking.
- Pauses and cancellations are requested through a simple form or at the desk, and applied to both the payment and the entitlement at once.
- Visits draw down entitlements automatically from the diary, using your rollover rules at month end.
- A monthly summary shows active members, new, paused and cancelled, and payments outstanding.
We do not design your membership pricing or terms. We make sure the plan you offer runs the way you intend.
A membership scheme that runs itself
Reception sees at a glance whether a member is paid up and how many visits they have left. Failed payments are handled within days, often without anyone at the clinic needing to say a word. Pauses and cancellations are applied cleanly. And the owner can see whether the scheme is growing, which was hard to judge from a payments dashboard and a diary viewed separately.
Members notice the difference as well. A clear message when a payment fails, with an easy way to fix it, is far less embarrassing than being told at the desk, in front of other patients, that their membership has lapsed. The same goes for a pause during a long holiday, handled in a minute through a link rather than a phone call.
Does this describe you?
- Members pay by direct debit or card through a separate provider.
- Failed payment emails are checked occasionally.
- Reception cannot see membership status when booking.
- Pauses and cancellations are handled by memory.
- You do not know how many active members you have today.