Subscription Renewal Health

Monitor recurring-billing and subscription business health — pool volatility, churn, and payment failure — then output dunning and retention email series gro...

Security Scan

This is an instruction-only subscription renewal / dunning helper whose requirements and instructions align with its stated purpose and it does not request credentials or install code.

Purpose & Capability

Name, description, and runtime instructions all focus on recurring-billing health, payment-failure tracking, and crafting dunning/retention email series; nothing requested (no env vars, no binaries) is unrelated to that purpose.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md confines actions to collecting billing context (platform, churn definition, current dunning flows), producing a health table, structured failure tracking, and email sequences. It references only included docs (subscription_playbook.md) and asks the agent to specify what to export from the billing tool rather than performing unexpected file reads or external communications.

Install Mechanism

No install spec and no code files beyond documentation — nothing is downloaded or written to disk by an installer; lowest-risk model for a skill.

Credentials

The skill declares no required environment variables, credentials, or config paths. It does not attempt to access unrelated secrets. (Note: to integrate directly with Stripe/Recharge/etc. an operator would need to supply credentials separately — the skill itself does not request them.)

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and the skill has no install-time hooks or claims to modify other skills or system settings. It does not request permanent agent presence or elevated privileges.

Assessment

This skill is coherent and low-friction because it is instruction-only and asks for no credentials. Before using it: (1) decide how you'll supply billing data (CSV export or a trusted integration) — do not paste live API keys into prompts; (2) review any compensation offers the emails suggest to ensure ops can fulfill them; (3) test dunning messages in a sandbox to confirm legal/compliance wording and unsubscribe handling; (4) if you later build integrations that give the agent live access to billing APIs, grant only minimal-scoped credentials and audit that behavior.

Subscription renewal health monitor

You combine subscription pool signals → payment failure tracking → retention emails with compensation psychology so operators see health clearly and recover revenue without sounding punitive.

When to lean in

• Churn rate up vs prior period.
• Failed charges (expired card, insufficient funds, authentication) frequent.
• Volatility in active subs or MRR without clear acquisition story.

Core workflow

1. Pool snapshot — Active subs, new, churned, net movement; optional cohort window.
2. Payment failure lens — Failure reasons if known; retry policy; dunning stage gaps.
3. Retention + compensation scripts — Email (or SMS) series using compensation psychology: fairness, reciprocity, certainty of fix, optional small tangible make-good when policy allows.

Gather context

1. Platform (Stripe Billing, Recharge, Shopify Subscriptions, etc.).
2. Churn definition (voluntary cancel vs involuntary fail).
3. Current dunning steps and retry count.
4. What compensation is allowed (free month, skip box, % off next cycle).

Read references/subscription_playbook.md for dunning stages and compensation framing.

Mandatory outputs (full run)

A) Health table

Signal	Current	Prior / target	Note
Active subscribers	…	…	…
Churn rate	…	…	voluntary vs involuntary
Failed payment rate	…	…	…
Recovered after dunning	…	…	if known

Placeholders OK; state what to export from billing tool.

B) Payment failure tracking (structured)

Failure type	Share (if known)	Retry / fix	Owner
Card expired	…	Update card link	Dunning email 1
Insufficient funds	…	Retry schedule	…
Authentication	…	3DS / new PM	…

C) Retention email series — compensation psychology

Deliver a 3+ message sequence (dunning + optional voluntary churn win-back). Each message must include:

• Subject line A/B
• Body skeleton (short)
• Compensation psychology label (e.g. reciprocity — small gift after fix; fairness — acknowledge failure; certainty — "we've extended your access until X")

Psychology angles to use (at least two across the series)

• Fairness — acknowledge failed charge or bad experience without blame.
• Reciprocity — modest make-good after they update payment (credit, extra week, free add-on).
• Loss aversion — what they keep by fixing (access, member price) vs neutral tone.
• Certainty — single clear CTA; "one click to update card."

Avoid manipulative guilt; stay compliant with subscription and email law (easy unsubscribe on marketing; transactional dunning separate per policy).

When NOT to use

• Single order shipping email only.
• Churn analysis with no actionable comms or failure tracking ask (still OK to give health table only if user insists).

Split with other skills

• LTV win-back — one-time purchasers; this skill is recurring billing + dunning.
• Payment funnel — one-time checkout; this skill is renewal attempts.