Gravy Solutions takes a radically different approach from automated dunning: they put real humans on the case.
When a payment fails, it's not an automated email that goes out. It's a Gravy agent who takes the file, analyzes the situation, and contacts your customer — by email, phone, even SMS — to resolve the problem.
How it works
You connect Gravy to your payment system. When a payment fails, the information goes to their team. An agent takes the case and starts the recovery process.
The agent works on behalf of your company. The customer doesn't know they're talking to Gravy — they think they're talking to your team. Communications are branded in your colors.
The process can include:
- Personalized emails
- Phone calls
- SMS
- Follow-up over several weeks
It's case by case, not automated mass-mailing.
The business model
Gravy works on a success fee: you only pay on what they recover. No fixed monthly fees.
The percentage varies by volume and customer type, but expect 15-25% of recovered revenue. On a recovered $500 subscription, Gravy takes $75-125.
It's expensive, but it's pure ROI. If Gravy doesn't recover anything, you don't pay anything.
When Gravy makes sense
High-ticket subscriptions. If your customers pay $300, $500, $1,000+ per month, Gravy's cost is justified. Recovering a $500/month customer even while paying 25% commission means $375 more in your pocket. And that customer stays for the following months.
Complex B2B. B2B payments often fail for administrative reasons: corporate card change, new billing contact, approval process. A human who understands these situations and knows how to navigate bureaucracy recovers better than an automated email.
Total outsourcing. If you don't want to manage dunning internally — no emails to write, no sequences to optimize, no support to train — Gravy handles everything.
When Gravy doesn't make sense
Low-ticket. At $29/month, giving 25% to Gravy ($7) on each recovery seriously eats into your margins. And the human approach is overkill for this ticket size.
High volume. If you have 500 failed payments per month, the human approach becomes a bottleneck. Automated tools scale; human teams don't as easily.
Need for immediate response. Gravy isn't instant. Between the payment failure and the first contact, a few hours or even a day can pass. For low-ticket where speed matters, that's a handicap.
Gravy Solutions vs Rekko
| Criteria | Gravy Solutions | Rekko |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Human | Automated |
| Pricing | 15-25% of recovered | Flat monthly rate |
| Response time | Hours/day | Minutes |
| Scalability | Limited | Unlimited |
| Phone calls | Yes | No |
| Ideal for | High-ticket, B2B | Any ticket, volume |
These are two different philosophies.
Gravy bets on the quality of human interaction. An agent who understands the problem, can negotiate, adapts to each situation.
Rekko bets on speed and volume. Automated sequences that fire immediately, multi-channel (email + SMS), and predictable pricing regardless of the amount recovered.
The math to do
Take your average ticket and your failure volume.
Example 1: B2B SaaS at $400/month
- 20 failed payments/month
- Gravy recovers 70% = 14 customers = $5,600
- Gravy commission (20%) = $1,120
- Net recovered = $4,480/month
With an automated tool at $100/month recovering 60%:
- 12 customers recovered = $4,800
- Tool cost = $100
- Net recovered = $4,700/month
In this case, both approaches are comparable. Gravy recovers more but costs more.
Example 2: B2C SaaS at $29/month
- 100 failed payments/month
- Gravy recovers 70% = 70 customers = $2,030
- Gravy commission (20%) = $406
- Net recovered = $1,624/month
With an automated tool at $100/month recovering 60%:
- 60 customers recovered = $1,740
- Tool cost = $100
- Net recovered = $1,640/month
At this ticket level, both approaches give similar net results, but automation is simpler to manage.
The verdict
Gravy is an excellent solution for high-ticket B2B SaaS that want to fully outsource payment recovery. The human approach creates value when every customer counts and situations are complex.
For the average SaaS — tickets between $20-200, decent volume, need for responsiveness — automation with email + SMS does just as well for much less money.