Features Request: Client Consent/Health Intake forms, Minimize Gaps between Appointments...

[alignedbody]

Hello,

I just joined the Beta group and hope to be able to be involved in feedback and suggestions for improvements.  I'm not going to lie, I've been getting a bit frustrated with Square and it's lack of moving forward with features that people in the community have requested for years, so there's an obvious selfish reason for me to want to join beta. 

Two items that I believe Square Appointments is way behind the eight ball with are;

1. The ability to have a health intake form, consent form, etc automatically sent to a client when they schedule an appointment.  And please don't suggest using "Square Contracts" to do this, because that part of the application does not work well and is not efficient at all for this task.

There are so many other appointment scheduling applications out there that have this as a simple standard feature and it blows my mind that Square has yet to implement it(MassageBook, Noterro, Timely, Fullslate, Acuity, etc). 

This feature has been requested for several years now and it's quite unbelievable that there's been zero activity with it.  The ability to go paperless if we had this feature or to not have to setup an additional email notification to clients in order to accomplish this task, is a no-brainer. 

2. The ability for the appointments calendar to automatically minimize gaps in the schedule, so appointments are condensed for efficiency and less gap/down times in between. 

Ex: If the first appointment of the day 10am and a client books it, then online scheduler will only show the next available appointments available to be 11am, 12pm, 1pm, etc(based on service duration time settings) and whatever gap limitation is setup.  Service providers should be able to set what maximum gap is acceptable to them between appointments(Ex: no gaps larger than 3hrs), so then the calendar automatically recognizes this and won't allow appointments to be scheduled 6 or 7hrs apart, etc.   

This would eliminate the scenario of one client scheduling a 10am appointment and then another client scheduling for a 7pm appointment, so now the service provider has a huge gap in their schedule/day.  Without this feature, service providers have to sometimes manually go in and block out hours in their schedules, to eliminate this scenario from potentially happening. 

Again, so many scheduling apps offer this has a standard feature and it doe not seem like it'd be a difficult thing to implement. 

We've been using Square for our business for several years now.  We integrate Square with our accounting, successfully used it for the PPP applications, etc, and we like having all our business needs under one roof, rather than having to use multiple applications for our business. 

That said, with the lack of features in the Appointments app and how far behind it is compared to others, it's getting more and more difficult to justify continuing to use that app.  

I don't believe enough attention gets focused on the "service provider" segments of the Square business apps.  Square is obviously more focused on the restaurant and retail industries, which is the biggest source of business for Square, so I feel the rest of us get left trying to manage our business with what we're given.  

Appreciate any feedback and updates.

Thank you,

Scott

[Elyn]

Hi Scott 👋🏻 Welcome!

There are quite a few exciting features coming to Square Appointments and to beta this year. Appointments is constantly working on new features and planning improvements.

1. We do have a beta test upcoming that will add all input fields for text fields, check boxes to Square Contracts adding more function to the Square Contracts integration. We also just added new settings that feature. I'm curious to hear anything specific about the integration that doesn't work for you? That is the direction the team is working to continually add features to, to fulfill feature requests for intake forms, I'd love to share your feedback with that team.

2. I hear ya for sure with schedule gaps, I myself was a hair stylist and know those days well.

Square Appointments is a quickly growing segment of Square and has dedicated team working to add and improve. A lot of those features will be available here in beta first so we'd love to have you try those and share feedback on those features as they're in beta. Here in the beta community we have the most impact once we are testing a new feature.

[ReginaRMT]

This beta update will be appreciated. I have been just dealing with the short comings in square appointments. As for gaps I just don’t accept appointments for that time slot and move client to the time I want if it still works for them as well. One feature would be wait lists and birthday reminders. 

[alignedbody]

Hi Elyn,

Appreciate the response and update.   I'd look forward to seeing new features added to Square Appointments app.  I really believe Square is missing out on a huge demographic of users that would migrate over, if they'd just integrated better features into the appointments app. 

Adding additional filed options, check boxes, etc to Square Contracts may help a bit, but as of now, I personally just find it very limited and cumbersome to try to create a useable, user-friendly form that can automatically be sent to clients when they schedule a service.  

As member, @Pleij mentioned below, the ability to have separate forms per specific services automatically sent to clients when they schedule an appointment would be so useful, time-saving, efficient, etc.  

In its current state of configuration, this looks incredibly difficult to try to do with Square Contracts.   

Maybe I'm just not good enough at creating the templates & clauses in Square Contracts, but it was difficult/frustrating enough that I gave up on trying. 

I have my live website and I have a mirror site of the live version that I use for testing purposes, format changes, etc, before adding them to my live site.    I can't tell you how many 14 or 30 day free trials from a bunch of other apps that I've loaded to my test site(MassageBook, Noterro, Acuity, Schedulicity, Full Slate, Timely, etc, etc, etc.) to test and see how they function.    

Square has some great and easy to use features in comparison to the others, but there's also just some features that are lacking, in my opinion. 

I wish I knew how to program and code, because I'd take pieces of each one and build a better mouse trap(I fully understand it's also easier said then done).  haha...  🙂 

[Elyn]

@alignedbody Thank you for sharing this in so much detail. Our teams are really interested in learning about gaps like you've mentioned to work towards making Contracts <> Appointments meet the use cases for businesses like yours. That way you don't have to learn to code 😉

New settings within appointments to send different contract settings based on the services booked is available now. 🥳

Your feedback around creating templates is really helpful. I've shared our Product Manager for Square Contracts. It will be helpful as improvements are made going forward.

I am curious to when the last time you attempted to create a template. There have already been a few changes since Contracts was first launch a couple of years ago.

[alignedbody]

Hi Elyn,

I just looked at Contracts again and I still stand by my previous comment that it's just not useful, not intuitive and difficult to use.  🙂

How quickly and easily could I build forms like the samples attached below using Contracts?     

Now again, maybe I'm just not very good at using it, don't understand how to use it properly or I'm missing something, but from my perspective, it's just not user friendly and confusing to use.  

Why not add the ability to upload an existing form to use as a template and then be able to edit it from there? 

I don't see this option and it might make it somewhat more useful. 

From the screen shot attached: I see the ability to select when and for what services a Contract(form) gets sent when a customer books an appointment has now been added to the feature.   

This is a step in the right direction, however, for my use, there is an issue it.   

The options are "Any Customer" or "Customers who haven't completed this form before".  

What happens with legacy clients that are returning for additional appointments and would have already filled out consent forms, health intake forms, etc because we've already worked with them and would already have their forms on file/hardcopy?  

If you choose "Any Customer", the forms are going to go out to new and existing customers. 

If you choose "Customers who haven't completed this form before", then the forms are still going to go out to new and existing customers, because how is it going to recognize that an existing customer would have already filled out the forms, prior to Square Contracts feature being implemented?  

There's no ability in an existing customer profile to indicate they have already previously filled out forms, so they still get sent a form when they book an appointment. 

The choice should be "new customers", so that only new customers that are not already in customer contacts and/or have never made an appointment previously for any service will be triggered to receive the forms. 

Again, it's a step in the right direction, but for me, still needs some significant improvement. 

When I look at apps like MassageBook, Timely, Noterro, Vagaro, etc these programs undoubtedly offer more features that are geared to the "Spa, Salon, Health and Wellness" industries/businesses than Square currently does.  

These programs abilities to offer the forms utilizations, digital SOAP notes, gap schedule configuration, etc are just extremely attractive for businesses like my, because it's so much more efficient, time saving and useful.  

That being said, my customers like the ease of use for scheduling appointments with Square.  I like the Appointment app ease of use and how it works pretty simply, compared to some others.  

My customers and myself, also like the fact that they are not "required" to create an account in the Appointments app, just to book an appointment, like some of the other programs require. 

In fact, I have wanted to jump ship off Square Appointments for many months or even the past couple years now to another program, so I could utilize the intake forms, digital SOAP notes, appointment gap configuration, etc that companies like MassageBook, Noterro, Timely and etc offer.   

The only reason why I have't switched thus far, is because all these other programs would require my customers to create an account with a user name/password, just to schedule an appointment and I find that ridiculous/not necessary and a survey to my clients indicates, they wouldn't like it either.   

If any of those companies would make it "optional" for my customers to create an account when booking an appointment, I would have already jumped ship a while ago to them from Square, so I could utilize those important features.   

In this ever progressing digital world, businesses don't need more boxes of customer hardcopy files of consent forms, intake forms, SOAP notes, etc.   We need the ability to have it all digital and accessible digitally and that's where I'd love to see Square keeping improving and moving toward.  

Ok, I've rambled on way too much.   haha.    Appreciate the communication.   🙂 

[Elyn]

Thank you @alignedbody @ReginaRMT this is really helpful feedback for us as we continue to plan improvements.

[ReginaRMT · Accepted solution]

@Elyn 

Thanks for the updates as well. A few options I would like, 1-be able to edit the term “ customer” to either patient or client. 2- be able to automatically geolocate location to auto fill “ customers”location when booking appointments. 3- upload current patient history form we currently use in paper form to digital form including soap notes and hippa storage ability for these options as well. 

Thanks

Ryan Anton Schaffer RMT 

[Pleij]

This feature and the ability to send out an email when specific services are booked would be incredibly helpful for your salon and spa customers allowing us to send our service specific intake forms prior to the customers visit. 

[MALqueerhair]

AGREED! @alignedbody Please add your voice to the Minimize Gaps feature request: https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-Appointments/Minimize-Gaps-in-Appointments/idi-p/397132