Coronavirus and Your Business: Strategies and Resources

[Tom]

This post was updated by a community moderator on March 24, 2020 to reflect app improvements and feature enhancements.

Nothing in this article is meant to be construed as medical advice. If you have questions about your health, please consult a doctor.

Most of us have seen the headlines about the spread of the Coronavirus within North America and across the globe. We're posting to give a heads up to our buyers and sellers on some preemptive measures that you can take to be prepared.

Each of our sellers are unique and have different business needs. If your business requires you to work closely with large amounts of people, these general tips may help you reduce exposure to Coronavirus, not to mention they'll ensure that you know about all payment options available with your Point of Sale account.

General Health:

• If you or your teammates feel under the weather, communicate with your employees to help them make arrangements to stay at home. Your body needs time and rest to recuperate, so you can come back strong and healthy. 💪
  
  
• Wash your hands frequently, be careful to not touch your face, and keep hand sanitizer available in your business where practical. 🧼
  
  
• Keep your mobile devices and other frequently touched equipment clean. For comprehensive guides on how to clean mobile devices, consider these articles:
  ► How to clean your Apple products 🖥
  ► Clean Smudges from the Screen on Your Chromebook Pro 💻
  ► How to clean your phone to help stop the spread of germs📱
  
  ☝A note about Square Stand + iPad: If you have a screen protector on your iPad, rest assured that Square apps will continue to work well with that added layer. In addition, Square Stand's iPad cradle is flush with the edges of the iPad itself, which will ensure an unobstructed fit.
  

Alternative Payment Methods and Strategies:

• Contactless "tap" payments. Encourage your customers to use their mobile devices or contactless cards to complete payment (see an example in the picture above). With Square, you can accept Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other forms of payment where you do not need to pass cash or credit cards back and forth. For a quick video demonstration, have a look here: Accept Payments with the Contactless + Chip Reader.
  
  
• Signatures and receipts. Card Providers don’t require signatures for Dip, Tap and Swipe payments in the US and Canada. Consider setting the signature requirement to Never Collect Signature and skipping the receipt screen. This will help reduce the need for your customers to touch the payment screen. Have a look at step-by-steps on how to change these settings below:
  ► Disable Signatures for Square App Payments
  ► Skip the Receipt Screen to Speed Up Checkout
  
  
  
  
• Square Invoices and remote payments. If you can work from home, you can collect payments from your customers by using Square Invoices, Virtual Terminal, or manually keying in your customer's card information by taking orders over the phone.
  
  
• Square Online Store. If you haven't already, now may be a great time to set up a free Square Online Store, which will allow your customers to place orders themselves. Local customers can arrange to pick-up, deliver locally, and we've also partnered with a number of fulfillment services who can help you manage shipments. Learn more:
  ► How to Sell Online and Allow for Pickup Orders
  ► Square Online Store: Turn on Curbside Pickup
  ► Square Online Store: Turn on Local Delivery
  
  
• Get creative! Canceled sales event or trade show? Take it online via social media and use a hashtag or Instagram story to create a virtual event with your customers. You can then use one of Square's many remote payment options to keep your business running. Need some inspiration? The examples in this article may spark your imagination: 8 Instagram Event Marketing Ideas That Drive Record Registrations.

Knowledge is power: Keep a pulse on potential risks with the World Health Organization's website: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public.

For more general resources on preparing for the unexpected, have a look at these resources:

• Small Business Emergency & Natural Disaster Preparedness
• 4 Resources To Help You Create a Safe Workplace

Let's keep looking out for each other and staying healthy. ❤️️ If any other questions come up, or if you have any pro tips to share—let us know in the comments below! ⬇️

We're keeping a close eye on this issue and this material has been prepared for informational purposes only.

[Joe]

Thanks for sharing tips for how your combating this turbulent season, @Tritter82. Tough, indeed. Sending our best your way! 

[cmusicshop]

We're also in PA where a state wide shutdown is strongly suggested.

I'll take a hit for sure as walk in traffic is a nice chunk but I do have a backlog of repairs so I'm still coming in the shop and working.  I'm going to 'case by case' it but I think if I can get the payment online through an invoice or paid over the phone I can arrange for pickup in the parking lot, stay shut to the public, minimize personal interaction and hopefully generate some income to keep the lights on after all this.

Stay healthy!

[Kippian]

Absolutey use the invoices!  Even some of my in-person customers wanted to do incremental payments, or deposit and balance later payments (I vetted them of course) and the invoicing let me set it up with pay-by-dates.  It worked great!  It may be at the higher percentage, I can't remember.  DON'T FORGET...those fees are an expense item on you tax filing.

[Joe]

Thanks for adding your voice here in the form of these helpful tips, @Kippian! Sending our best your way throughout this season 🖤

[homeprogreen]

@Tom is Square going to allow vape shops to activate online store for customers to purchase products and then have curbside pickup? The reason that I ask is Square's TOS very clearly states that all sales of age restricted products must be done in a face to face transaction. being able to process transactions in a manner that limits exposure during the current pandemic would be very helpful but I also don't want to risk my card processing being shut down

[Shauneyshaun]

I think that manual card entry fees should be reduced to slide fee rate during this pandemic as we are trying not to Have physical contact

[Mamatees903]

Some of us can't afford SBA loans for our businesses. It would be amazing if square would offer capital loans to existing who currently have loans already but continue to pay on them.

Would be a blessing!

[purplebutterfly]

I appreciate Square waiving some of its fees to help small businesses during this time. Here’s another way it can help: reduce the fee on phone sales! Most of my business has switched to phone in orders. Paying Square an extra 1 percent on manual card entry is adding up fast. It will soon surpass the amount Square waived in fees. 

[Tritter82]

I agree. I am in PA and all nonessential businesses had to close their physical locations. I'm trying to do online sales but times like this every little bit would help

[Brett1984]

We are now taking cards over the phone so that the customer doesn’t have to come in the office. This is great for minimizing the spread of covid 19, but since we are not taking cash or even swiping the card we are having to pay much higher rates. Is there anything that can be done to help offset this expensive during this pandemic?

[rwitham]

I saw an email that explained how to change the dollar amount for a signature, to help with less touching of the screen. I cannot find it, can anyone tell me how to do that?

[ashc]

Hey @rwitham,

I moved your post to an existing thread that goes over some payment tips during COVID and there's a blurb in there about how to adjust your signature settings.

Check out the main post above for these details.

[asmatullah]

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