Ask Our Appointments Product Managers and Designers Anything

[Tom]

Hello Sellers! On July 13th at 1pm PT / 4pm ET, we hosted a virtual office hours session within this thread where sellers had the opportunity to post questions and hear back from our Appointments team members! 

@rvoluck, @LoganSq, @winniecheng, and @pbarfield are product managers and designers on the Square Appointments team and, together, they took the lead in today's session. Having worked on a variety of features within Square Appointments and more than 6 years combined experience at Square, they addressed questions and make sure feedback went to the right decision makers. Learn more about Square Appointments.

A few example questions:

• How can I make sure I'm getting the most out of Square Appointments?
• What are the best strategies for using Square Appointments within my business type?
• There are so many different features available within Square Appointments, what are the top three things to keep in mind for someone who is getting started?

Note regarding account-specific questions: For your privacy and security, we are not able to address issues related to specific account status details in our public forums. If you need account assistance, please contact our Customer Success team and they'll be able to take a deeper dive.

[popsicleshop]

I just started a thread about this exact feature. We perform services at the client's location and sometimes they will pay after we leave. I will need to go back and check to make sure appointments have been paid and will send an invoice. It's annoying to have to look through the calendar. I should be able to see a LIST of appointments.

[All4Kids]

I would like to add 1 or 2 employees to the appointments portion but only to view the schedule. They don't need to be able to change it or do anything with the customer info. Can this be done without paying the $50 per month? 

[MPhin09]

I'd like this option as well. But even with Square Team (the pd version) this is not an option. This is something that could easily be added to the "permissions set".

[winniecheng]

Hi @All4Kids, thanks for your question. To create a user on appointments that can view the calendar, you do have to add them as a staff member on Appointments. Since our pricing is currently based on the number of staff members, 2-3 staff members in total will increase pricing to $50/month.

If you’re looking for details on how to add a staff member on appointments that only needs to view the calendar, and is not a service provider that should be bookable, you can check out my colleague Logan's answer here.

[JessPoynter]

Is there a way that we could add a secondary appointment booking option without having to pay an additional "employee" charge? For example, I'd like to have new clients only book on a certain day. As of right now, I don't see a way to do that without adding an additional employee. I'm in a studio, so it's just me. 
Also, what's the status on a waitlist/cancellation list feature? 

Lastly, is there a way clients can purchase packages and then the software automatically updates how many they have left? For example, if I have a client that would like to purchase a package of 5 blowdrys, is there a way for them to pre-pay and then see how many they have remaining after each one they've used? 

Thanks! 

[MPhin09]

Yes!! A waitlist/cancellation feature would be great! A lot of users that I know are switching to Vagaro because of this. 

[winniecheng]

Re: ensuring that new clients only book a certain day - thank you for sharing - we’ve heard similar feedback around treating new vs returning clients differently. Right now the only way to limit when a service can be booked is to tie it to a staff member (employee), and then customizing the staff’s availability, so you’re right that the only way to manage this is to add an additional staff member. One workaround we’ve seen is to label services for “new clients” and have this service available with a specific “staff member” to limit the days it can be booked, but this would require some duplicate staff members to be created which may not be favorable.

Re: waitlists and packages - we agree that both of these are key features. We are starting our annual planning efforts in a few months and based on your input here (thank you) and other seller feedback, we'll determine if waitlists and packages should be prioritized for 2022. Stay tuned.

[healingreigns]

I totally agree with the multiple appointments issue.  We allow customers a discount if they book multiple massages over a period of time.  I was considering stopping this because the additional tracking of what appointments were used and how many is left makes it "just not worth it".  J Poynter's idea would be fantastic.

[Richlow]

Allow my customer to pay for multiple appointments in one transaction (one credit card transaction).

[DMContreras]

I totally agree. I am completely baffled why this is not already a feature. It's such a basic business necessity. Could be a deal breaker if it doesn't happen soon.

[winniecheng]

Thanks for the feature request! We’ve certainly heard this feedback before. Enabling customers to check out multiple appointments together under one transaction is definitely something we’re thinking about. However, we’re currently blocked on delivering that feature by some internal platform improvements that we’re actively working on.

While this won’t directly solve your problem, we are working on adding a new navigation and checkout tab on mobile where with just a few taps you can view a list of your recently finished appointments and quickly find the multiple appointments you’re looking to checkout. This will at least make it faster to checkout multiple appointments, even though it will still be one transaction per appointment. Let me know if you're interested in participating in the beta for this!

[Barbershop]

-Am I able to block customers from booking with us? I believe that this was an option when I first signed up, but I cannot find that option anywhere now. I have one relentless and inappropriate customer that makes my team uncomfortable. There are also customers who will use fake credit cards to book, then repeat no show causing us to lost money and new potential customers. I believe that we should have the power to protect ourselves and my business from harassment and theft.

- Can I center the text on the covid-19 message at the top of our booking site?

Thank you.

[MPhin09]

Yes! I would also love to be able to block certain users!!

[LoganSq]

Hey @Barbershop , thanks for sharing this feedback with us! Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to permanently block customers from booking at the moment. Depending on how many bookings you normally get, one work-around that could potentially work would be to turn off auto-accept, so that you can accept/decline each booking that comes in.

We’re currently working on improvements to verify cards before an appointment can be booked, so you’ll see some improvements there soon!

The styling for the covid-19 message can’t be adjusted, but this is good feedback. Are there other changes you’d like outside of centering?

[Barbershop]

I still think that blocking should be added. I also do not think that switching to auto-accept will work for what I'm looking for. That will actually add an entirely new headache, because I will have to accept every appointment and normally appointments are booked while i'm working and busy with other customers. If this is the option that you are giving me, then we should be able to select certain individuals by phone number, email, name, cc # who's appointments need to be accepted, not everyones appointments should have to go through this process. When it comes to card verifications, if the card on file is expired the person should not be able to schedule using the expired card. I would also like to see a separate space on the booking website to add "service re-do policy" and "cancellation policy". It would also be nice to change the background color of the covid-19 message... we should keep this message box as an option moving forward, it is a great space to give customers updates on other things like price increase, change of hours, policy updates etc.

[Volition]

I would love the following changes:

1) When checking out group appointments 

2) Better separation of service sales and retail sales with reports

3) Tip option on service sales only

4) Turn off online booking for certain clients

5) Create an email that sends to new clients when they book an appointment under marketing

 6) Make an option to require card on file for new clients only

[winniecheng]

Re: better separation of service vs retail sales on reports - We are looking into improving our reporting. One thing I am curious about is what reports you’re looking at specifically. Is it mainly the Item Sales report where you’re looking to separate out services vs items?

Re: tip option on service sales only: as you know, we can’t support this currently but this is on our radar. Let me know if you’d also like to be part of any early access beta programs for this.

Re: turn off online booking for certain clients: may I ask why you’re looking to turn off online booking for certain clients? Are you looking to block certain clients?

Re: create an email to new clients when they book an appointment: Thanks for this feedback. We also are looking into how we can improve Square Marketing for Appointments. I’d love to learn more about what you’re looking to do with this email - are you looking to send a welcome email? Or perhaps share information with new clients?

Re: require card on file for new clients only: To clarify, are you looking to require that only new clients must put in a card for no-show protection?

Overall your feedback is helpful for thinking about how we can improve the experience for new vs returning clients. Several of these requests are certainly on our radar, although I can’t share any details on the timeline. Would you be also open to us reaching out to you for feedback on reporting and marketing when we do tackle those items?

[Volition]

RE 1: Yes so for instance in my reports I would like a breakdown of item sales (shampoo, conditioner, styling products) that I have under the retail category to be separate than my services. Right now they are all mixed in. I would like to be able to pull a certain stylist up and see how many items she sold and what that week/month etc. 

RE 2: I would love to be in the early access beta for the service tipping

RE 3: Yes, I would like to be able to block individual clients from booking online. Ones that frequently no show etc. 

RE 4:  I have a welcome packet in PDF form that I would love to automatically send out once a new client books at my salon. I would set up the email in marketing and it would be like a welcome to my salon email. SO in essence a welcome and more info/what to expect email. 

RE 5: Yes, I would love to be able to set it up so a client not currently in my system that books online has to use a credit card to book it but not my current existing clientele. 

I would 100% be open to you reaching out for feedback on all of these things. 

[sipphotog]

My business is Photography, where serious clients go to my Square site to book a type of photography session of their choice. 

Questions:

- Would like to know if it's possible to provide Waitlist option for clients who are interested in an already booked timeslot, but could potentially open up when the original client dropped out?

- Can we add pictures to Services on the booking page, so it's easier to navigate for visual buyers?

- Can we have customized coloration for the eGift card purchasing page?

- Can we implement online purchase of plastic gift cards?

Thank you for all the great work you guys had put together!

[Tom]

Hey @sipphotog, I noticed you had a question about the eGift Card purchasing page. At this time, the ability to customize the coloring of the page itself isn't available. That being said, the page background color will reflect the design of the card that's selected. So that I can share some more information with our Gift Card folks, are you looking for more of a static appearance? Please feel free to let me know a bit more on why the customized coloration is important for your business and I'll pass it along! 🙏🏻

[winniecheng]

Hi @sipphotog, thanks for the questions! Re: Service pictures on the booking page, this is definitely on our radar. I’d love to hear more about what you’re looking to do - as a photography business are you hoping to show samples of photo types to make it easier for buyers to select the right type of photography service? What types of services do you offer (I’m picturing headshots vs. graduation photos, etc)?

Re: waitlist, check out my answer here.