Live Q&A: Ask us anything about our new POS, Square Register

[katieand]

Hi Sellers,

On March 9 from 10am-11am PST, we hosted a Live Q&A all about Square Register! We had three leaders from the Square Register product team here to answer your questions.

Meet the people who brought you Square Register and who were here live on March 9 to reply to your comments and answer your questions:

Evan Doyle, Square Register - Software Product Manager
Evan @evandoyle is the Product Manager for Point of Sale software on Square Devices. Prior to that, he worked on the Square Point of Sale quality team and before that, on the Support team at Square. Before Square, he designed and directed educational outdoor programs for middle and high school students, and initially heard about (and fell in love with) Square from his college buddy who started a ski tuning business using one of the original Square Readers.

Laura Jones, Square Register - Product Marketing Manager
@lauraj is the Product Marketing Manager for the Square Register and led go-to-market strategy for the product. Prior to Square, she was a management consultant and worked in international development helping small businesses in Eastern Europe get plugged into the EU supply chain. She was also a regular point-of-sale user as a waitress in college.

Sara Sanchez, Square Register - Hardware Product Manager
@SaraSanchez is the Product Manager for Square Register. Previous to Square, she worked as Mobility Product Manager, Presales Technical Lead and SW Quality manager. Passionate about delivering great solutions to Square merchants and help them reach their goals!

A couple of example questions:

• What should I consider when making the switch from Square Stand to Square Register?
• What is the ideal set up for Square Register?
• What are the advantages of the customer display?

*Please note the date and time change, updated on 2/23. 

[WagBend]

I understand that. But when they return they are not purchasing anything. 

The register automatically goes to the screen to enter items, has it as a zero, but that customer isn’t purchasing anything. It’s just annoying I to hit clear sale after a reward redemption 

[pessosices]

The transaction has to process to remove the reward from the customer's profile. You should add the item itself, the dog bath that will be free, to the transaction and then press charge which should be $0.

[WagBend]

Ok, so new button which had $0 attached to it, add it, and charge. Got it. Thanks. 

[pessosices]

Err - not exactly.

So when you set up your Loyalty Reward for it to be a Free Item, that's usually attached to an actual existing item. So for you it's a free Dog Bath - so that should be attached to your item Dog Bath.

So when someone comes in to redeem that reward, you should add Dog Bath to the transaction and Redeeming their Reward. This should make the total come out to $0. You then tap Charge $0 and hit $0 cash to complete the transaction.

You can also go into Loyalty and click Edit Program and click through to Reward to check what the item it's attached to is, and change it if needed.

[WagBend]

I have 3 different prices for bath depending on size. (25,30,40) So it seems easier to just have a button for free bath, put a value on it and then have the reward equal that value? 

[pessosices]

That also works! - You can make the reward equal that value, or just make it a Free item and attach it to that Placeholder Item in the Edit Loyalty Rewards section

[SaraSanchez · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for the great questions and participation! We really enjoyed talking to you about your businesses and needs. To wrap up, I thought I’d leave you with a summary of we discussed today and some tricks!

Coming features

• Itemized refunds
• Get customer name automatically from a dipped card
• Multiple same-model USB printers
• Custom tender options
• Redesigned gift card flow on the seller screen
• Swipe to delete with comp and void

Features recently released

• FreshKDS support!
• Swipe to delete item from cart (for sellers who do not use comp and void)
• Edit and view item inventory in Register (vs. Dashboard)
• Take cardholder name off swiped cards for order tickets
• Searchable instant answers (in the Support section of Register)

Want to keep your Square Register updated and have access to the latest features?

Leave it powered on! One of the benefits of Square Register is that we keep the software up to date automatically, so you will always get the latest features and improvements with no additional cost. We will update the software every 2-4 weeks.

Currently, software updates are set for 3am in your timezone in order to avoid usual business hours. If 3am does not work for your business, you can change the time the following way: Tap the switcher at the top of your Register and choose Settings > Device > General > About Register, you can choose to install the update sooner than 3am when it might be a more convenient time for your business.

Here are some useful resources with articles and videos about Square Register:

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6264

Finally, be sure to check out Square Register’s Product Release Notes and click subscribe to be kept up to date of new releases and features!

[sewingbasketuta]

I could not find a contact info email so I am asking here.  Yesterday I was shorted $1.80 on my sales.

Marie, The Sewing Basket 801-980-9150

$38.61
$120.11
$72.93
$81.51
$50.94
$11.80
$120.28
$17.16 total
$513.34  total you came up with?
$511.54
($1.80)

[WagBend]

Another question, the customer screen timeout, can it be adjusted timewise? I'm losing money as customers start talking while they take their card out, and then the screen blacks out after a certain amount of time ( rather quick) and they walk out,  and then we see the transaction was cancelled and item still there when we go to do the next transaction.

Had $800 walk out the door the other day, was so thankful they came back a few days later. But I'm loosing $28-$52 a week with this screen timeout. 

[Chad]

Hello @WagBend, this sounds really weird! Currently you can't adjust how long it takes for the customer display to fade out. 

By chance could you take me through your check out flow? I'm a little confused with how the customers are inserting their cards into the reader and not being charged. Are they removing their card before it's finished processing? 

I'll keep an eye out for your reply! 

[WagBend]

I belive so. So it says remove card, they do. We are very talkative with our customers about their dogs day and such, so if they don't sign right away, the screen fades out and we have no way of knowing on our screen what they are doing. So we don't know if they have signed or not. So because they didn't sign in enough time, the transaction gets cancelled.

We are very close with our customers, we talk a lot, and I mean a lot. People come and just hang out with us in the lobby talking about everything. 

Wasn't sure if the customer screen should stay on until we ok it, or we can see them signing on our screen (mirror theirs).

If you need me to email pics of what we are looking at, let me know.

Thanks!

Justin

[douglsmith]

I'll echo the need to see what the customer does on the main display. For example, we hide our receipt printer under the counter so we may not know if the customer has chosen to print a receipt and to get it for them.

[Chad]

Thanks for explaining @WagBend! It's awesome that you have such a close relationship with your customers! It's funny because I can relate on the opposite end. I have a favorite pizza place by my house called Zachary's and I stop in to talk with the staff, because I consider them as friends at this point. Needless to say I spend a lot of time there. 😀 🍕

I'll make sure to pass your feedback along to our Square Register Team, regarding the time out for the Customer Display. 

I did some testing on our Square Register in the office and we don't have the ability to mirror what the customer sees, but it will tell you which step the customers on during a transaction. It will be displayed on the cashier screen and a typical order is Card Processing > Approved Customer prompted to remove card > Customer is Selecting a tip> Customer Signing. 

This message will be displayed on the cashier side until the customer has signed or if you decide to cancel the transaction. The order of the prompts can be a little different if you're subscribed to Square Loyalty or have email collection turned on. 

I definitely see how the receipt could be tough, since if the customer selects print it just prints out the receipt @douglsmith. I'll make sure to share this feedback as well!  

[WagBend]

Thanks very much

[WagBend]

We ended up taking the customer screen off and laying it beside our register. Had over $100 walk out yesterday. 

Customers might not be hitting done or hitting cancel. Trying to get more training in with my crew so they understand what’s going on. 

[katieand]

Sorry to hear that @WagBend! Both Evan and Sara are taking all of these feature requests from this Q&A and giving them a hard look. We've heard how the customer displaying timing out is a problem for a lot of different folks so hopefully we can find a solution for it. I do think that training your crew to be especially sensitive about getting that signature or customer to close out will help in the short term though. Thanks for this suggestion! 

[WagBend]

uggg, moved the customer screen beside where we can watch, and then some customers asked about the loyalty propram we set up and as I spit out 2 sentences about a free bath, the screen times out and they can't enter their info. 

The screen time out is frustrating. There is no way to adjust the time on the customer side? 

[katieand]

Unfortunately there isn't at this time, but the team is exploring options as I mentioned previously!