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. 

[square_marc]

If your business has >$250k in credit card sales annually, we encourage you to call sales or support or speak with your account manager about a custom rate.

We do well over $250k and have an average ticket over $12 yet support said they couldn't get us a special rate. So I am not clear on how this works?

(UPDATE: I just lookeded and our average ticket is more like $18+) 

[VanKalkerFarms]

the average ticket sale is likely what is limiting your offer.  a $12 average sale means the per-swipe fee that square is not passing on to the consumer, but they still have to pay, is barely covered so there is no room to lower the rate.  there still are the interchange and assessment fees too besides the per transaction fee.  So there is little room to give when Square is only getting to keep around .5% of the 2.75% in an ideal situation. Square loses money on a lot of the transactions that it processes in order to keep the easy to understand flat fee, most transactions under $8 is a number I have seen but I don't know that it is the exact number.  It is easy to see how it happens if you look at the breakdown of interchange rates that are public and see the crazy rates that some rewards cards have.

We do have a custom rate but our average credit card transaction is $80.

* As of 2019 Square's per transaction fee for cards that are tapped dipped or swiped is 2.6% + 10c.

[scottlyttle530]

I'm looking at a second location and have seen the new Square Register, great looking set-up. My transaction are typically under $40. Why did square change the fee structure? It seems like it's their equipment the fees should be lower. 

[katieand]

Hi @scottlyttle530 - Thanks for your question! I moved your message here since our Register team answered your question during a live Q&A they held. See @lauraj's answer on page 4 for more insight into Register's fees. 👍

[douglsmith]

I love that the customer display can show our store image when it's in an idle state. I would like to design some graphics specific for that purpose. What is the optimum pixel size for the customer display?

[evandoyle]

Hi @douglsmith - The screen dimensions are 800x1280 for the customer display. Some photos that do not exactly match the dimensions will work, but the screen is not optimized for lower resolution photos.

[douglsmith]

Are there any plans to support the Socket Mobile 7Ci barcode scanner that you recommended for other devices? I'm spoiled with using the 7Ci wireless for so long that having a wire feels like a big step backwards.

[evandoyle]

Hi again @douglsmith - Bluetooth support for peripheral hardware like the Socket Mobile 7Ci is currently unavailable on Register. It’s on our radar, though, and we will be building Bluetooth support in the future. I apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime.

[scappoosebagel]

The two issues I’ve had with my new register are:

1.  Customer name does not populate when the chip is used (only when cards are swiped).

2.  Can not use the online store with the new register!  

[barbecue]

I agree, the Online Store should be integrated with new register.

The terms and conditions screen for those signing up for the loyalty program causes customers to hesitate, that wasn’t part of the iPad system, can we turn it off?

The checkout process on the customer side is a bit long, there are like 4 or 5 screens they have to get through lIke, signing, receipts, phone number, terms and conditions etc..  not sure how to streamline this though.

overall I love the new system.  

suggestion for the future, some type of new unit that can be used for fast food drive throughs.

[evandoyle]

Hi @scappoosebagel and @barbecue,

Thank you for your feedback. Correct - customer names are only taken from swiped cards currently, but we are actively working on supporting taking customer names from dipped chip cards - I know this is a great efficiency win for taking orders.

As for online store integration, we’re aware of this limitation and are working on adding support for remote orders. It won’t be something that ships soon, but will be a bit further in the future.

Thank you for your note about the loyalty enrollment screen terms and conditions screen - we’ll revisit this to see if there’s a way to make it more inviting for your customers to enroll, while still showing the legalese we’re required to.

[square_marc]

"customer names are only taken from swiped cards currently, but we are actively working on supporting taking customer names from dipped chip cards"

I am confused. We have thousands of customer's names and most cards are dipped?

[evandoyle]

@square_marc we've been working on adding support for both simultaneously, but the work for taking names off swiped cards was completed before the work for dipped cards (it was quicker to implement). Yes, most cards are chip cards these days, and we know this is a popular feature - it'll be coming soon! Stay tuned. 

[square_marc]

Thanks Evan but I am still confused. I am saying I have many customer's names and most cards are dipped. 

Are you saying the names in "Customers" are only from people that have swipped their cards? All of the customer that have dipped are not listed there? I find that hard to believe. 

[katieand]

Hi @square_marc - Evan's only talking about transactions from Register, but you probably have many transactions that were dipped from other methods before Register. Let me know if that clarifies things!

[square_marc]

We really only started doing meaningful business with Square once we got the Square Register. 

But something just doesn't seem right here. I have personally dipped my own card into the regsiter and the register knows my name.  

[katieand]

I meant Register - sorry about that! I'll pass your question on to Evan for response

[square_marc]

Hi guys, still wondering about this. Are we really not getting customer names from dipped cards? I am surprised and confused. 

[katieand]

Hi @square_marc - Are you talking about getting customer names for Customer Directory or Open Tickets? I think Evan thought you were referring to open tickets. If you are talking about Customer Directory, I can confirm you're getting the names from dipped cards. Let us know if this clears things up!

[square_marc]

yes, I was referring to customer directory. But odd that if you can get them for the directory why you couldn't put them into a ticket? We don't use the ticket system so it isn't relevant for us but hope it gets sorted for your other customers. thanks for the feedback here.  

[sinnary]

Is there anyway to change the font size on the customer screen?  Customers won't know to scroll down to see the list of purchases.  Perhaps, an auto-resize ability as they purchase more different items to automatically fit it all on the screen?