Live Q&A with the Square Beta Team!

[kellyj]

On Wednesday the 4th of December at 2pm PT/ 5pm ET we’re hosting our first ever Square Beta Live Q&A! 

Have you ever considered being part of Square Beta and using the Beta App? Would you like to be on the front line of product releases and updates? Want to drive meaningful change for your business and those around you? We want to work with you to make sure our products are not only useful but also invaluable for your business.

Our own @lindsaybee  and @Howard and myself, will be here to answer all your questions live on December 4th at 2pm PT. 

Square Beta offers our Sellers the chance to do all the things above. We know you have Feedback and Requests - now is a great time to get into our specific Beta Community where you’ll be influencing the next product launches. 

Here are some example questions:

• What is the benefit of being in a Beta Program?
• What is the best way to offer Feedback or report a bug?
• What do you need from me as a Beta Seller?
• Do Feature Requests actually go anywhere?

Click Reply below to ask your question and we’ll answer every question on Wednesday the 4th of December!

To join our Private Beta Seller Community check out this post in the Community, request to join, and download the Beta App to get started!

[#2]

Hiya Community! 

We're here and about to begin answering all your questions on this rainy Wednesday in San Fransisco. 

If you have further questions, feel free to post them and we'll get to them as we are able.

@Howard @lindsaybee and myself! 

[pessosices]

One of my concerns/questions before I joined beta was the worry of a beta being potentially unstable or too buggy - and thankfully the fear was unfounded and I haven’t had any big issues like that! Can you talk about what steps you take to mitigate and prevent that, and what is in place just in case something goes wrong?

I absolutely love being a part of Beta and looking forward to more awesome things!

Thanks! 

[lindsaybee]

@pessosices  By the time our products are ready to enter the beta phase, they have already gone through pretty thorough QA testing. We rely on Beta to validate that the product is a good fit for our customers, not that pop-ups appear after you click. That’s not to say that a rarer combination of devices, app version, and use case won’t surface a bug — and if that happens, we’re very thankful to have great beta testers on it! When our beta testers share a bug for us, we report it straight away to the engineering team, which works to resolve the bug as soon as possible. 

If a showstopper bug ever surfaces, which is fairly rare, our testers can close the Beta app and open the Square POS app to ensure there’s no interruption to your business.

[Ganjaji]

What does a seller do after applying and not hearing back for over a month or is this bugginess?

[kellyj]

@Ganjaji Thanks for the question. We'll be explaining in depth the difference in the Beat App and being a Beta Tester and different Beta Programs that teams can do. This is a great example of one of the differences. We'll have a full answer for you on December 4th!

[lindsaybee]

@Ganjaji Thanks for the question! We apologize for the long wait. Some of our beta programs are extremely popular and space may be limited. Depending on the program, we may be looking for specific types of businesses that we believe will be the best fit, whereas others are first-come first-serve. 

Being a part of our Beta Community means that you will be the first to know whenever we start recruiting for new beta programs, and will have the opportunity to be one of the first to join.

[glagoldtown]

I have seen posts from the Square Community about a way to allow authorized people (entering a code for access) to make corrections after processing a sale. Is there any thought and/or movement of this?

If not, it would be really helpful to be able to most businesses to be able to correct an error.

Also, I would be willing to join the beta testing group.

Roger Nowland

*edited to retract private information*

[kellyj]

@glagoldtown

Thanks for the question! We'd love to have you join us in the Beta Community. Feel free to request to join using the link above. 

As far as this as a Feature Request, we'll take a look and see if there is anything mapped out in Beta. We'll also explain a bit more in depth what to expect when using the Beta App.

[kellyj]

Hi again @glagoldtown! We’d love to have you on the Beta App, have you join the Beta Community, and experience these kinds of updates as soon as they roll out. Although we don’t have any specific change coming around this request at this time, this is something we can continue to track. When requests like these are made, they are taken to the product teams who prioritize their roll out. We’ve previously answered about the process of Feature Requests, but I’m seeing quite a few of these in this Q&A.

So let’s revisit the Lifecycle of a Feature Request process: 

The Life of a Feature Request

1. Customer Advocacy - The first thing we do internally is share your request with the people building our products. From data-centric approaches like tracking the request in our internal databases, to more qualitative methods like the community moderators talking directly with the Product Liaison team, we make sure your feedback and ideas get to the right person. 

This is where being a part of our Beta Community and a Beta Tester gives you a more direct pipeline to our teams. When the App version is in the Beta stage our teams are able to make changes and fix bugs before it goes out to General Audience. When you’re experiencing an issue with the Beta App, we can correct and fix things or in some extreme cases, even delay a launch because we want to make it suitable for as many businesses as possible when releasing. Win-win.

1. Look for an Alternative - We always try to provide a workaround when it makes sense. Even if our products don’t do exactly what you need them to, we want to help you get closer to your goal (see an example of a work-around in this thread). Many times we’ve heard the request before and have an alternative in mind. When we don’t know of a great workaround, we turn to the community to get advice from other sellers.

Again this is where your feedback is essential in the Beta program. We can find ways and solutions to common issues, that may not be the way we intended it - but it works! Those are the coolest changes to launch, the ones directed from Seller feedback specifically.

1. Share a Resolution - The best days for us (and we hope for you, too!) are when we get to share with the community that a feature request has been built into the product. 

We’re working on a series that will highlight the Feature Requests that have fully gone through our Feature Request process, and you’ll get to hear about these shortly as we’re working on the Lifecycle Series now.

All of this is to say, we might not have this as an available option now, but catching a needed change in the Beta App before it’s launched can help you with painful experiences like these, once it’s launched into the world, and we need to walk it back.

Basically, all this is to say - Feature Requests are heard and valued, and we work hard to make these changes. Some take a good deal of time, but being involved in Beta helps shape the product and changes pre-release.

[LeisureHairStud]

I have been using square appointments for about a year now and I’m pretty happy with it but I have been long awaiting the option to double book color services . Color services have 3steps , application , processes and finish . During the process time it would be super beneficial to be able to have another appointment  in there. Or show as available online . When do you think that option will become available 

[kellyj]

@LeisureHairStud

Thanks for the Feature Request question. We can definitely address how Feature Requests work, and how the impact the Beta team and what things in are currently in Beta. We'll be back on December 4th to do so.

[kellyj]

We're pushing back the date of our Q&A for a few weeks so that our Marketing team can answer some questions before the Holidays. Feel free to post questions as this post is still live.

We'll be back on December 4th with updates to this thread! 

[cheesemaker]

I and many others have requested that you allow the user to choose the start date of our week. At present your reports are worthless because they start with Sunday.  Square has been answering this request with "yes, I can see where this would be helpful" for several years now. Is this on the schedule?

[kellyj]

@cheesemaker

Sorry the experience with emailed reports is so frustrating for you. You can customize the reporting periods by using your Online Dashboard and viewing the reports in the manner you choose. I do hear this takes away the ease of the emailed reports.

As for the Beta App and the Beta Team, this is really a feature request at this time. We'll look into see if there is anything the team can answer regarding this request.

[Vi1]

I’ve been using square for almost 3 years now and love it. But I’m a salon owner and we offer so many services so when clients click book it’s a huge list and becomes overwhelming. Will you be added the option to divide services into groups for easy navigation anytime soon?

[kellyj]

@Vi1

Thanks again for your Feature Request. We’ll be sure to pass it over to the product team. You can also subscribe to the Product Update board. When we make an announcement about product changes, we’ll announce them in the Community. We also try to notify you here in the community when an update relevant to your requests is going into Beta or planned for release.

[Transporterllc]

One of the biggest and most important features I've been waiting and hoping for is dual screen display or shared screen capability so I can enter pricing on my device and my customers can sign, tip and enter the email address on a separate device mounted behind me. (for Android) It seems like a feature that is way overdue and can be used by all types of sellers (no more spinning tablets or handing my $1,000 device to customers).  Even just a shared app display that mirrors would be fine and 10x more professional. 

[Howard]

@Transporterllc Thank you for your feedback!  I understand your need for this on Android devices. Currently, Android support for a customer display isn’t on our product roadmap as we have two possible solutions available: 

1. We have a feature for iOS devices that allows you to connect another iOS device to act as your customer-facing display. This option allows your client to see the itemized transaction details, but doesn’t allow them to sign, tip, or enter their email address.
2. We have this integrated functionality is available on Square Register. This all-in-one solution has a fully interactive display for your customers.

[cupzcoffeeaz]

I am on the edge of joining the program. My biggest fear is interrupting business continuity driven by errors introduced into the Beta app. 

How often does this happen and how easy and fast is it to go back to the stable version?

[kellyj]

@cupzcoffeeaz

Great question! I've moved this to the thread for our Live Q&A with the Beta team so our team can addresses it specifically. 

[lindsaybee]

@cupzcoffeeaz We encourage all beta testers to download our Beta app and keep it alongside the regular Square POS app. There are rarely show-stopping issues during Beta since our products and features already undergo a thorough QA, but if an ugly bug ever rears its head, our testers can simply close the Beta app and open our regular Square POS app to continue running the business. Toggling between apps takes only a few seconds!