Card on File + No-show Protection + Appointments - how do they work together?

[HollyA]

Hi im in the salon & spa industry & we deal with no-shows quite often & currently use square invoice to collect no-show fees. however clients can choose not to pay so its really not the best way to protect your business against no-shows. I am interested in the Card on File feature but i am wondering about gratuity and no-show protection 

The title of this post has been edited from the original: "Card on file" for no-show protection?

[#2]

Hi there @helenabrooke78 and @RMConsultingLLC 👋 Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community. I consulted with our Appointments Team to help answer your questions. Here's the information they've provided me:
 

With Square Appointments, your client has the option to add a Card on File for future appointments, as well as providing their card information for No-Show Protection. While these options are similar, it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

Card on File: This is an optional selection that your client can make when booking an appointment that will allow them to save their card for future purchases. Card on File saves the card to the customer’s profile in your Customer Directory and allows you to charge it whenever you want. This is always optional to the customer and they can unlink their card at any time.

No-Show Protection: This requires clients to provide the card information to book appointments so that you can determine whether or not to charge them based on your cancellation policy. Card information provided through No-Show Protection can only be used for cancellations up to 14 days after the appointment and isn’t applicable on separate purchases or appointments.

A client can not remove the card from No-Show Protection, but they can, however, remove their Card on File from the Customer Directory.

For more information on No-Show Protection, please visit this section of our Support Center.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let us know if you have any additional questions.
 

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Hey @HollyA, thanks for bringing this up!

My best suggestion for no-shows is to go with Square Appointments and set up a cancellation policy. When you create your cancellation policy, you can require that a credit card be used to book online and set the expectation that your customer will be charged a cancelation fee if they do not show up.

Check out our Support Center for specifics, and let us know if you have any other questions! Hope this helps. 🙂

[Valentina · Accepted solution]

I wanted to drop into this thread to clarify a bit more! ✨ 

No-show Protection and Card on File are different features. A client does have the option to remove a Card on Fiile for future purchases, which is typically done when the appointment is booked and they select the Card on Fiile opt-in check box. However, a card cannot be removed from an appointment, as it is saved to that specific appointment for no-show protection.

We store the information we need to charge the card for a no-show fee with the appointment details, not a direct reference to the Card on File, exactly for this reason. Even if a client unlinks a card, we still have the information on hand in order for you to charge a no-show fee to that card if necessary.

You may think that your client unlinked their no-show card because you are unable to charge the no-show fee. What is most likely happening here is that you have selected Fee for each service within the Cancellation Fee settings section, and never assigned a cancellation fee to the particular service being booked. In this case, the booking system will not ask for a credit card:

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hi there @helenabrooke78 and @RMConsultingLLC 👋 Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community. I consulted with our Appointments Team to help answer your questions. Here's the information they've provided me:
 

With Square Appointments, your client has the option to add a Card on File for future appointments, as well as providing their card information for No-Show Protection. While these options are similar, it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

Card on File: This is an optional selection that your client can make when booking an appointment that will allow them to save their card for future purchases. Card on File saves the card to the customer’s profile in your Customer Directory and allows you to charge it whenever you want. This is always optional to the customer and they can unlink their card at any time.

No-Show Protection: This requires clients to provide the card information to book appointments so that you can determine whether or not to charge them based on your cancellation policy. Card information provided through No-Show Protection can only be used for cancellations up to 14 days after the appointment and isn’t applicable on separate purchases or appointments.

A client can not remove the card from No-Show Protection, but they can, however, remove their Card on File from the Customer Directory.

For more information on No-Show Protection, please visit this section of our Support Center.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let us know if you have any additional questions.
 

[Blaze2012]

love hair 

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Hey @HollyA, thanks for bringing this up!

My best suggestion for no-shows is to go with Square Appointments and set up a cancellation policy. When you create your cancellation policy, you can require that a credit card be used to book online and set the expectation that your customer will be charged a cancelation fee if they do not show up.

Check out our Support Center for specifics, and let us know if you have any other questions! Hope this helps. 🙂

[ShainaAronowitz]

I love that feature, but if I schedule their next appointment...it doensn't save their original card right? Only if they book it themselves? Is there a way to save it so when I book their next appointment before they leave, will it transfer?

[Sean]

Hi @ShainaAronowitz. We don't currently offer this functionality, but I can definitely see how it would be useful. It's nice to offer the white glove service and schedule your customers, but you still want that No Show Protection. The only workaround that I can think about would be if you added their card on file using Customer Directory. You could then charge their card using Square Point of Sale if they didn't show up. It would be a bit of workaround though, nothing automated like No-Show Protection.  

[UrbanShaveSD]

You can save a credit card on file at checkout with square register. 

[Ellen2]

You can save the card number but the client can remove it and the appointment is still there.  The clients in my area know this trick and make appointments around town and go to the most convenient appointment. 

[BrandiThomasLMT]

I have two jobs.  I cannot keep up with two different calendars (appointment books) as they would frequently overlap and that would be a nightmare.  Can we not just use Square Invoicing for prepayment?  What happens if someone cancels in less than 24-hours (or a no-show) and they try to do a chargeback?  Are we protected?

[Tom]

Hey @BrandiThomasLMT, welcome to the seller community!

At this time, we aren't able to support pre-authorizing payment cards or collecting security deposits. While these requests are not on the Square Appointments roadmap, I will be flagging your experience with our Product Liaison team.

As a workaround, you might want to consider using the location option for your two jobs: Square Appointments for Multiple Locations. Hope this helps clear things up!

[Luxuriantlocss0]

No, my client literally just did this and took all of the money out of the account so I that wouldn’t not be able to charge his car a no show fee 

[RADBeauty]

I think this is what was happening for mine also. I have all of my policies set up properly because I have used it successfully. But about 3 or 4 times over the last year I have had an error messaging stating that the card could not be charged and I tried every day for the entire 14 period on multiple devices. Im wondering if they are using a pre-paid debit card or gift card or something to schedule then it cant be charged because they have a zero balance. 

[Shivy]

This is exactly what my clients does and it’s becoming annoying cause I’m wasting my entire day

[AlyssaEaster]

Is there a way to collect card information for booking all appointments, in case of a no-show, not just online appointments? 

[Chad]

@AlyssaEaster that is a great question! Currently we don't have this feature, but I think it would be great! I will make sure to share this feedback with our product team! 

Please let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions! 😃

[Complexions]

YES PLEASE!  That would be so helpful in the beauty industry!

[JHelwig]

I have been waiting for this functionality. I have on-line booking for my clients. However a majority of them still like to call and book their appointments. I would like to be able to require a credit card for every appointment. If I can do it through appointments, I feel confident that their CC info is safe. If I have to acquire their CC info and keep it on file manually, there is more of a chance that their CC info may be comprimised. This functionality should be high on the list abd quite frankly, I am surprised it isn't available yet. 

[ashc]

Hey @JHelwig!

You actually can do this through the cancellation policy through the app where it requires the customer to store the credit card information to book the appointment. It will charge them automatically if they no show. 

Check out our Support Center for specifics, and let us know if you have any other questions! Hope this helps. 

[JHelwig]

Im not talking about people who book online. I'm talking about a client who calls me to book the appointment directly. We should be able to take a cc through the app.

[ashc]

@JHelwig Ah! Our apologies for the confusion there. The Point of Sale checkout screen is actually integrated into the Appointments app now as well so you can manually enter a payment from the Checkout screen from the menu. 

Before you would have to toggle between the apps but that is actually in there now.

[90milestattoos]

Is there an option for me to set up the exact day and staff member to deliver the service and then sending a link where the client has to finish the set up by adding his card?

[JustinC]

@90milestattoos - ah, I like your thinking. This would work if checkout links could be created with services, but at the moment, checkout links can only be created for items. What you're looking to accomplish is not doable with Appointments.