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.
 

[BosHairSalon]

no show protection is broke and flawed.. your clients can book an apt then delete their card.. you can go online book an apt put in your card information and then when you are finished.. click the sign in button.. enter the code text to you.. click on your account and profile.. click on card on file and then delete your card.. the appointment you just made is still there and if they don't show up or cancel last min you can't charge them for your cancelation policy or no show policy... its such a crock... and each time you make an apt.. you just have to do the same thing over and over again... or simply only delete your card when you are not going to show up and there is nothing we can do about.. square says they want to give  those clients the option to have control over their own cards and be able to delete their own card off their accounts... 

[AshleyBranham]

I'm having a similar issue. When clients book themselves, they do put in a CC# and no-show protection is available. If I pre-book them at time of checkout, no-show protection is unavailable, even though they have a card on file. 

*edit* they are somehow removing their cards from their file. 

[Frida]

Hello @AshleyBranham, 

We see its your first post in the Seller Community, welcome!

Sorry to hear that you are encountering some trouble. Check out this article on setting up the no-show protection.

If you are still experiencing some unexpected behavior after assuring proper set up, please contact our live customer support to have an in-depth overview of your account.

Hope this helps!

[Magnolia_royal]

I have alot of clients who got away with booking and not saving their card on file for no-show protection because i didnt have it set up correctly before. So if they miss their appointment there is no way to charge their fee. How can I have them save their cards on file? They've agreed to but we cannot figure out how to do it.

[Helen]

Oh no, sorry that happened @Magnolia_royal! 

I would first double check that you have turned on no-show protection in the Settings section of your online Appointments Dashboard:

1. Sign in and navigate to the Appointments section of your Dashboard.
2. Click Payments & Cancellations > select Booking with No-Show Protection.
3. Click Save.

NOTE: In addition to this you must enter a cancellation fee for each service. If you don't set a cancellation fee clients won't be prompted to enter their card information when they book online.

To add the cancellation fee go to the Services section of your Dashboard  > click on a service > scroll down and enter a fee under Cancellation fee:

Then, to make sure a client's card is saved on file or to add their card go to the Customer Directory section of your Dashboard > click on a customer's name and scroll down to Card on File > click the three dots to the right to enter save their card if needed.

When you've checked your settings - and added a customer's card on file - the next time you create an appointment from your Dashbaord you'll see the option to enable no-show protection (this will appear after you've entered the client's name to the appointment!):

[megangad]

I have "no show" enabled in my settings and I have client's credit cards saved to their profiles. But I noticed when I go to book an appointment through appointments mobile app there is no option to turn on "no show protection". Am I missing something?

I usually do all my booking on mobile so I don't have to bring my laptop with my to work.

[AshleyK]

@megangad Good Morning! The ability to enable no-show protection from the app is currently a priority feature request. In that case, it's best practice to book while on dashboard that way the card can be added and no-show protection can be enabled while creating an appointment or advise the client to book online.

[Elm1]

How is it possible for a client to make an appointment without adding the card? My settings are set to do so when booking online, now I had it happened to me multiple times they were able to make the appointment without the card? What am I doing wrong? Please help

[ashc]

Hi @Elm1! Welcome to the Community.

I found the same question in an existing thread in the Community so I moved your post here.

Check out the best answer above to make sure you have No Show Protection properly enabled to require a card on file to book. 

[Daisiw]

I keel having cancellations with new clients. How can I make it mandatory to pay at time of booking a session? 

[Kassi_]

Hey there, @Daisiw - 

Sounds like you would benefit from our No Show Protection for your appointments. This would allow you to charge when those customers if they do not follow through with the appointment. 

I moved your post to a thread with the steps on setting that up. Check out the Best Answer by our Helpful @Helen for more info. 

[sperson69]

The title of this post has been edited from the original: Can you keep customers from unlinking their card?

Can you keep customers from unlinking their credit card on file?

[Helen]

No @sperson69, there isn't a way to prevent a customer from unlinking their card on file. Can you reply here to let us know how this would help your business? Are customers unlinking their cards frequently?

[Windpeak]

Hi There! I see you're looking for feedback as to why this option would be valuable for us business owners. I own a spa and have been using square services including square appointments for about 5 years. My industry specifically would benefit from this feature being added because employees typically work on a commission basis therefore we have a pretty strict 24 hour cancellation policy to respect the staffs time along with guaranteeing the business doesn't miss out on potential income if someone no call no shows/cancels 10 minutes before their appointment. Every customer signs a contract stating they understand and authorize us to keep and charge their card on file for the cancellation policy. If a return client who's credit card we have on file books a $200 service for Friday afternoon, wakes up Friday morning and decides they'd rather go see a movie instead, they remove their credit card from their profile and then no-call-no-show us we have absolutely no way to recover those funds. Or if a new client books an appointment online, inputs their card info and agrees to the cancellation policy but then removes their card a few hours before the appointment, again, we have no way to recover those funds. 

[DaoDeJing]

Instead of having customer cards on file and charging them manually for no-shows, why don't you enable no-show protection when they make a booking?

The card info they enter for no-show protection is different from you keeping their card info on file. If they were to remove their card info from their profile, from what I understand that would not affect the ability to charge a no-show fee for that missed appointment.

But to address the overall issue, I do not belive it is legally possible for Square to prevent customers from removing this information. If the customer wants it gone, it must be removed. And there must be an easily accessed, simple way for the customer to have it done.

I'm afraid no-shows are, to some extent, a simple cost of doing business many times. You can ban them from your business forever, and move on with life. Or, if the loss of funds is significant enough, you can sue them for causing damages to your business (though that probably isn't the greatest option). And if the cost is high enough and the risk of no-shows is high enough, you might consider prepayment or at least partial prepayment. Even then there is a chance of chargebacks of course, but some combination of the above is all one can reasonably do.

[CarolinaWax]

If the client unlinks the only card on file, I have no way to enforce my no-show protection. Yes, I can invoice them, but I’ve done that and had clients never pay. In my business as a solo esthetician, time is money and I don’t want either wasted!

[nika]

Thanks for sharing your experience @CarolinaWax. We'll continue to track the feedback around this feature request. Hopefully we'll be able to share an update with you and others here sooner rather than later.

[WMS]

I am getting ready to leave square because of this. What is the point of offering the no-show protection if customers can shirk it by removing their card? Square has done nothing to change it, even though businessss are losing revenue and have  been complaining about it constantly. There is also no ability to block a customer from booking who abuses it. 

[KrysFrame]

Yes, unless it’s a coincidence that 80% of my cancellation fees suddenly are “card declined” or some other error message.

[RevitalizeWithi]

Happens to me 9 out of 10 times.

[Laurie_]

@Shivy and @RevitalizeWithi thanks for writing in.
 

Square Appointments doesn’t currently support pre-authorising payment cards or collecting security deposits. 

If your customers are continuously linking cards without funds in order to avoid the cancellation fee, we suggest reaching out to our Support Team to alert them to this so that we can get more eyes on this moving forward.