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.
 

[drjay]

I just had a client simply go in and remove their card on file so they couldn't be charged the no-show fee. How do I prevent that without forcing a pay in advance scheme? Otherwise, no-show protection is fairly useless and isn't really protection.

[Ironside]

If you have Stripe instead of square, it allows customers to keep their card on file and it can only be removed by request by the merchant account owner.

My guess is square allows customers to remove manually if they are savy

I would just recommend having clients PRE-PAY in advance and refund the difference if they don't show up for "no-shows"

[drjay]

Well, it turns out that even if they remove their card on file, that first no show is still protected. I was still able to bill for the missed appointment. The card just isn't on file anymore. That's interesting about Stripe but I've been finding Square and appointments to be working pretty well.

[EliasDi]

I noticed that sometimes square lets people book without a card even though I have this feature turned on. Any idea why this is happening? 

[Helen]

@EliasD Sorry for the delayed reply here! Hmm that sounds unusual. If you haven't already I recommend calling our CS team so an Appointments Specialist can check our settings and they can look at any past appointments too to investigate why someone was able to book without a card. I can also start an email case for you — just let me know! 

[GleasonBeauty]

I have set up a no show policy with a credit card required to be on file before an appointment can be booked but find that a lot of new clients card isn’t on file when they book online. Then when I ask for the card they say they already provided it. Yet, on my end there isn’t one on file. Is there a bug in the system? Or is there something else I need to update? This has happen to at least more then 10 people already.

[JustinC]

Hey@GleasonBeauty ! This is not a bug - providing a card for no-show protection only stores it for that purpose only in which you have 14 calendar days to charge it before it unlinks.

If you want to save the Card on File indefinitely for and access it for future payments, your clients will need to select Save Card when booking the appointment. 

More specifics on No show protection as it pertains to Card on file here!

[GleasonBeauty]

Here is what happens...

I have the option that a credit card is required to book an appointment.

new client books appointment 

I look at their file and no credit card is on file.

I contact the client and they say it was already provided.

I then have to re-enter their credit card because it wasn’t actually on file

This has happen with multiple clients and multiple times.

What can I do to remedy this to not have to call each client to ask for a credit card over the phone. Thanks.

[ashc]

@GleasonBeauty The clients need to select "Save Card" when booking but if they aren't doing so correctly- you can also save a card to their file yourself on the Customer Directory. 

Just search their name and select to add a Card on File.

You'll need to get their full card information probably in person to do this though.

[Beautynpassion8]

I figured it out because it was happening to me as well. If they dont click save card you will not be able to see the information on the card and they will have to provide it when they come in.  I wish this was different. It's not really protecting us if we cant see the card information to charge them if they cancel 

[UrbanShaveSD]

Do you require that a card be used to make the reservation?

[GleasonBeauty]

Thank you... I noticed that when I had a no call/no show and when I marked them as a no show it wouldn’t let me charge the card because they didn’t “save it” on file. So I am now back to calling them when they book if they didn’t save a card. Now I have to just give new verbiage.

”Thanks for booking your appointment. In order to save your time and date a card must be saved on file. It’s no problem I can take care of that for you. Which card would you like to use”. 

it’s just a pain because sometimes when it’s really busy I don’t have time to call each person. But the good thing is most of the time they do save on file. Which are the ones that tend to show. 

[UrbanShaveSD]

credit card for no show is different then save card for future purchases.   

[Beautynpassion8]

Please explain how so because as far as I know there is no other way to protect us if there is no card to charge

[HArmstrongSP]

I currently use the No-show protection for my clients booking appointments with no show/cancellation fee, however, I have had MULTIPLE No-shows STILL and the card ends up declining for the No-show charge. How do we avoid this? otherwise, the no-show protection is completely pointless

[JustinC]

@HArmstrongSP

Ah, I see where you're coming from 😖 and sorry the No-Show feature with Appointments isn't working how you expected. 

As a work around, you can require your customers to pre-pay for your services which would make them more inclined to stick with their appt. Check out @Kelly's best answer, as it gives a little more detail about the Require Pre-payment feature 

I hope this helps!

[Freshj]

People book with a card with no funds, why don’t square charge a $1 before it confirms the appointment? 

[Ellen2]

Clients can still remove the credit card numbers and the appointment is still on my calendar.    You can still get stuck with no-shows.  This No-show protection is not good.  If a client removes the credit card information then the appointment should automatically be cancelled.

[Beautynpassion8]

This exactly what I was talking about. With the booking the card is required but they can go back in and remove it from the appointment. I also now seeing that clients that saved cards on file can now go inside in take the card off. Can someone please help us with this is issue. Charging before hand or pre paying does always work for my business because with them booking online I may have to charge more when they get to my shop for the appointment. I don’t want the client to be able to dispute the charges with the banks 

[Mssgsrvcs]

I just ran into an issue where if the client leaves the credit card area Blank (number, exp, zip) then they can create an appointment anyway?

That seems detrimental if they don't show. Also, he showed and didn't pay due to believing that somehow it would have been taken care of through square.

[AshleyK]

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 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, visit our Support Center.