Product Update: Introducing Direct Messaging to Customers

[Kpay]

You can now use our new Direct Messaging feature to email a customer right from your Customer Directory! 💬  🎉

Before we get into the details, it’s important to note that this feature is intended to be used for transactional messages only. A few examples of acceptable uses for this feature include:

• Communicating Issues: “Hi there, it looks like we didn’t capture your contact info for your order. Could you please reply with the address you’d like your items shipped to? Thanks!”
• POS Errors: “Good afternoon. It seems like we accidentally overcharged you today. We’ve corrected this on our end; you can expect the refund for the difference to hit your bank account in a few business days. Sorry for any confusion.”
• Lost & Found: “Hi there, we believe you left your coat in our shop today. Feel free to come pick it up during business hours!”

Direct Messages can be sent to customers who have received an emailed receipt from your business or have signed up for your mailing list via our Email Collection Tools. In short, their email address needs to be in our system to be able to send them a message.

On to the fun stuff. Here’s how Direct Messages work:

• Sign in to the Directory tab of your online Square Dashboard.
• Select the customer you’d like to message.
• Click Send Message.

• Compose your message in the dialog box in fewer than 500 characters > click Send Message.

  

  That’s it! Your customer will then be able to reply to the email and you can correspond just like you would using your personal email. All activity will appear in the activity list in your customer’s profile as well as in the Feedback section of your online Square Dashboard.

This update was made possible thanks to sellers like you who take the time to give us feedback on our products. We hope this update will help you provide a better customer experience. Let us know how it's working for you, and what questions you have for us! 

[603creations]

Anyway we can send pictures? I make custom items and want to be able to send proofs to my clients for their approval before I create the item. do you have a work around or advice for this?

[hundleybk]

Is there any plan to allow sms messages to be sent as a text instead of email? Most of our customers are on vacation and may not receive an email, but they are more likely to receive a text, or at least more quickly. Specifically, I would like this option to notify customers that their order is ready for pickup. I have been using my personal phone which can seem odd to them and opens me up personally. I could set up a google Voice number. This would allow me to work from my computer, log the conversations, and keep my personal phone personal, but it's just another app I have to incorporate. If I could sms from square, that would keep all my contacts with a customer in one place, whether email, sms, notes, or sales. The only thing lacking at that point would be the ability to call, which I can honestly live without. I can always log the call in a note. I wouldn't need verbatim.

[Helen]

Hello @hundleybk! Sending SMS messages instead of email isn’t something we’re working on at this time, but I’ll share your interest in this with the Customer Directory team. They’ll be interested to learn that your customers miss a lot of emails, especially when they’re away. That team will also be interested to hear how important an all-in-one tool is to your business! If we do implement this feature in future we’ll definitely announce it. 

Thanks for sharing how you communicate with your customers in the meantime. I think other sellers will find this really helpful!

[crystalimages]

We would really be interested in an sms feature. We have a lot of pick-up orders and it would be nice to just send a text that the order is ready. It would also be useful in a scenario where we forgot to get some information like a shipping address or an email, and get the customer's attention quickly before they are too far away.

[crystalimages]

I made this a 2nd post, as it wasn't exactly related to the other. 

I'm having an issue when sending a direct message to a customer and it keeps sending from the wrong location. I think there's somewhere I am supposed to change which location I'm working out of, but it's hard to find and I can never remember. 

Would it not be possible to have that option on the message window?

I would be happy to just have it send from a general name, and not a location name. 

Maybe I'm missing something on how to do this more easily... I tend to miss the obvious...

Also, I miss having the Send Message button above the contact... it's not that big a deal to click the ...menu, just annoying...

[AshleyK]

@crystalimages Thanks for the detailed answer. I would love to have engineering take a closer look at this for you as this sounds a little glitchy. Would you mind sending a screenshot of what happens, but please blur out any sensitive information pertaining to yourself, your business, or your customers. Thank you!

[Annasmith]

Can I send private messages to clients?

[AshleyK]

Hi @Annasmith I've merged your post with an existing thread that helps answer your question. You can private message any of your customers who have a reachable email through the Customer Directory. Follow the steps in the main post of this thread for the details.

[Elaine1]

How can I get a customer phone number in order to settle a declined card ?

[AshleyK]

Hi @Elain1! I've merged your post with an existing thread that I think will help answer your question. If you do not have your customer's phone number saved to their customer profile, then unforuntately there is not a way to receive it. One way you may be able to reach this customer is if they have given an email address for a receipt. Please reference the first post in this thread for steps on how to send a direct message to your customer, but know this will only be available if they have provided an email address to you.