thread Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business in Customer Engagement

Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 11:12:45 GMT

We're a coffee roaster and shop and we use Square Loyalty to do a 'buy 10, get 1 free' specifically on our Whole Bean Coffee category only.

When we first got Square Loyalty, the sign up/check in screen would only show up if the person was checking out with a whole bean coffee bag.

There was an update around a month ago that now makes that sign up/check in screen show up for every customer (before the sale starts). Now, our regular customers who purchase drinks from us see that before they begin checking out. They enter their info, but never end up getting rewards (because it's a non-qualifying purchase). They're frustrated because we're collecting their data and enrolling them, but they get nothing from it.

Our baristas then feel really bad and are forced into a tough position of explaining that we don't do loyalty the same way most coffee shops do. We need to resolve this ASAP and have the option of hiding that because it's hurting rapport we've built with a lot of our customers.

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

TheRealChipA — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 01:30:03 GMT

@moxiecoffee

I’m going to hope that you haven’t had the chance to see my original post here. After posting it, I realized that I fixated on one part of your question, and glossed over a really important part. So as not to confuse future readers, I’m removing that very bad answer to your question. I’m told that someone is looking into your issue with the sign up screen showing up BEFORE a sale, and you should hear something from them. My apologies if you saw my original post and it confused you! I know better than to sign on here and try to answer questions after a long day. LOL

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

TheRealChipA — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 01:26:37 GMT

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 02:44:38 GMT

Hi,

I didn’t see your first reply, so… all good.

I understand softwares change from time to time, but something like that should be communicated to us, or else we should have the option of turning that off. Super important to our business and to my ability keep my employees happy.

thanks for getting this looked in to. I’ve been told on 3 different calls to support that someone would get back to me in 2-3 business days, but I have yet to get an email or call. Would appreciate some movement and clear communication on this.

thanks again,

matt

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 17:51:47 GMT

Hi,

Just checking to see if this is being responded too soon? Still waiting on any sort of update from square.

Thanks,

Matt

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

TheRealChipA — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 18:06:02 GMT

@BernadetteA Tagging you again because I’ve seen you “lurking” on the boards this morning! LOL. @moxiecoffee has an issue above where his POS is allowing customers to sign up for the loyalty program BEFORE a sale. His loyalty program only gives points when customer buy a bag of coffee. By allowing customers to sign up for his program before a sale, and then customers never qualify for points if they don’t buy a bag, it causes confusion and frustration for his customers and his employees.

I had reached out from the SS Lounge to see if someone could check it out, but that’s where it stopped, I think, probably because the engineers haven’t found an answer. But I’m wondering if you can check? I can fill you in on the post from the SS Lounge if you’ll PM me.

I can’t replicate this, unfortunately, so it may be account related.

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 18:13:32 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply and clear description on this @TheRealChipA 🙏

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 18:13:47 GMT

I'll send you some free coffee if we can get this resolved 😂

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

BernadetteA — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 18:15:37 GMT

LOL @TheRealChipA there's not many of us on today so you are probably seeing me more 😂

@moxiecoffee I'm taking a look into this thread, and will most likely need to escalate to the Loyalty team. I'm not sure if they are available on the weekend, but can at least get a new thread started to see what is going on. I'll also try to see what is going on with your previously escalated cases. I'm assuming the reps you spoke with transferred to the proper team, but the queues may be higher than usual.

I'm sorry you have not heard back from anyone yet, and will let you know what I find out!

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

TheRealChipA — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 18:17:43 GMT

Thanks @BernadetteA ! And you’re welcome, @moxiecoffee . That’s why we are here. I wish you well.

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 19:30:11 GMT

@BernadetteA @TheRealChipA any info or help on this?

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

TheRealChipA — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 20:05:40 GMT

@moxiecoffee Unfortunately, I am now out of the loop on this. All I could do was escalate it to @BernadetteA. I’m not sure if she is in the office today or not, as I don’t work for Square but am just a fellow seller. But I’m sure @BernadetteA will let you know as soon as she can.

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

PartyManiaMD — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 20:21:52 GMT

I will say that them adding the sign in screen before checkout actually confuses people that have already signed up too. I have regulars constantly putting their phone number in even though they're paying with the same card tied to their account...

I also turned off auto sending emails because sometimes people don't want it set to auto send email and it causes the same confusion of people constantly re-entering their email LOL. Wish there was a toggle they could hit to auto send emails. I digress though, the signing in before checkout causes a bit of confusion.

When I read the post title I thought awesome, someone else is advocating for Square loyalty by category! I did notice the other day you can now do a promotion where it's 2x or 3x or w/e bonus points.... but you can't do it by category still. 😞

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 06:46:07 GMT

@BernadetteA Is there someone with Square I can talk to about this? Or any info at all about getting some help?

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

BernadetteA — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 20:22:38 GMT

I apologize, @moxiecoffee I was away from the office for a few weeks, and I don't think anyone else from my team came across this thread.

I put in another request to get some more information on this for you, and will post another update as soon as I hear back.

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

BernadetteA — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 16:22:31 GMT

Hi again @moxiecoffee 👋

The team has been discussing this, and based on their convo, have plans to add a toggle to turn this off. I don't have an ETA to provide at this time, but will keep an eye out for new updates for you. ❤️

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Sun, 25 Sep 2022 21:21:41 GMT

Hi @BernadetteA - appreciate the reply. One thing I feel like is important to note: The 'toggle' to turn on/off still exists on Square's platform. We still have the option of only showing loyalty for categories we choose, it's just that toggle doesn't seem to do anything.

In our case, we built a whole loyalty program into our shop based on the existing system that was there. The reason we chose to do it that way is because we had full control over that loyalty system and could operate it efficiently.

Now, to have that option completely taken away (without any prior warning or any heads up) is terrible service. And the fact that I've called Square at least 3 times, have left countless messages, have posted in forums, etc... I understand Square is able to change their software at their discretion, regardless of how I feel about it. But on certain features that businesses and loyalty are literally built on, this is not a good way to treat merchants.

I need this to be solved asap!

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

BernadetteA — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 03:25:05 GMT

I will pass this information on to the team. Based on their reply, I was under the impression that the toggle option was forth-coming as a new feature. I'm pretty sure they would have confirmed if it was actually a bug, but I'll let you know tomorrow what they say.

Can you post a screenshot of where you see the toggle? I want to make sure they understand exactly what you are asking for in case they misunderstood this thread.

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 14:19:51 GMT

Hi @BernadetteA - here's photos of the toggle. That toggle has been there since we started using Square. We've always had it set to not show Loyalty to people who aren't purchasing whole bean coffee.

This is so important we get this removed. It's been months now that this has been changed, without warning, and we're still getting negative feedback from customers.

Re: Square Loyalty Categories Update Is Hurting Our Business

moxiecoffee — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 14:20:27 GMT