thread Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages

kellyj — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:07:49 GMT

On Thursday November 19th 2pm PT/ 5pm ET the Beta Community hosted the Square Messages team, live here in the Seller Community!

Jason Purdy, @jasonpurdy, the Product Manager for Square Messages answered your questions about Square Messages.

Have you ever wished that you could email or text your customers inside of Square instead of using your personal account? Maybe you’ve heard that we’re testing new functionality now with Square Messages in beta? Are you interested in using it?

What are you looking for in a perfect Messaging platform for contact between you and your customers? We’re looking to and answer the questions, ask some of our own, and take feature requests you have for this product.

How does a Live Q&A in the Seller Community work?

Over the next week we’ll take your questions here in this thread. On November 19th at 2pm PT/5pm ET we’ll start answering these questions live and take more throughout the hour. (There is not a LIVE hangout here, we'll all be plugging away at our computers).

Here are some example questions for this thread:

What is the purpose of Square Messages?
I want to test Square Messages, but what if there is a bug?
What do you need from me to make this product the best for my business?

To get started testing Square Messages, please join our Beta Community, and see what other products we may be testing for now!

**Please note this date has changed due to scheduling changes with our host.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Messages: Thursday November 5th, 2pm PT

pessosices — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 16:19:58 GMT

Thank you so much @kellyj & @jasonpurdy for putting this together!

Messaging though Square is going to be such a great safe & private & convenient way to communicate with our customers! Very exciting stuff!

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Messages: Thursday November 5th, 2pm PT

jasonpurdy — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 19:16:12 GMT

thanks pesso! it's great to be able to chat with sellers like yourself to make sure we're building something that works for you. 👍

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Messages: Thursday November 5th, 2pm PT

JPWilkinson — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:24:46 GMT

@kellyj @jasonpurdy Hello! I will start listing our questions here and keep adding to them as we think of any:

Oct 29

1) Will we be enabled to send marketing messages offering coupons or discounts that the customer can redeem - either in person or online?

2) How does this integrate with Appointments?

3) Is there a function for recipients of either SMS or email to unsubscribe? In Canada, we need to have this functionality due to the Canadian Anti-spam Legislation.

4) There are issues with the Customer Directory in that we cannot filter customers via those who have email or SMS. How "smart" is the Message system to be able to know who can be sent to?

5) Will there be a cost to this after BETA testing?

That's it for now! Looking forward to seeing how/if this might work for us!

NOVEMBER 17

1) WhatsApp Business Integrations - with WAB coming on strong and set to become the texting app of choice - and given the ever-increasing numbers of people who use it - and it being poised to becoming the text message age of choice world-wide, can WAB be integrated to Square to be the vehicle for communicating via text with customers to send coupons, adverts, appointment notifications/reminders, reservation confirmations - pretty much everything ... ?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Messages: Thursday November 5th, 2pm PT

pessosices — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 18:14:44 GMT

Here are some questions for ya:

1. We use Square Online for most of our orders, and right now if anything goes wrong we need to look up their phone number and call them. Would Square Messages be able to handle in-app messaging through the Orders Applet on POS to streamline this process?

2. I've worked with some other Sellers that use Appointments, and their big issue is privacy. They want their employees to be able to communicate with customers who book with them, but they don't want the employees to see the customers' private contact information. Will Square Messages solve solve this?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 5th, 2pm PT

exquisitewellne — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 17:37:30 GMT

We operate a small massage facility and book appointments through square. We have been on the beta messenger program and are getting a glimpse of what messenger COULD end up being. Main question/request: permissions around how messenger works (owner/manager/service staff).

A Potential guest is trying to book a specific service or has a specific question BEFORE booking. Does messenger work? What user can "see" that guest message and reply to it?

A guest books a service and is assigned to a staff member. That guest gets a reminder notice to confirm their appointment and tries to message us to ask to move service time. What user can "see" that guest message and reply to it?

Basically we plan to use Messenger as a core communications tool with our guests but only if we can clearly understand (and control) the functionality around permissions. Which our of our team members receive the message and can reply to the guest is make-or-break for us.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT

minnis57 — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 05:48:05 GMT

How can I obtain notifications when someone buys a product from my weebly website?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Messages: Thursday November 5th, 2pm PT

JPWilkinson — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 21:38:24 GMT

1000% agree with @pessosices in that we do not want employees to be able to see the contact information for the customer. We do this, and they can walk away with the entire customer list and start communicating with them if they start their own competing business. In fact, we don't really want them to be able to see the info in the directory aside from being able to add a new customer and then edit a new customer. We do not want them to see anything beyond the name of a customer so if they are assigning them to a ticket, that they can find the customer but not being able to take a photo of the directory either. In the service industry, the customer directory is your bread and butter for a business. We need to be able to lock it down as much as possible to anyone but Management for full access.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT

HappyValleyFarm — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:18:40 GMT

I understand that part of the new Square Messages is a 'bot'. because we get a lot of the same questions already today - either on the phone, email, facebook, etc - standard stuff - when are you open, what are your hours, do we need an appointment, do you take cash, etc... Then we get a lot more specific stuff - what's in stock currently, what variety of blueberry do you recommend.

Our business is very personal and I am concerned about a bot. I do love the idea of someone getting an instant answer to a simple question - are you open today? instant yes. what are your hours? instant reply.

So a couple of questions

Can we have the bot only answer certain questions?

Can the customer easily bypass the bot?

Will we still see all messages even if the bot answers them? (more important - will we get notification of messages even if the bot answers?) We want to be able to correct the bot if it's giving wrong or nonsensical answers instantly - not discover it later as we are scrolling through messages.

Notification of new messages is very important - if I have to remember to go check to see if we have messages, that won't work out well for us.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Messages: Thursday November 5th, 2pm PT

hairgypsy111 — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 02:00:51 GMT

What about forms integration ???? A pic in the profile area a place for packages and memberships, daily deals , I know a lot of stylists use Schedulicity or VagaroPro because they have a lot of these things I would love to use one platform, I’ve used Square for over 9 years but these other platforms have better options for salon and suite owners !

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT

Andriana1 — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 13:52:00 GMT

Will messages be customizable by groups, to send out particular notifications?

My client received this txt message My clients received a message stating “This business has disable

Tracismith — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 03:00:17 GMT

My clients received a message stating “This business has disabled this automated System. Please contact your direct request.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT

sarahmic — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 21:51:08 GMT

I am using Square as my POS at a motel. Are there any features I should be utilizing that I might not be aware of? Does the appointments feature work for bookings? Please advise and thank you.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT

JPWilkinson — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 22:32:35 GMT

@sarahmic I believe you could!

You would first need to work out the rooms and their configurations: King, Single Queen, Double Queen, Single Double, Double Double, etc. Then you would create a Resource for each room in the Items Library of the POS - where you also add services. Services would then need to created to book each room type: Book a King Room, Book a Double Queen Room, Book a Single Queen Room, etc. Then down at the bottom of each service's creation screen, you would turn on the "Requires Resource" option, and from the selection window that appears, assign the Resources you created for that specific booking service. You would select the duration to be 24 hours and assign the price for the room for a night, say $120.00.

This will allow people to book one night with your motel and they would not be able to overbook because you have assigned the number of available rooms for each service. If you only have 2 King rooms, then after the Book a King room service was booked twice, it would no longer be available for bookings.

The difficulty here is what to do with the rooms that people want to book for a weekend... This is where Appointments might not be able to fulfill your needs for multi-night bookings - but the customer could always book the next day doing the same process above. However, if the same King room has already been booked by someone else, then there might be confusion about what room to book or if they can, etc. when trying to book multiple days.

Another way to look at Appointments would be to set each room as a staff member - and set its availability. This way you can see what room is being booked - however, the number of staff is how you are billed by Appointments - and can quickly escalate. I think the above option of 1 staff (you) with Booking Rooms as services and resource allocations would get you at least the one night booking. I believe there is a note section where you can ask the customer to indicate the number of nights they want to book the room for.

Appointments can be set for approval as well - so you can arrange the bookings by looking at who came in first, reviewing the number of days, contacting them etc.

The room as a staff member would allow you to turn off its availability for the number of days it has been booked. So that is a bonus. Services are always on.

Hope that gives some ideas to you!

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT

sarahmic — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 23:43:26 GMT

Thank you that is quite helpful. I am currently having a website built that will feature online booking. Is it possible to link the appointment feature to my website or would these be used separately? Are there any other features that will help manage the sales side of a motel in Square that I should look at?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2pm PT

JPWilkinson — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 00:13:48 GMT

The Appointments app provides code to include the booking on your own website.

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 19th, 2pm PT

WEDriveIns — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 01:43:27 GMT

Hi,

I'd like to sign up for this and ask how do we get help to do some integration help. ie., I'm a drive-in movie. I'm already using a tkx system that is listed in Square's App Marketplace as integrated with Square.

Indeed, when people buy a movie tkx, I see the transaction in Square Customer Directory. However, I'd like to hire a programmer who is able take that movie tkx data and do more with the dinner orders that people will place on my Weebly/SquareOnline site. The tkx app vendor doesn't want to take on custom projects. Is there someone else I should approach?

Cheers - Nancy

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 19th, 2pm PT

samsmith — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 16:39:07 GMT

Is this still today?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 19th, 2pm PT

wildheartbrew — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 18:53:21 GMT

This is great. Thanks for all of you work on Square Messages. My questions are: How hopeful should I be that this will one day work with Apple Business Chat? Is it being designed in such a way as to eventually integrate with other customer service software platforms, or is it meant to be a standalone product that supplants such platforms?

Re: Live Q&A: Ask us anything Square Messages: Thursday, Nov. 19th, 2pm PT

kellyj — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 18:54:59 GMT

@samsmith Hi Sam!

Tomorrow at 2pm PST. (Today is Wednesday).