Using Appointments to Dispatch Staff

[BDLNaples]

My business is a Black Car Service and I've been testing the functionality of Square Appointments Plus to use as a scheduling system.   My experience has been OK, but I have a few challenges that you all may have some insight to. 

1. Desktop vs. IOS Appointments App

I prefer to work on a desktop when scheduling.  One of the big workflow improvements I can see from using appointments is by creating an invoice at the same time I add the appointment into the calendar.    However, while the IOS application allows me to send an Invoice as the payment type, for some reason the Desktop interface does not.       Am I just doing something incorrectly?

2. Reminders

My primary reason for considering Appointments is to be able to send automated reminders to the customer and this feature works well.  However,  I would also like to send reminders to the Staff person (driver) at the same time.    Is there any way to do this?

3. Message Customization

The message customization is a nice feature and I like the system variables to auto fill in dynamic information.   Sending the Staff name is good, but I'd also like to be able to send the staff members contact number.  (in the case of a driver, the customer needs to be able to text the driver directly if there is a change in flight info, etc. )

Is anybody else using Appointments in similar way?

[TheRealChipA]

Hi @BDLNaples.  To answer your questions:

1. Not that I didn’t believe you, but I had to see it for myself.  I went to the desktop version of Appointments and created a test appointment and, sure enough, the Invoice payment method is not there.  Very odd, as far as I’m concerned.  I wonder if that isn’t an oversight or a bug, but it’s possible it got missed.
2. Currently, there is no method of doing this.  Square Appointments was not designed with your business model in mind, I don’t think.
3. As with #2, there is no method of doing this.

Not the answers you wanted, I know.  I’m not sure that Square Appointments will work for your business at this time.  I have two suggestions.

1. Go the the Square App Marketplace and search to see if there might be a third-party app that integrates with Square which would do what you are needing.  I did some quick searches and didn’t see anything.  But, I admit to not knowing exactly what keywords might have given a better result.
2. I think all three of your needs above would make great new features for Appointments.  So, if you’re willing, go to the Ideate Board (yes, I know…..!) and submit feature requests.  Be sure to note that Square does not accept requests for more than one feature in each.  So you’ll need to submit three separate requests.  Also, not that it is always a good idea to be specific about what you need, why you need it, and why this might appeal to more than just you as a single seller.

Let me know if I can help you any further.

[BDLNaples]

Thank you for your insights Chip.   

I went ahead and submitted these as new feature requests. 

Gary