When my customer registers for an appointment, why must they fill in all thier information again?

[BaizFit]

When my customer registers for an appointment, why must they fill in all thier personal information again?  Wouldn't it be easier to identify the customer via phone number or some other method (not a login account) and have thier profile (firstname phone number etc) already be displayed.  Then the customer would only need to submit thier appointment info.

[Kelly]

Hi BaizFit - we don't have a way for customers to sign in and store their information but I totally see how that would make the check out process smoother. I'll send over this feedback to our product liaison team. 

[onyxstudiosinc]

Is there any update on this? I want my loyal clients to login to their square profile and rebook any appointment without having to add their information all over again. How close are you to having this feature added?

[DaoDeJing]

This is extremely important for service industries, which I suspect is a large portion of Square's customer base.

I've lost appointments because of this. Customers don't want to be bothered filling it all in again (as well as all of their card info again), and if someone isn't immediately available to answer their call they may just give up.

I've had 2 people specifically tell me this to my face in the past 9 months or so, when they've run into me out on the sidewalk or something. If two people went to the trouble to tell me this, I can't imagine how many other people are not maing repeat appointments with me that I'm not hearing about.

[onyxstudiosinc]

I agree, I am having the same trouble as well. I am currently looking into other scheduling apps that offer this service. I haven't lost any clients yet but I want to avoid it since I am already getting complaints. Have you tried any other apps so far?

[Helen]

@onyxstudiosinc @DaoDeJing Thank you for your posts about this, I'm very sorry to hear that some customers are choosing not to book with you as a result. I don't have a timeline on when this feature will be available but we'll certainly let you know about any future developments in this thread.

Again I really apprecaite your feedback on this, it will help our Appointments team to understand how important this feature is for your business.

[Derma6]

In testing Square's online appointment site, I've noticed that when I create an appointment for a test client (i.e., I enter the name of a current profile, same spelling), but use an email address that's different from what's in the existing profile, a new client profile is created. Has anyone using the online appointment site noticed this?

Some background, we're a skin care salon that's been using Square's POS and Appointment apps for over a year now and haven't had issues with duplicate profiles. I'd like to use the online appointment site, but in my experience, I know some clients have multiple email addresses and when making an appointment online they can enter one that doesn't match what we have on record, resulting in a duplicate profile. I don't want to spend my time frequently checking for and merging duplicate profiles, so if there's no remedy for this, I may have to nix using the online appointment site.

Perhaps a member Sign-in feature, based on a client's existing profile, could be added to the Appointment site - a feature a Square account admin could enable or disable. With membership-based access, we may have better control of what email address is used when creating an appointment.

[Helen]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Online Appointments Create Duplicate Client Profiles

Yes @Derma6, if your client uses a different email address or phone number to book an appointment from the one already saved in your Customer Director then a separate entry will be created. The merge tool in your Customer Directory will help you to resolve duplicates, but I see how it could be time-consuming! 

I've also moved your post to this thread where we're tracking interest in a log-in or way for clients to save their information when booking appointments. Thanks for sharing your interest in this feature! 

[mbacupunk]

Where is the new thread? And what's the latest on this?

Just checked online, and even if I sign in, nothing is completed for me on the booking page.

For a background on me:

I have a medical type business. People book with me for individual appointments. I may initiate a new customer on Square, or they may book themselves for the first visit.

I have a ton of duplicates for people who have booked online and not completed the email or phone number fields. Therefore, the system doesn't find them as duplicates. I have to go in manually to merge them. I think went from 1,100 to 990 this morning. It's very tedious.

The other side of this is that because it's a medically oriented business, I can't risk people seeing other customers' names. That's a HIPAA violation. So please keep that in mind as you're improving the customer portion of your package.

To recap: I'd love to keep my duplicates to a minimum. I'd love to have new and returning customers book online. I'd love them to enter their name, and have their info already in Square pop up without displaying other people's info.

Thank you.

[Helen]

Hello @mbacupunk, it looks like this thread hasn't been updated to mention the customer accounts with Square Appointments that you referred to. So from your online booking site your customers should be able to sign in using their phone number - and their information (name, number, email address) should be prefilled when they book an appointment that way. This should lead to faster bookings, and much fewer duplicates.

It's very odd that you didn't see your information when you tried to book a test appointment. Let me double check with the Appointments team - I'll post again here ASAP! 

[Helen]

Hi again @mbacupunk, when you have time it would be great if you could call our support team directly so an Appointments specialistcan investigate why you have so many duplicate profiles. They can also check why the signed-in booking flow didn't work when you tested it.

Rest assured when a client signs in to book an appointment they will only see their past and upcoming appointments, and their personal information. To book an appointment quickly - ask your clients to look for the option to Sign In in the top right of your booking site. From there, clients are prompted to enter their phone number and they'll receive a unique verification code to sign in each time.

[mbacupunk]

Hi Helen! I think I was able to bring up my email and phone when trying to book an appointment. I do need to log in. I find the "sign in" text to be hard to see, so I'll try to remind people to use it. I'm not sure I have more information than all that. I'll be back online in case it continues to be a problem.

Thanks so much.

[Helen]

Oh great, thanks for giving it another go!

Yep I agree the Sign In can be missed if you're not looking for it - that's great feedback for the Appointments team too. Let me know if anything else comes up.

Thanks!