Feature Request: Booking by blocks of time vs specific time

[SFP]

Is it possible to customize booking times by large windows with multiple slots?

Our dog walking business offers services according to "walk windows" instead of specifically requested times. This allows the walker to organize their route most efficiently. I have not yet found a way to do this through the square appointments app, am I missing something?

Blocking extra time method:

It is possible to "block extra time" after the service, effectively padding more space between the start of the next window (e.g. a 30-minute appointment would have to be blocked off for additional 2-hours 30-minutes to make the 3-hour window) but currently the maximum is only 1 hour. This would be a possible workaround if the feature were more customizable.

Appointments are scheduled... method:

A similar snag with this method. It is possible to change the bookings to be "According to the service duration", "on the hour", "on the half hour", and "on the quarter hour". If it were possible to fully customize the scheduling start times this would solve the problem.

In addition to this is would be amazing to have specific booking windows per service!

And overlapping windows with varying prices! this would be great for peak hour pricing.

One... more... thing... once it is possible to create genuine booking windows, being able to set a limited number of bookings per window would be ideal. With this feature, once you've accepted, say, six 30 minute appointments within a given booking window, that window would no longer be available for the customer to book within. If this were properly integrated with the calendar it could be intelligent enough to see that you can squeeze a 20-minute appointment but there isn't time for a 30-minute appointment.

[#2]

Hello @SFP! 

The feature request board is public! This is where product managers pop in to see what sellers are talking about. If you click on "FEATURE REQUESTS: SQUARE APPOINTMENT" at the top of this page it will show you all of the feature requests for Square Appointments. We're making some improvements on how you navigate the community, so that's the quick way to access right now. 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to detail how you would like your booking flow to look. It helps our product managers understand how they can help your business. With that being said, these would be new feature requests. So I don't have a timeline on when they might be made available. 

Although we do offer an integration with Acuity! The integration costs $15 dollars a month, but I think it's worth it in your case since you really need the booking windows. 

[Chad]

Hello @SFP! 

I've gone ahead and moved your thread to the ideas exchange, since these suggestions would be feature requests for Appointments. Currently these suggestions are not on the Appointments road map, but that could change in the future. From here we will collect feedback from other sellers making similar requests. 

I definitely see why you would want these features for a dog walking service, but I do have a question. 

For this to work all of your clients would have to live fairly close together. Now I don't know if you're doing this for one neighborhood, so this is a hypothetical. How would you handle clients that live in different neighborhoods from selecting the same booking window? Or would you have customers contact you directly for booking? 

[SFP]

Thanks @Chad, 

Is the ideas exchange something that everyone can view. I'm very curious what ideas are circulating. 

We're located in Brooklyn so you're correct in assuming we're all packed together like sardines 🙂

So the way we have everything structured from an operations perspective is that neighborhoods are subdivided into walker zones. Each zone would have its own walker assigned to it. I planned on setting each neighborhood up as a location. Those locations would have assigned teams, the collection of walkers in each zone of that neighborhood.

Our clients will only be able to book in their respective locations/walk area. Either through a direct link, we provide or preferably assigning permissions within the backend. The latter is preferred because we need to be able to vet (no pun intended but let it sink in) people before they start booking. We wouldn't be able to walk someone's dog out of the blue without an intake form filled out, meeting the clients in person to get the run down, and receiving keys.

It would look something like this:

Team 1: Walker A, B, and C

Team 2: Walker D, E, and F

Greenpoint Location — Greenpoint clients would only have access to this booking portal

North Greenpoint

Walker A

South Greenpoint

Walker B

East Greenpoint

Walker C

Williamsburg Location — Williamsburg clients would only have access to this booking portal

North Williamsburg

Walker D

South Williamsburg

Walker E

East Williamsburg

Walker F

Acuity does this by decoupling services from hours of operations. You can then choose which services are provided within each window, and how many appointments to allow within said window. Different calendars can be created for different locations. It's just a more robust system right now, unfortunately. I'm not sure if I can use Square Appointments the way it is currently designed.

I don't mind making an ideal booking flow for something like this if there is a possibility it'll be made! 

[Chad]

Hello @SFP! 

The feature request board is public! This is where product managers pop in to see what sellers are talking about. If you click on "FEATURE REQUESTS: SQUARE APPOINTMENT" at the top of this page it will show you all of the feature requests for Square Appointments. We're making some improvements on how you navigate the community, so that's the quick way to access right now. 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to detail how you would like your booking flow to look. It helps our product managers understand how they can help your business. With that being said, these would be new feature requests. So I don't have a timeline on when they might be made available. 

Although we do offer an integration with Acuity! The integration costs $15 dollars a month, but I think it's worth it in your case since you really need the booking windows. 

[SFP]

Thanks @Chad

That's acuity charging 15/mo, correct? I think square only charges for the processing.

That's how I currently am running things. I'm just trying to minimize the number of services/vendors that are required for customers to interact with. I look forward to the new features. I'll periodically check back in to see where square appointments is at. 

[Helen]

👋 @SFP Helen here stepping in for Chad as he's out today.

Yes the Acuity integration pricing is $15 per month. ​​​​​​​Square's processing fees will be applied when you take a payment with the Point of Sale/Appointments app.

If you have any other questions let us know. We look forward to hearing from you in the Community again in future!