Why is Square trying to monopolize my communications with my clients?!

[BenMatthewsArts]

I find it extremely frustrating that I can’t go to my clients list, click the link for their email, and just send them an email using my email. Instead, it tells me I need to sign up for (pay for) messages plus. I have no need or desire to pay for this service! So why is the hyperlink for my client’s email not a link to their email? And why is it that when I just try to copy/paste their email address from my client list into an email, it gives me an unusable link? I understand Square is trying to offer a messaging service, but trying to force me to use that service and holding my client list hostage and intentionally trying to make it so difficult to communicate with my clients is very nearly enough to make me drop Square and go to another service. You’ve made it so I can’t even copy/paste their email address into an email! 

[TheRealChipA]

Hey there @BenMatthewsArts.  So, first, Square’s goal here is not to make life harder on you.  But there are clear, defined rules and regulations in place in this country to try to protect customers from unwanted emails and texts.  Square follows those regulations to the letter, which include that a customer must opt in to receiving messages of any kind from us.  As a business owner who is also a customer of other businesses, I wish more businesses followed these rules — then I wouldn’t have to block email addresses and phone numbers as much as I do anymore!

Next…. If you want to message a customer through the Square ecosystem that comes at a cost.  Square maintains servers and phone numbers and such that are used for this communication.  Server farms are not free nor are they cheap.

Next… when a customer pays using Square, Square has an agreement with them.  Unless they explicitly give permission for Square to do share them, email addresses and phone numbers used as part of that transaction can not be shared with anyone.  When we signed up for Square, we agreed as sellers to abide by this.  I know that most people don’t read the “fine print” but trust me that agreement is there.

Lastly, you are free to export your customer directory occasionally.  If a customer has agreed to make their contact information visible (ie - entire email address, entire phone number, etc) those will be in the directory.  Otherwise they will not be there either.  You can use the ones that are there as you wish.  But, for the rest, you must subscribe to start being able to do more through the Square ecosystem.  I use Square Messages and even I, occasionally, run across a “you don’t have permission to” message.  When that happens, Square gives me the option to send a quick text asking for permission to message them.  So far, that has been all that I need.

I’ll add, in closing, that these rules are the same for other Square-like services, like Clover, etc.

[ryanwanner]

Hello @BenMatthewsArts !

This goes beyond a Square thing to be honest. Laws were created in the US to curb unsolicited messages, both email and text. Your customers have to explicitly allow you to send them messages. Square, in compliance with the laws, masks the emails and prevents people from doing what you're trying to do.

This is why some times your customers' emails will show up as all dots: their email is in the system, but it is inaccessible to you. If a customer has allowed for email communication, their email address is shown.

Of course Square is going to try to steer you towards their messaging product in the same way you'd steer a customer into buying something from you instead of sending them down the street to your competitor. For those customers who do have emails accessible, you can pull their address by clicking on their customer information then editing it. You get a clear text version of their email there that you can use.

That said, my investment in the messages plus plan has more than paid for itself over the years. There are automated emails you can configure: my first time customer and lapsed customer email campaigns have netted me over $30k in revenue that I probably wouldn't have seen since January 2016 (when I configured those emails). My messages plus fee is $60/mo: I've paid $5880 in fees to return $30k in sales since January 2016. Seems like a fair deal to me...

I understand the frustration of something not working the way one would expect it to be, but I encourage you to approach this and any other situation with a little grace. Coming on to a public forum with a negative tone over something that Square can't fully control isn't going to help the situation.