Dear Square: It’s Time to Prioritize Service-Based Businesses!!

[Vanilla]

Hey Square Team !

As a long-time Square Seller and community contributor, I’m speaking up on behalf of thousands of service-based business owners. The following features have been requested consistently, some for years, and it’s time for serious traction.

The Must-Have Updates:

Promo Codes for Online Appointments

Let clients apply promo codes during online booking, just like they can in Square Online Checkout.

Custom Deposits

We need the flexibility to set specific dollar amounts or percentages for appointment deposits.

Add-On Services

Clients should be able to select add-ons while booking, critical for upselling and customizing services.

Call Function in Square Messages

Allow voice calls through Square using our business number, not our personal lines.

Timestamps on Messages

Basic messaging functionality: we need to see when messages were sent and received.

Separate Calendars by Service Type

Let us assign different calendars to different appointment types, staff, or spaces.

Milestone Loyalty Rewards

Go beyond points! let us reward clients based on number of visits or dollar milestones.

Afterpay for Appointment Booking (Online)

Afterpay is currently in-person only. Service-based clients want this flexibility online too.

Partial Gift Card Payments for Online Booking

Square currently requires gift cards to cover the entire booking amount. Clients should be able to apply any gift card balance and pay the rest.

 We’re not just users! we’re builders, educators, mentors, and trusted voices in this community.

Let’s prioritize the features that power our businesses and client relationships.

If you’re a seller who needs these updates, comment, kudo, or share to get Square’s attention.

We don’t just want change, we engineer it!

[#2]

Hi @Vanilla --thanks for surfacing this feedback. I'm a Product Manager supporting our Service sellers and wanted to share some additional detail on where we are with the items you mentioned.

This year we'll be working on adding additional payment methods to the online booking flow to make it easier for our sellers to get paid. We're planning this out now, but our goal is to include promo codes, Afterpay, as well as other common online payment options. We'll also investigate partial GC payments.

We hear you on Deposits! We are currently in the early phases or planning a solution--we've been focused on completing our migration to our new Orders platform which has delayed being able to finalize a design and implement this feature. We know this is important to our sellers--unfortunately, I don't have a timeline for you on this.

Add-on services isn't on our 2025 roadmap at the moment. We do allow you to create service variations, which can be used to compose common upsell options (e.g. adding aromatherapy to a massage, or hot shave to a haircut) that change both price and duration of the service. I know that this isn't a 1:1 substitute, but many of our sellers find it helpful.

Call function (2-way calling) within Messages - I checked with our team and this isn't currently on our roadmap for this year. Re: timestamps, we show timestamps in the conversation, but not for each message. Our PM for messages is reaching out to learn more about your needs here.

On calendars, we offer the ability to filter by location and staff, but not currently by service. Can you provide a couple examples of your use case for this?

Thanks again for taking the time to write this up. Feedback like yours plays a big role in shaping our roadmap, and we appreciate you sharing your voice. 🙏

[Vanilla]

@ShineOn @FeelPretty @Doran 

[Vanilla]

@JJ_ 

[Vanilla]

@MALqueerhair @MayuSilkArt @mailman1388 @anniemcg 

[MayuSilkArt]

Some of these things can be accomplished with a few work-arounds, but I agree - we need more streamlined and interactive usability. 

I’d like to be able to allow clients to place a refundable deposit on a booking (returned to them if they cancel within a given window). Right now, I can only process deposits on my end, either directly with the client or through invoicing, and then I have to manually add the discount to the appointment. 

I also need to be able to view one master calendar for each location, showing all of my bookings color-coded by team member or resource, rather than having to switch between calendars. 

[DinaLRosenberg]

YESSS to all of this..custom deposits are a HUGE pain point for us.

We are both service and retail.. I'd also like to add having service and retail "talk" to each other.

[Vanilla]

@MayuSilkArt I completely understand, and I agree that some of these tasks can be managed with work-arounds. However, we really shouldn’t have to rely on them. They're often time-consuming and don’t provide a seamless experience for us or clients.

As a solo entrepreneur, the work-arounds might seem manageable for now, but I can’t see them scaling well in a high-end, high-volume establishment, which is ultimately the goal. I also find myself having to explain things to clients because some of these work-arounds create confusion, which impacts the overall experience.

Additionally, the work-arounds aren’t always simple, many require multiple steps and extra effort just to complete basic tasks. While I truly love using Square, it’s worth noting that there are other appointment booking systems that already offer many of these features out of the box.

[Vanilla]

@DinaLRosenberg 

Yes! we’ve been asking for this for years, and it feels like those requests have been completely ignored. Custom deposits have been a long-standing pain point, and the disconnect between service and retail functions makes things even more difficult. It’s frustrating, especially when these are essential features for businesses that offer both.

[JessPoynter]

@Vanilla 

These are SUCH great points and I wholeheartedly agree with everything you brought up. It is VERY much PAST the time that service-based businesses deserve the spotlight! YEARS is far too long for feature requests to be pending. 

@isabelle @Hailey @nika who can/should we connect with?

[MountainHouse]

Those of us who have long term requests and issues with the software that just don’t get fixed need to come together and formally ask square to adjust their priorities. We are CONSTANTLY receiving cosmetic updates to the software and the PC dashboard. Appearances mean nothing if the software is inadequate or has bugs. All of theses resources that square wastes on cosmetic makeovers needs to be redirected at function expansion and bug fixes. 

[anniemcg]

I agree with many of the points made in this thread regarding workarounds. As business scales, those workarounds quickly become more frustrating than effective. I know the moderators here are just working with what Square gives them, but I would really appreciate more direct feedback on feature requests from product managers. There are plenty of cases of very popular, well-articulated requests that languish for years while the mods tell us to comment, add use cases, and upvote to zero effect.