Square Appointments & Subscriptions For Our Clients

[cdychrs]

Hi all,

We have a hair salon and offer our clients a weekly or fortnightly blowdry subscription.

The thing I’m struggling with is that I can only charge clients on a subscription a set fee, I can’t create a subscription that either pre-loads their client file with the services they’ve purchased or a credit for said amount?

Our weekly clients get a different offer to our fortnightly clients and each offering also based on length (short, medium, long, extra long) which adds complexity to managing the multiple subscriptions.

Is there a way around this, a way to charge clients a subscription fee then a package or service is automatically credited to their client file?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you 🙂

[Summer2024 · Accepted solution]

Hi, @cdychrs ! Welcome to the Square Community! We are happy to have you! 

This is a very common challenge with service-based subscriptions on Square. However, there are some solid workarounds that other salons are using. I will outline them below. 😃

Option 1: Use Square Subscriptions + Manual Service Tracking

How it works:

• Set up recurring subscriptions by hair length and frequency.

  • E.g., "Weekly Blowdry (Medium Hair)" $X/week

• Add a custom field or customer note that states how many sessions they’re entitled to.

• Your staff manually check the client's subscription status + remaining services when they come in.

Pros:

• Uses existing Square tools

• Easy for staff to read on customer profile

Cons:

• Manual tracking

• No automatic enforcement

Option 2: Use Square Gift Cards or Package Workaround

How it works:

• When someone subscribes, they’re auto-billed.

• You add a gift card or credit to their account for each billing cycle.

• You apply this "credit" during checkout as payment for their service.

Pros:

• Lets you reflect "credits"

• Can be tracked through gift card balance or discount

Cons:

• Still some manual steps

• Gift cards not tied to a number of uses 

Option 3: Use Square Appointments + Customer Tags/Notes

How it works:

• When a client subscribes, tag them (e.g., "Weekly-BD-Short").

• Use the calendar to pre-book recurring blowdry sessions.

• Manually track remaining sessions (or include it in the booking title, e.g., “Blowdry 2/4”).

Pros:

• Visual system using tags and bookings

• Free if you're already using Square Appointments

Cons:

• Still not fully automated

Square currently does not support:

• Service bundles/packages with tracked usage

• Automatically assigning services or credits to a profile after subscription billing

• Subscription pricing based on multiple variables (like hair length and frequency)

I hope this helps! 

[buildtohelp]

@Summer2024 thanks for the workarounds. I appreciate the detail, but given the manual steps (even just writing/reading them is a lot), im sure you can imagine this is not a scalable solution for growing businesses. When will this be evaluated for a feature? 

[EcoCarCafe]

Square really needs to enhance their subscription option to work with Appointments. I own an auto detail company and we have tons of customers clamouring for subscription packages like a monthly wash club for their vehicle or a maintenance/detail package that provides various services over the calendar year. This makes it incredibly difficult to manage if there are manual work arounds and manual tracking required. It has the potential of creating a customer service nightmare.

If needed I'd be happy to provide in depth product feedback on what functionality is a must have for service based businesses.