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!