Client-facing Online Booking Tool Monthly View

[TandE]

I am inquiring about the recent change to the Client-facing Online Booking Tool that Square made whereas clients cannot see the calendar for more than one week at a time.  Previously, you could see the full month in advance, which clients and I really liked.  I have already received complaints asking for the old format which allowed one to see at least a month in advance when trying to schedule.  Because I am booked up 4 – 5 months in advance, having only one week at a time is very inconvenient, burdensome, and annoying, as well as confusing to try and find an opening to book.  The way it is now, a client has to click week after week after week to get to within 30 days before a notification pops up allowing one to click to find an opening.

One positive aspect of the recent change is showing a client when the next available opening occurs, although you have to be viewing within 30 days of the opening to have this feature show up.  If it were available at the start, that would definitely be of help.

How can I reset the format to allow clients to be able to view the calendar the way it was before?  The way it is now is not acceptable for my booking needs. I have been satisfied with the Square services so far, but if this feature cannot be changed, I will have to consider another billing/appointment application.

[RobynR · Accepted solution]

Hey @TandE & @TheRealChipA,

I've checked with our Appointments team, and it turns out the new booking flow is the current option available. Unfortunately, there's no way to switch back to the monthly display on the new booking flow.

They've heard your feedback, and we really appreciate your understanding. If you have more questions or need assistance, feel free to let us know!

[CiaoBellaCafe]

We're a MICRO WEDDING service and not everyone books for next week, in fact THE VAST MAJORITY DO NOT and we allow booking up to ONE YEAR in advance.

Other changes to appointment flow are a real improvement, but forcing this weekly view KILLS our ability to offer online booking by making customers' ability to easily check availability into the summer or fall next to impossible. Online booking is a major differentiator in our market, and now it's more or less ruined.  

PLEASE escalate this and make an option for monthly view as soon as possible, or just let us know if after 15 years, we need to find another provider.

[BernadetteA]

Thank you for sharing your feedback, @CiaoBellaCafe

I can 100% see how this update would affect your business model, and I'm sorry for the sudden stress you may be feeling. 

I have shared your feedback with the product teams, and if I hear of any updates I will make sure to update here on this thread. 

[CiaoBellaCafe]

Thank you @BernadetteA 

I’m shocked to be honest that someone didn’t think about this up front. I’m hopeful that it’s a simple solution that can be resolved quickly, but last time I asked for a change in the seller forum (related to add-on services) it languished for years and was never resolved. 

We’re adjusting procedures and looking at alternatives in the meantime.

[kinseyroehm]

just wanted to add to this conversation that when this update to the booking site was made - it also filled in fields that were private to be shown to clients.  Once you are in the booking process there are the 3 lines in the upper right and it showed us as a mobile service so added the words "we will come to you" I had to call a rep to remove it.  Also, my private phone number was listed and my private email.  I was able to remove them in the settings but just a warning to look over your sites well- the update changed a lot of fields.  

So we are all leaving square right?  where are we moving our online booking to? what alternative providers do you all like?

[CiaoBellaCafe]

I'm looking at Acuity, which is integrated with Squarespace.  I understand that it's integrated with Square for payments processing, but if I'm forced to rebuild our online booking setup from scratch and pay for yet another subscription - as appears to be the case - I'll integrate with PayPal or Stripe.

We've been with Square for 13 years and send them thousands of dollars in C/C fees every year, but if they can't handle an urgent matter like this in a hurry, especially when THEY BROKE IT ... they don't deserve our business.

[TandE]

100% agreed. I'm going to change my credit card processing to Stripe, too, even though MassageBook has options to choose either Square POS or Stripe. 

[TandE]

I am leaving since this feature was THE reason I chose to go with Square Appointment. I totally feel your pain @CiaoBellaCafe. The nature of your business is crucial to be able to view calendars in a bigger time period. I'm in a process of changing to MassageBook. I also like Phorest and Acuity, but for a one massage therapist business, I think MassageBook is good for me. 

[F3_Swanson]

I am not in a place to make a change because I run my POS, website, scheduling, payroll, and everything else through square. I added appointments because I absolutely love having everything in one place. 

We use appointments to book events in our space and we book 3-4 months in advance. I really need the MONTHLY view option for my customers. 

Square - please at least give us the option!!! soon!!!

[Summer2024]

We appreciate this feedback @F3_Swanson. Trust me when I say that we are working diligently with our Appointments team regarding this feedback from our sellers. 

[CiaoBellaCafe]

When a customer has to click through dozens of weeks to see if their appointment date for months out is available, THEY LEAVE!!

I called and the agent said Square has received a lot of feedback on this issue and the feature request I filed has been escalated, but they cannot offer an estimate of when we'll hear anything or see any sort of correction or adjustment to this function. We found out about this to begin with only because we noticed a slowdown in bookings.

I warned that Square will lose a lot of people like me if this workflow isn't resolved VERY QUICKLY.  It's an obvious and unforced error.

[TandE]

One would think the it should be a simple fix by Square since we are asking to go back to the same feature they offered previously,  not something else that they have never done before. 

[CiaoBellaCafe]

@TandE I can understand why they would not want to roll back all the changes, though it should still be a very easy fix to correct the calendar view. If they want to offer a real solution such as the ability to select the client calendar view as weekly or monthly, that would be more involved, but they could do that AFTER THEY FIX THE CALENDAR.

In 2018 someone asked them to allow the time for add-on services (modifiers) to be set to zero, which is a feature of EVERY other payment and scheduling system.  An agent in the seller forum told me the change was slated for Q3 2021, but it never happened, no explanation was given and I never heard from them again. Eventually I deployed my own workaround.

Acuity doesn't calculate sales taxes, says you should enter the price and update the description to itemize.  We have to collect both state and town taxes (an additional 6%) for any food or drink add-ons, so their system is also untenable.  Square has great functionality for taxes, a major reason I chose to stay, but now we're losing customers because of this calendar problem they created.

[winniecheng · Accepted solution]

Hi @TandE @TheRealChipA @kinseyroehm @F3_Swanson @CiaoBellaCafe @DreamyPMU @CTrueLMT , thank you for sharing your blunt and honest feedback. My name is Winnie and I'm a product manager on Square Appointments. We are actively working on adding a monthly view to the new online booking flow. While I don't have an exact date, this is our top priority and I will make sure to post here as soon as the update is out. 

I know this change made it more difficult for your clients to book further out and caused undue stress, which is why this is our top priority right now. Feel free to continue sharing any feedback here - we read everything. 

 

[CiaoBellaCafe]

Thank you @winniecheng 

This is great news, we very much look forward to seeing the solution.

Is it also possible to look at allowing zero instead of a five-minute minimum time for service add-ons? For us, and for spas and salons, this feature would allow us to add services that they manage within the appointment.

For now, we use a workaround that takes advantage of buffer time between appointments; if you would like to see our bookings page it’s at this link:

https://book.sweetandsimpleweddings.com

This has been out there for a long time and it may be the only feature of competing applications that Square doesn’t offer.

[CiaoBellaCafe]

Hi @winniecheng is there any progress to report? Getting this fixed is one of our top priorities as well as yours.

[BernadetteA]

Hi @CiaoBellaCafe 👋

Just wanted to let you know that I did check for an update, but I'm not seeing any at this time. I also wasn't able to get an ETA unfortunately, but as soon as I hear of any updates I will come straight here to post. 

[kinseyroehm]

currently my weekly view calendar is accurate.  The monthly view however, has bold days to indicate availability on every day whether or not there is in fact availability.  Perhaps I was too general.... I want a monthly view that ACCURATELY shows openings for booking!!!! not just a calendar of the days.  So now my clients can see the whole month but they have to click through each day to see if there is availability.  LIVID

[egasperini1027]

I agree with everyone else. I am a barber and most of my clients book every 2 weeks. The monthly calendar was a much easier option for them and I agree. I’ve had several complaints already. I think we should atleast have the option if we would like to pick a monthly view or a weekly view 

[winniecheng]

Hi everyone, a monthly view is now available in the new online booking flow. Here's an example of what it looks like:

Clients can access the month view by clicking the arrow below the week view.

Thank you very much for your patience and for sharing your feedback. Feel free to share any additional thoughts you have on this month view. For example, we're looking into an improvement where the month view is open by default if you have no availability for the current week. 

[DreamyPMU]

I’m honestly wondering why this was changed at all. But here’s my additional input:

The booking pop-up was much easier for my clients. Now my booking pop-up is gone and it goes to a whole different “book.squareup.com” url page. Not a fan of this unnecessary step, and that my pop-up is now gone.

And yes, I would much prefer the month view to automatically open by default. This little arrow is an additional extra step that is again — totally unecessary. Especially if there is no availability within the week. 

And one last thing why are the dates available now only slightly darker instead of blue and circled? I have elderly clients who already have trouble booking, not to mention difficulties with their vision. I take this small change very seriously. 

[kinseyroehm]

yay for the monthly view option.  mine however is not showing any indication on the days of the months for availability.  In the weekly view, the days with openings are darker... they are all the same on the monthly view.