Feedback requested: Customer engagement

[jwheeler]

Hey community,

I'm Jack W, a Product Manager on the Square for Restaurants team, and we're curious to know your preferences regarding customer engagement in the POS. 

In device settings, there is a section called "Customer Engagement," and a subsection called "Collect Information." 

I'm curious to know: 

• What do you expect these settings to do?
• How would you want to configure the setting?
• How would you use these settings?

And, lastly, how else do you think about customer engagement and the role it plays in your business?

Thanks,

Jack W

[londontea]

We have two sections to our restaurant: a quick service cafe that's open all week, and a full service afternoon tea served on weekends. 

In a quick service environment I would expect this to allow the customer to enter their phone and/or email to sign up for marketing. I'm not sure how I would expect this to work in a full service environment; we use printed receipts so the customer never interacts with our iPad. 

However, I know that's not how this feature currently works, which is why we don't use it. Staff don't have the time to add a new customer to the system at the point of sale, we're trying to keep the line moving. At most they'll just check to see if a reward is available. 

While I would love for customers to be able to enter their contact info at the register, it would really hold up the line. At most I just want them to be able to enter their phone number for our loyalty program. This feature seems much more oriented to retail sales, where you may want to track a customer's purchase history and there's usually more time spent at the register. 

I'm happy to configure the setting in the Devices section of the Dashboard, I prefer to manage devices remotely as none of our staff have permissions to access settings. 

For me, customer engagement is largely tied to our loyalty and marketing programs. We want to keep customers informed and we want to give them incentives to come back. Regular communication with customers – especially when we're not trying to sell them something – helped keep our customers informed and engendered goodwill during the pandemic, which in turn translated to more sales due to their loyalty. 

[urmom]

where is it at if i may ask

[jwheeler]

Thanks @londontea - it sounds like there's a tension of adding customers to loyalty and marketing without holding up the line at your business. And, for full-service, there isn't an obvious way for customers to get onto your loyalty programs. 

What's the ideal scenario for you?

[londontea]

For counter service, I'd like a customer to be able to check-in on the customer display during the sale. If they could enter their phone number or email as the cashier is bagging up their pastries then that would save a lot of time after the sale, and they might feel less pressured to get out of the way for the next customer. 

I can't think of any feasible way to make this work for full service afternoon teas. Any collection of customer information would have to be after the fact, such as signing up via a QR code or link on the printed copy of the receipt. I would love to be able to market to these customers as they tend to be higher spenders. I considered getting a Terminal to accept payments at the table, but paying at the table is not proper for a high touch service. 

[blue40]

What does that mean Collect payment at the checkout

[blue40]

Okay sounds great what do I have to do to get active 

[jwheeler]

@blue40 to adjust your settings, please go to: https://squareup.com/dashboard/point-of-sale/devices. Here, you'll be able to select whether you'll collect customer information before or after checkout.

For "before checkout," the button does not impact a guest's experience or checkout flow, but rather gives your staff the ability to add a customer to a sale. 

[CHEFPHILIP]

Hello Jack. This is Chef Philip McCulloch Sr. Representing American Private Chef Services LLC.  I would expect it to be able to capture all clients I formation from multiple programs, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Tumbler, Twitter, etc. This would allow the marketing area of Square to capitalize more possible clients as well as assist us with our newsletters etc. Secondly, it should be able to have clients interaction if they choose to do so. I also think that it would be nice if interacts to be able to track and respond to them from a instant notification from Square to the purveyors.  Let us know how it works our please.

[jwheeler]

Thank you @CHEFPHILIP. The way this works: 

• If you select Before Checkout, it gives your staff the option of adding a customer to a check before a customer has paid. 
• If you select After Checkout, it gives your staff the option of adding a customer to a check after the customer has paid.

In both instances, the customer is not interacting with the point of sale. 

[LLCafe]

We have a full service restaurant and we don't use the setting because it would slow us down too much. We'd really like a way for the customer to enter their information from the receipt. Something like scanning a QR code that prompts them to enter their information to join our loyalty program or use their rewards / pay for their order.

[jwheeler]

Thanks for this feedback @LLCafe !