Card on File + No-show Protection + Appointments - how do they work together?

[HollyA]

Hi im in the salon & spa industry & we deal with no-shows quite often & currently use square invoice to collect no-show fees. however clients can choose not to pay so its really not the best way to protect your business against no-shows. I am interested in the Card on File feature but i am wondering about gratuity and no-show protection 

The title of this post has been edited from the original: "Card on file" for no-show protection?

[#2]

Hi there @helenabrooke78 and @RMConsultingLLC 👋 Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community. I consulted with our Appointments Team to help answer your questions. Here's the information they've provided me:
 

With Square Appointments, your client has the option to add a Card on File for future appointments, as well as providing their card information for No-Show Protection. While these options are similar, it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

Card on File: This is an optional selection that your client can make when booking an appointment that will allow them to save their card for future purchases. Card on File saves the card to the customer’s profile in your Customer Directory and allows you to charge it whenever you want. This is always optional to the customer and they can unlink their card at any time.

No-Show Protection: This requires clients to provide the card information to book appointments so that you can determine whether or not to charge them based on your cancellation policy. Card information provided through No-Show Protection can only be used for cancellations up to 14 days after the appointment and isn’t applicable on separate purchases or appointments.

A client can not remove the card from No-Show Protection, but they can, however, remove their Card on File from the Customer Directory.

For more information on No-Show Protection, please visit this section of our Support Center.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let us know if you have any additional questions.
 

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Hey @HollyA, thanks for bringing this up!

My best suggestion for no-shows is to go with Square Appointments and set up a cancellation policy. When you create your cancellation policy, you can require that a credit card be used to book online and set the expectation that your customer will be charged a cancelation fee if they do not show up.

Check out our Support Center for specifics, and let us know if you have any other questions! Hope this helps. 🙂

[Valentina · Accepted solution]

I wanted to drop into this thread to clarify a bit more! ✨ 

No-show Protection and Card on File are different features. A client does have the option to remove a Card on Fiile for future purchases, which is typically done when the appointment is booked and they select the Card on Fiile opt-in check box. However, a card cannot be removed from an appointment, as it is saved to that specific appointment for no-show protection.

We store the information we need to charge the card for a no-show fee with the appointment details, not a direct reference to the Card on File, exactly for this reason. Even if a client unlinks a card, we still have the information on hand in order for you to charge a no-show fee to that card if necessary.

You may think that your client unlinked their no-show card because you are unable to charge the no-show fee. What is most likely happening here is that you have selected Fee for each service within the Cancellation Fee settings section, and never assigned a cancellation fee to the particular service being booked. In this case, the booking system will not ask for a credit card:

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hi there @helenabrooke78 and @RMConsultingLLC 👋 Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community. I consulted with our Appointments Team to help answer your questions. Here's the information they've provided me:
 

With Square Appointments, your client has the option to add a Card on File for future appointments, as well as providing their card information for No-Show Protection. While these options are similar, it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

Card on File: This is an optional selection that your client can make when booking an appointment that will allow them to save their card for future purchases. Card on File saves the card to the customer’s profile in your Customer Directory and allows you to charge it whenever you want. This is always optional to the customer and they can unlink their card at any time.

No-Show Protection: This requires clients to provide the card information to book appointments so that you can determine whether or not to charge them based on your cancellation policy. Card information provided through No-Show Protection can only be used for cancellations up to 14 days after the appointment and isn’t applicable on separate purchases or appointments.

A client can not remove the card from No-Show Protection, but they can, however, remove their Card on File from the Customer Directory.

For more information on No-Show Protection, please visit this section of our Support Center.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let us know if you have any additional questions.
 

[Lashesbyalexis1]

Can clients still remove their card info preventing them from getting charged a no show fee?

[bloomicures]

I have booking with no show protection set up. When clients are booking they are not being asked for a card to put on file. Some are and some aren't. Are they finding a way around it? 

[Tom]

Hey @bloomicures,

Welcome to the Seller Community and sorry to hear about the trouble with this! I went to check, and everything should be working as expected.

If your customers are still are not being asked to enter their card information, can you verify that you've enabled "Booking with No-Show Protection" in the online Square Dashboard? To do so, head over to: Appointments > Settings > Payments & Cancellations > Booking with No-Show Protection > Save.

If that doesn't clear this up, please let our Customer Success Team know. They'll be able to take a deeper dive into your settings and get this sorted out ASAP.

[ckirchhoff87]

I am having the same issue, I do not have google booking activated and they are still not being required to enter a credit card to book. how do i fix this?

[isabelle]

Hey @ckirchhoff87-

Thanks for posting in the Seller Community.

Can you ensure that you have the following enabled in Payments & Cancellations?

Let me know! 👀

[JaeleiBeauty]

I have been having this same issue and the ones who don't have the card entered are not showing up which is very few for me but one is too many. It seems to be when they are booking through Google Reserve that it does not ask for card information. I have disabled Google Reserve for the time being. Let me know if you have experienced this or if this can be fixed. 

[Helen]

Hi @JaeleiBeauty. You're right, at this time appointments made through Google Reserve cannot be charged a no-show fee. I'm really sorry that that's not made clearer when you set it up, I'll share your feedback with the Appointments team.  

In the meantime, if you've disabled Google Reserve I also recommend making sure that you've added a cancellation fee for each of your services. That step is required to be able to charge a no-show fee. This post has the steps to add a cancellation fee to each service — here are the steps to add a cancellation fee to a service.

[phoenixinflight]

I have had a couple of appointments come through recently from both Google Reserve and Instagram and neither are integrated with the no-show protection yet. Can this issue be sent to the developing team for further review? Having to go to their file (on desktop) to send a contract requesting card information to be put on file is a lot of hassle and work for a workaround. Also with mentioning Contracts, is there an app that can be used with this feature yet?

I didn't mean to highjack Jaelei's post, but I'm sure they are still experiencing this same issue too, and would like an update.

Thank you for your time,

Kristen R.

[AshleyK]

Hi there @phoenixinflight 🦅 

No show protection is availability with Instagram booking/Facebook booking, but not Google Reserve.

Please give our team a call if no-show protection is not applying to appointments booked via Instagram.

Have a good day! 

[brikraft]

I understand that you have to have "no show protection" on to require a credit card when booking online, but I have it on and customers can still book without entering a credit card. What am I doing wrong?

[JustinC]

@brikraft

That is strange. If you've your setting are saved on Dashboard under Appointments > Settings > Payments & Cancellations > Booking with No-Show Protection, then all your customers should be asked to enter a card when booking. This is worth calling into our Appointments Team so they can take a look on the back-end. 

Feel free to loop back here when you learn more in case others are running into the same issue.

[brikraft]

Hello @JustinC 

I have figured out that under the no show protection I have selected the choice to have a different set fee depending on the service. I had to then go in to every single one of my services and put in a cancellation fee, which was right under the price. Then those services that have a cancellation fee on them, when booked it will ask for a credit card!

[Joe]

This is perfect, @brijraft! So glad you got this solved, and thanks for closing the loop and letting us know. Feel free to hit us back with any questions you might have! 

[bloomicures]

Adding a cancellation fee to each service is still not the problem. I did that and they still can book without a cc. I also have google reserve off. 

[DreamNet]

For us we have the the same problem - it is a glitch in back-end. Customer can leave the credit card information blank and check both items below the credit card information section and appointment will be submitted.

 I authorize DreamNet Computers to store this card for future purchases until I cancel this authorization.

 I have read and agree to the cancelation policy of DreamNet Computers and Square's privacy policy.

[Alex_]

@DreamNet

Thank you for this insight and specific feedback.

We definitely understand how it could benefit your business model. Our teams are constantly looking through our seller's feedback to make necessary improvements, and we will be sure to let you know if anything ever changes or if new updates are released. 

[Brookeylove]

I am having the same problem...I have chosen for the hold credit cards option...when I go to the dashboard, then appointments..there is nothing else that comes up..theres no settings selection after that

[sayra]

Hello @bloomicures and @bloomicures.

I'm happy to look into this for you. I have escalated your question to our Appointments Team for more insight. I will make sure to get back to you here as soon as they reply.

I appreciate your patience.

[sayra]

@bloomicures and @bloomicures. Thanks for your time. After consulting with our Appointments Team. It's suggested to input a specific fee for each service in your Item Library or else the service can be booked without the system asking for the card information.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Locsmith3200]

I have my settings where a client must provide their card.....but some how a lot of new clients are booking without a card!!! Then today I had a no show.....I can see that he put his card on file but it won’t let me charge it at all!!!! Please fix this!!!!

[ashc]

Hey @Locsmith3200 and welcome to the Community.

I moved your post to one of the existing threads that addresses this issue.

There's a couple of settings you'll want to check mentioned in this thread to make sure it's set up correctly.