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.
 

[estydawna]

My no show protection stopped working. I need a telephone number to call. Please help 

[Arie]

Hey @estydawna,

Sorry to hear about the trouble with your no show protection settings! Get in touch here when you get a chance. 

[Tiffany5]

I want my cancellation fee half priced charged and my No show full price how can I do that?

[RMConsultingLLC]

It is a violation of federal consumer protection laws to charge 100% for a service not rendered. 

I know many spa professionals will set the cancellation policy to 50%

and then just charge the client as though they arrived for a no show. But this is not compliant and would leave you vulnerable to a chargeback.

[RMConsultingLLC]

It is not legal to charge 100% for a service not rendered. For this reason most payment processors do not allow a two-tiered cancellation policy to avoid this practice.

[RMConsultingLLC]

Is there a way from blocking clients from removing their card on file after booking their appointment? Several clients remove their card on file making it impossible to charge them the cancellation policy.

also how can we block a repeat offender from being able to book again due to non-payment.

[RMConsultingLLC]

There seems to be an issue where clients are able to remove the card from no-show protection. Rendering that now paid feature kind of useless.

any suggestions or updates on this?

[_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.
 

[RMConsultingLLC]

This was my understanding. Do you have a recommendation for addressing a clients card declining no-show protection?

Im in a group of 42k spa professionals and the concern is that we cannot recoup the cost nor can we block these clients from rebooking. 

it would be nice to know what Square recommends in this situation.

[RADBeauty]

Almost every time I have tried to charge the no-show fee its declined. And I continue up to the 14 day period to try and its declined non-stop. Such a pointless feature if they are shady enough to know how to disable the card. 

[Ellen2]

But the client can turn off the card.  

You will have to catch the moment they turn it back on while being used to be able to charge the No-Show Fee.    Not really a solution.

[RMConsultingLLC]

Send an invoice and block from booking until paid in full.

[LexiLynn]

Is there any way to be notified if somebody removes their card from file? Like an email that can be sent out with the client's name so that we are at least notified if somebody does this?

[_Violet]

Hi @LexiLynn  - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community👋

Just to let you know, the Customer is always allowed to remove their card on file but they are unable to remove their card used for no-show protection. When you enable the no-show protection feature, your clients will be required to add a payment card to complete their booking. This card can be charged if your client violates your cancellation policy.

At this time, there isn't a way to be notified of a card on file being removed from a Customer Account/Profile - this would be considered a feature request. To learn more about how feature requests work, please see this post from one of our Seller Community Moderators. 

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

[RMConsultingLLC]

This is a GREAT suggestion. Because finding out after the service is completed or when the fees have already been incurred has been problematic!

[robertotorres]

Tom, I set up this feature in my square account and lately, people have been able to book appointments without putting their card for the “No Show Protection”. 

When I go back to do an appointment myself, I can’t do an appointment without putting my card. I asked a friend to try and she couldn’t make the appointment without putting the card. And yet, I’ve seen a few people that have been able to make their appointments without putting the card.

Why is that???

[RMConsultingLLC]

If you have the integration turned on with Google my business or Facebook those platforms do not allow payment information for no-show protection to be acquired.

if they are booking on your website you cannot see the no-show protection payment details. You only can see the Card On File which is intended for purchases.

clients can remove the card on file but they cannot remove the no-show protection.

however, if the card for no-show protection declines you can try again for up to 14 days.

if the card for no-show protection is unable to be charged due to non-sufficient funds then you will need to send an invoice and inform the client they cannot book future appointments until the balance of the invoice is paid in full.

card on file and no show protection are two separate tools.

[estydawna]

This feature only works when it wants to and now they are going to charge $29 a month to use this feature that does not work 100% of the time. I may be looking to switch. 

[Melody2]

Is there a way to set up deposits/no-show option for online booking for only my new clients? I don't wish to do that to my regulars. 

[EJ_]

@Melody2  While there isn't a way to do this for specific clients, you can implement a cancellation policy with Square Appointments. Check out this existing thread for more information.

[UrbanShaveSD]

Yes, you can have clients pre pay when scheduling with your businiss on Square Appointments.