📝 New to Square Cheatsheet - What do you wish you would've known before accepting credit cards?

[Tom]

Greetings! 👋

I was having a look through some of the most commonly asked questions from buyers and sellers who are new to the credit card processing scene. After a while, I noticed a few themes that can cause unnecessary strife and, in the spirit of making sure everyone gets off to the best start, I thought it would be helpful to put our heads together.

Think back to when you first started accepting card payments and ask: "What did you wish you would have known before joining Square?"

At Square, our purpose is economic empowerment. One of the goals that falls under that is to provide a safe, seamless experience so that you can focus on running your business, though there are a few constraints that you might run into as you set up shop. Knowing what to expect can ensure that everyone is seeing eye-to-eye. 

Without further ado, I started a cheatsheet with some of most frequent issues that can make interactions a bit weird — having some talking points and background knowledge can help prevent any awkwardness.

• Bank verifications can take up to 5 days to complete. What it looks like — you've created your Square account, added your banking information, and started accepting payments in the same day! (Woot!) But then you notice that your deposit hasn't shown up the following day. 🤔
  
  Square can't speed up this process, so be prepared for a slight delay when you initially link your bank. It's okay to accept payments during this window of time, but we won't be able to send your money until after the verification completes itself. The sooner you enter your banking information, the better. Timing is everything here — find more helpful tips in Caty's post about locating your deposit. ⏳
  
  
  
• Pending charges. What it looks like — a payment wasn't successful, so you charged the card again and it went through the second time. Your customer comes back to you and says: "I see an additional charge on my bank statement. You charged me twice!" 😟
  
  If a payment card is declined or voided, your customer might see a pending charge on their bank statement. While this may be alarming and confusing for the customer, it can be helpful for you to explain that this is probably a pending charge — a common occurrence across the industry.
  
  Conversations about pending charges can be challenging because, in many cases, a buyer may think that they've been over-charged. Simply knowing that many banks may display an attempted payment on a cardholder's statement and being able to communicate that with your customer in the moment can help alleviate any anxiety and reinstate trust.
  
  For example, if you attempted to accept a payment card and the payment was declined, you can preemptively tell your customer that they may see a pending charge on their bank statement which will drop off automatically within few business days — depending on their bank's processing speeds.
  
  Need backup? You can rely on your payment history in your Square Dashboard to confirm whether or not a payment went through. Or, our Support Team can serve as another lifeline. 👩‍💻 👨‍💻
  
  
  
• Automatic Receipts. What it looks like — you complete your first payment with a buyer and they immediately receive an emailed/texted receipt. They look up at you in shock and ask: "How did you get my email!? I didn't permit you to use this information." 😳
  
  You can explain that Square offers automatic receipts. You might want to ask them if they recall entering their email/phone with another Square seller. If that helps jog thier memory, it would help explain that they've assigned that email to the card for automatic receipts. Assure them that their contact information is secure and let them know how to opt out, if they wish. 👍

How about you? Did you encounter anything unexpected as you got up and running with the Point of Sale app?

• If it affected your customer, how were you able to work with them to resolve and maintain trust?
  
  
• If it affected your business internally, how were you able to clear it up and what advice would you share with fellow sellers?

[Ron]

@Tom Before joining Square I was unaware of how thorough Square's POS system was and how easy it would be to set it up. Owning a busy lunch counter we have many departments (categories) with many options/sizes under each category. Square made our checkouts so much faster with our employees just hitting the "Category" and then hitting the item they want to ring up. For example we have a "Sandwich Category" with 24 different types of Sandwiches below it, now our clerks simply hit Sandwich....the screen displays all our Sandwiches and they select what they need. I initially joined Square because of the simple fee structure...no added on fees for different credit/reward cards, no batch fees, no closeout fees, etc. The POS system was such an added bonus. If I knew about that before I would have been a loyal dedicated Square user much before I joined. Our whole staff just loves Square!