Save time, earn more sales with Square Appointments

Make sure clients don’t ghost an appointment again with Square’s new booking and scheduling app, Square Appointments. The app comes to Canada with the hope of helping out service businesses—everything from dog groomers, hairstylists, to personal trainers. The app can help its users automatically remind clients of upcoming appointments using preferred methods of getting in touch with them (whether through text or email reminders). Square Appointments can also help the clients reschedule appointments themselves online. Individuals get access to this for free, while businesses with multiple calendars get to try out the app and service for free for the first 30 days.

“Gone are the days when people were willing to play phone tag with businesses or only schedule appointments during business hours,” said Alyssa Henry, Seller Lead at Square. “We are thrilled to bring Square Appointments to Canadian businesses, further leveling the playing field for service providers across the country and helping them bring in more business by letting their customers book online at any time of day.”

Square launches new contactless chip reader in Canada for $59

Square founder and CEO Jack Dorsey leads a roundtable of Canadian entrepreneurs during the launch of the Square readerBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Toronto- Payments innovagtor Square held an event this morning in downtown Toronto where they launched a new contactless reaer for local businesses to take debit and credit payments. Designed in part by hardware engineers from Toronto's North York office, now allows businesses to acceot various ways to pay including Interact as well as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Fitbit Play.

The new reader allows customers to tap their cards, mobile devices or wearables to make a payment securely in seconds.

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Square makes it easier to give customer feedback with new feature

A new tool coming to Square is making it easier for local Canadian businesses to interact with their customers after a sale to help resolve any issues that might have arisen from a transaction. Aptly called Square Feedback, businesses can get customer feedback through their digital receipt. If you make a purchase through a Square retailer, you will be prompted to receive their receipt via email or text. Right from the receipt, there is a question that asks “How was your experience?” You can select the smiley face and say satisfied or the frowny face and express your dissatisfaction with the experience. You can then elaborate about what went wrong. Sellers will receive your complaint and if you opted to get a response from the seller, the seller can respond to you directly via the Square Dashboard and ask any follow-up questions or clear up any misunderstanding or issue.

Sellers can manage customer feedback right from the Square Dashboard. It’s a free tool and part of Square’s latest Point of Sale app. Instead of having to take your grievances to social media, this new Square tool will help solve your problems immediately and help the sellers improve their service at the same time, too.

Square Virtual Terminal makes it easy to accept payments on PCs

Simplifying the payment process for businesses, Square introduces Virtual Terminal. This allows you to accept payments from your customers right from your computer. While mobile devices are great business tools, Square has heard from sellers that a lot of them still rely on computers for back-office operations, especially since these give them access to tools and features that aren’t available on mobile gadgets.

Virtual Terminal is meant for professional service providers, contractors, or any businesses that don’t need to regularly accept payments from clients face-to-face. It lets you accept mail order, telephone, and business payments right from the browser or Square Dashboard. You can even send out digital receipts to customers via SMS or email. Every single payment made to you is trackable along with all the other payments processed with Square. All you need to do to get paid is enter your customer’s card information, click Charge, and then you’re done. You get access to these funds as quickly as the next business day.