Manage 'Text Us' button with Square Appointments Online Booking Site
With Square Appointments, you can offer the 'Text Us' button to your Online Booking Site visitors as a convenient way to directly get in touch with your business. This feature uses Square Messages to facilitate a seamless and interactive messaging experience, which you can come back to anytime in your Square Messages Inbox.
The 'Text Us' button helps you never miss a sale by allowing both prospective and existing customers to get in touch with you directly during the online booking process.
Square Messages is accessible from your online Square Dashboard and is available with the following Square apps on iOS and Android devices: Square Appointments, Square for Retail, Square Point of Sale, Square for Restaurants, and Square Invoices. Square Messages is also available on Square hardware, including Square Stand, Square Terminal, and Square Register.
Note: This feature is only available for sellers who have online booking enabled with Square Appointments.
Before you begin
The 'Text Us' button is enabled by default as part of your online booking flow. If you don’t have an Online Booking Site and want to use this feature, simply enable your free online booking website from either your Square Appointments dashboard or Square Appointments app.
You can deactivate or reactivate this feature at any time by visiting the Square Messages or Square Appointments settings within your Square account.
Manage settings for ‘Text Us’ button
You can enable or disable this feature either through Square Appointments or Square Messages.
From Square Appointments:
Log in to your Square Appointments Dashboard and click Online Booking > Settings.
Toggle the Enable Text us button ON/OFF.
Click the Manage button to customize the response time.
Click Save.
From Square Messages:
Log in to your Square Dashboard and click the Messages icon in the top right navigation bar.
Click the gear icon at the top left to access Settings.
Under Text Us button, toggle Booking site ON/OFF.
Click Save.
You can find further customization options in your Square Messages Settings. For example, you can customize the response time that is shown on the Text us button to visitors on your online booking flow. By default, the response time is set to “As soon as we can”.
To customize the response time:
Under Settings, click on Response time.
Pick the response time that works best for your business.
Click Save.
Note: If you have turned on “Do Not Disturb” in Square Messages, the Text us button will be disabled from your Square Online booking site and you will not see “Text Us” in your Square Messages settings. You can turn off “Do not Disturb” under Square Messages settings to access the Text Us button and other notification settings. If Text Us was enabled prior to turning on Do Not Disturb, it will be re-enabled when Do Not Disturb is turned off.
Learn more about Do Not Disturb mode.
Receive customer inquiries
When your customers use the Text Us button to submit an inquiry to your business, you will receive a message in Square Messages and a new customer record will be created in your Customer Directory that will include the name and the phone number provided by the customer.
In order to submit an inquiry:
The customer clicks the ‘Text Us’ button on the bottom right corner of their screen.
The customer will be prompted to enter their name, phone number, and a message.
Once “Send text” is selected, the customer will receive a text containing an automated follow-up message, allowing them to continue a conversation with you through SMS.
Customers are not required to submit an inquiry to book online. At any step of the booking flow, your customers can continue with booking without engaging with the Text Us button.
Note: The Text Us form fields (e.g. name, phone and message) are not customizable at this time.
Reply to customers
To reply to a customer:
Log in to your Square Dashboard and click the Messages icon from the navigation bar.
From the Square apps, tap ≡ More > Messages.
Select a conversation from your inbox and type your message.
Click the arrow to send your message.
When responding to your customers, you can use features such as creating an appointment and sending a photo, payment link, estimate or invoice directly within Square Messages.
Note: If you receive unwanted or spam messages, you can always block the customer from sending you messages via Square Messages. Learn more about blocking unwanted messages with Square Messages.