5 ms·

Square Appointments

113 points by hodgesmr 12y ago

sleepyhead 12y ago
Square bought BookFresh in February. http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-to-add-booking-services-for-merchants/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-t...
bitonomics 12y ago
It's really cool to the additional value being added tot he platform outside of payments.
ankurpatel 12y ago
Seems like they are competing with MyTime - http://www.mytime.com http://www.mytime.com. The only thing they lack is good search to find businesses
- bitonomics 12y ago
  This opens the door for them to compete with a lot of these platforms. Since they already have the hardware on site (iPad) they start to become a competitor for StyleSeat, MyTime, Noshlist, NoWait, etc.
  - ankurpatel 12y ago
    Yes the greatest advantage SquareUp has is that they already have a list of clients that they can advertise this to. Clients that might be using their SquareUp credit card processing system.
- blang 12y ago
  or appointment reminder https://www.appointmentreminder.org https://www.appointmentreminder.org
  - ankurpatel 12y ago
    Appointment reminder doesnt seem much like a competition as they do more than just reminders. They also setup a site and make it easy for people to select a time that is free.
    - michaelmior 12y ago
      Square Appointments does those things as well according to the link. In any case, I don't understand how doing MORE would cause Appointment Reminder to cease being competition for Square.
Macsenour 12y ago
I'm interested in this new wrinkle, and always looking for something that will help out my day. But is $30 a month, for a single person, a competitive pricing plan?
- ceejayoz 12y ago
  For some businesses, that's going to be paid for in the first day or two if it's able to reduce no-shows.
yalogin 12y ago
Why is it not free? These additional features are to lure you in to using the payment platform and lock businesses in. More so I need end-users to also install the square app to use this feature. So there is that additional friction as well. This is really not something they should be charging for.
- ceejayoz 12y ago
  Haven't there been indications that the payment platform isn't particularly lucrative? Lots of volume, not much profit.
- ryderm 12y ago
  > Add a booking button to your email and embed the Square Appointments widget directly on your website or WordPress site. No coding required. It’s as simple as copy and paste. End users do not need to install an app
- logn 12y ago
  If you have enough business that you need a scheduling solution, I don't think $90/mo for all-you-can-eat SaaS is anything businesses would think twice about. Actually, I think it's odd how Square Cash is totally free and always makes me question what the catch is (probably that you'll end up with your data in some next-gen consumer credit scoring system).
  - subpixel 12y ago
    > I think it's odd how Square Cash is totally free My assumption has always been that this cannot last. That said, if it's only free when you're using another paid Square product, that could be a really interesting approach.
drsim 12y ago
I shopped around for a service like this a week ago. We went with Setmore: http://www.setmore.com http://www.setmore.com. Clean design, their branding is subtle on the free tier, multiple staff/services, ical, and most of all it's extremely easy for customers to create/re-schedule/cancel appointments. Over Square Appointments I'd say their pricing is much more keen (substantial free tier, $25/month premium).
alberth 12y ago
Why would I pay $90/mo [1] with Square when I can pay for the same services and features directly from BookFresh for just $20/mo [2]? In case you are not aware, Square purchased BookFresh back in February [3]. I think it's a safe assumption that Square Appointments is just rebranded BookFresh [1] https://squareup.com/appointments#pricing https://squareup.com/appointments#pricing [2] https://www.bookfresh.com/pricing https://www.bookfresh.com/pricing [3] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-to-add-booking-services-for-merchants/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-t... EDIT: links
- opendais 12y ago
  If they stop marketing BookFresh...people don't buy what they don't know about, eh?
- sleepyhead 12y ago
  Square Appointments looks quite different from BookFresh though. And it will probably get an integration with the Square POS very soon.
VLM 12y ago
Is there any automation of the common yet difficult problem of "your dentist / hair stylist / doctor has called in sick today and we're trying to reschedule all of todays appointments". This is not all that unusual. My wife's hair stylist was sick two appointments ago and my kids pediatrician office (windowless) had a summer time air conditioning failure. Its not in the PR page so I assume its not handled although this would be a very handy feature. "One click reschedule everyone for today"
kin 12y ago
Most of the comments here seems to be about the pricing. IMO if you're a small business, the pricing is fair. Yes, competition may be better/cheaper but keep in mind that Square is trying to create an entire platform here. They've got payments, point of sale, invoicing, and analytics.
spitfire 12y ago
So I wonder what ran through patio11's mind when he read that... Though it is an all or nothing proposition - you can't take just the appointment reminding features and leave everything else.
- nthj 12y ago
  The number of small businesses who (1) are not currently using Square and (2) are happy using $EXISTING_POS_SYSTEM and won't be convinced to use Square anytime soon and (3) would make significantly larger amounts of cash being offered something like Appointment Reminder as a standalone service that integrates with any POS system is a large enough market to feed patio11 and his family for a very, very long time.
  - spitfire 12y ago
    Yup. That's the saving grace here. "Uh. square doesn't integrate with my existing {healthcare|HVAC|puppy mill|spa treatment} platform." will keep him going.
- patio11 12y ago
  Prior to reading this my top of mind worry was wondering if I'll make it up Mt. Fuji today. After reading this, it still is.
  - dennisgorelik 12y ago
    https://siteanalytics.compete.com/appointmentreminder.org https://siteanalytics.compete.com/appointmentreminder.org "This site has relatively low traffic." https://siteanalytics.compete.com/squareup.com https://siteanalytics.compete.com/squareup.com Jun 2014 Unique Visitors: 1,403,543 Don't you worry about squareup consuming all the oxygen in your room?
    - tptacek 12y ago
      This is an object lesson about customer segmentation and about purchasing intent.
rglover 12y ago
Isn't this what patio11's Appointment Reminder essentially does?
anishkothari 12y ago
Thanks HN for these comments. I was looking for an appointment SaaS for a dental office and was only aware of ZocDoc[0] which charges a steep $300 per month. [0]http://www.zocdoc.com http://www.zocdoc.com
- crapshoot101 12y ago
  ZocDoc's offerings are a little different - they are essentially doing patient scheduling and marketing/outreach for you, and getting doctors / dentists new patients (from what I understand about patient economics, about 1 a month justifies the spend).
  - anishkothari 12y ago
    ZocDoc is certainly different, but for a small office $240 a year is easier to digest than $3600 a year. If it's for a group practice, then it's a different story. I don't think ZocDoc is particularly great with marketing and outreach, it's basically Yelp + appointment scheduling.
    - joseman 12y ago
      I can comment on both ZocDoc as I have second hand experience with a DDS that uses it. ZocDoc handles marketing and DRIVES patients to book appointments by showcasing them on their website and mobile apps. It doesn't guarantee new patients, but younger demographic of people DO prefer to use it over the phone call method. Dentists also get reviews from verified patients, which builds credibility (vs Yelp reviews from anyone). I see value in Square Appointments because they're enabling scheduling management and communications on web and mobile. So an underutilized small business website can now add that capability. Pricing is competitive. It's the cost of doing business. Another note. An API would be useful. Great post. Looking forward to integrating this for a DDS.
- foobarqux 12y ago
  Do you know about Weave?
chiph 12y ago
My barber uses Appointy. http://appointy.com/ http://appointy.com/
wahsd 12y ago
Another example of Google squandering a good thing. They had appointments built into calendar, pushed Google apps to businesses, then promptly shut down appointments. I just recently noticed They slipped appointments back in to Google Apps Calendar, but it's still just wonky and not integrated well in typical Google fashion.
- shliachtx 12y ago
  I don't think Google is interested in getting into this business...
  - wahsd 12y ago
    They are inherently in this business through Google Apps, they even offer the appointment making feature and functionality. It's just poorly executed, just like so much at Google.
    - shliachtx 12y ago
      I.e. they don't care about this as a product, do they don't invest in it.
hayksaakian 12y ago
Competing with appointment reminder now ;)
victorhooi 12y ago
I wonder why there don't seem to be many open-source options in this space? I did a Google before, but I could only find a single option - https://code.google.com/p/easy-appointments/ https://code.google.com/p/easy-appointments/, a PHP app. Is anybody aware of any others?
- sleepyhead 12y ago
  Disclaimer: I develop http://makeplans.net http://makeplans.net which is also an online appointment booking solution (SaaS). I don't think any of our clients would be interested in hosting their own software. Most of our clients don't even have an IT-department. But sure there is a market for open-source solutions as well. Particularly if you need customisation or to be integrated with offline applications. But with a good API and API-connecting services like Zapier integration is becoming less and less a valid point to host your own software. I never heard about Easy Appointments before, thanks for the link it actually does look quite good unlike most other open source business applications. There a few other open source solutions out there but it is more like Wordpress plugins.
BruLee 12y ago
Congrats to Square on their new product. Execution looks a bit "cheap" but I'm sure they will be working hard on it. I recommend https://www.appointlet.com https://www.appointlet.com for online appointment scheduling.

113 points by hodgesmr 12y ago

Square bought BookFresh in February. http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-to-add-booking-services-for-merchants/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-t...

bitonomics 12y ago

It's really cool to the additional value being added tot he platform outside of payments.

ankurpatel 12y ago

Seems like they are competing with MyTime - http://www.mytime.com http://www.mytime.com. The only thing they lack is good search to find businesses

bitonomics 12y ago
This opens the door for them to compete with a lot of these platforms. Since they already have the hardware on site (iPad) they start to become a competitor for StyleSeat, MyTime, Noshlist, NoWait, etc.
- ankurpatel 12y ago
  Yes the greatest advantage SquareUp has is that they already have a list of clients that they can advertise this to. Clients that might be using their SquareUp credit card processing system.
blang 12y ago
or appointment reminder https://www.appointmentreminder.org https://www.appointmentreminder.org
- ankurpatel 12y ago
  Appointment reminder doesnt seem much like a competition as they do more than just reminders. They also setup a site and make it easy for people to select a time that is free.
  - michaelmior 12y ago
    Square Appointments does those things as well according to the link. In any case, I don't understand how doing MORE would cause Appointment Reminder to cease being competition for Square.

Macsenour 12y ago

I'm interested in this new wrinkle, and always looking for something that will help out my day. But is $30 a month, for a single person, a competitive pricing plan?

ceejayoz 12y ago
For some businesses, that's going to be paid for in the first day or two if it's able to reduce no-shows.

yalogin 12y ago

Why is it not free? These additional features are to lure you in to using the payment platform and lock businesses in. More so I need end-users to also install the square app to use this feature. So there is that additional friction as well. This is really not something they should be charging for.

ceejayoz 12y ago
Haven't there been indications that the payment platform isn't particularly lucrative? Lots of volume, not much profit.
ryderm 12y ago
> Add a booking button to your email and embed the Square Appointments widget directly on your website or WordPress site. No coding required. It’s as simple as copy and paste. End users do not need to install an app
logn 12y ago
If you have enough business that you need a scheduling solution, I don't think $90/mo for all-you-can-eat SaaS is anything businesses would think twice about. Actually, I think it's odd how Square Cash is totally free and always makes me question what the catch is (probably that you'll end up with your data in some next-gen consumer credit scoring system).
- subpixel 12y ago
  > I think it's odd how Square Cash is totally free My assumption has always been that this cannot last. That said, if it's only free when you're using another paid Square product, that could be a really interesting approach.

drsim 12y ago

I shopped around for a service like this a week ago. We went with Setmore: http://www.setmore.com http://www.setmore.com. Clean design, their branding is subtle on the free tier, multiple staff/services, ical, and most of all it's extremely easy for customers to create/re-schedule/cancel appointments. Over Square Appointments I'd say their pricing is much more keen (substantial free tier, $25/month premium).

alberth 12y ago

Why would I pay $90/mo [1] with Square when I can pay for the same services and features directly from BookFresh for just $20/mo [2]? In case you are not aware, Square purchased BookFresh back in February [3]. I think it's a safe assumption that Square Appointments is just rebranded BookFresh [1] https://squareup.com/appointments#pricing https://squareup.com/appointments#pricing [2] https://www.bookfresh.com/pricing https://www.bookfresh.com/pricing [3] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-to-add-booking-services-for-merchants/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/26/square-acquires-bookfresh-t... EDIT: links

opendais 12y ago
If they stop marketing BookFresh...people don't buy what they don't know about, eh?
sleepyhead 12y ago
Square Appointments looks quite different from BookFresh though. And it will probably get an integration with the Square POS very soon.

VLM 12y ago

Is there any automation of the common yet difficult problem of "your dentist / hair stylist / doctor has called in sick today and we're trying to reschedule all of todays appointments". This is not all that unusual. My wife's hair stylist was sick two appointments ago and my kids pediatrician office (windowless) had a summer time air conditioning failure. Its not in the PR page so I assume its not handled although this would be a very handy feature. "One click reschedule everyone for today"

kin 12y ago

Most of the comments here seems to be about the pricing. IMO if you're a small business, the pricing is fair. Yes, competition may be better/cheaper but keep in mind that Square is trying to create an entire platform here. They've got payments, point of sale, invoicing, and analytics.

spitfire 12y ago

So I wonder what ran through patio11's mind when he read that... Though it is an all or nothing proposition - you can't take just the appointment reminding features and leave everything else.

nthj 12y ago
The number of small businesses who (1) are not currently using Square and (2) are happy using $EXISTING_POS_SYSTEM and won't be convinced to use Square anytime soon and (3) would make significantly larger amounts of cash being offered something like Appointment Reminder as a standalone service that integrates with any POS system is a large enough market to feed patio11 and his family for a very, very long time.
- spitfire 12y ago
  Yup. That's the saving grace here. "Uh. square doesn't integrate with my existing {healthcare|HVAC|puppy mill|spa treatment} platform." will keep him going.
patio11 12y ago
Prior to reading this my top of mind worry was wondering if I'll make it up Mt. Fuji today. After reading this, it still is.
- dennisgorelik 12y ago
  https://siteanalytics.compete.com/appointmentreminder.org https://siteanalytics.compete.com/appointmentreminder.org "This site has relatively low traffic." https://siteanalytics.compete.com/squareup.com https://siteanalytics.compete.com/squareup.com Jun 2014 Unique Visitors: 1,403,543 Don't you worry about squareup consuming all the oxygen in your room?
  - tptacek 12y ago
    This is an object lesson about customer segmentation and about purchasing intent.

rglover 12y ago

Isn't this what patio11's Appointment Reminder essentially does?

anishkothari 12y ago

Thanks HN for these comments. I was looking for an appointment SaaS for a dental office and was only aware of ZocDoc[0] which charges a steep $300 per month. [0]http://www.zocdoc.com http://www.zocdoc.com

crapshoot101 12y ago
ZocDoc's offerings are a little different - they are essentially doing patient scheduling and marketing/outreach for you, and getting doctors / dentists new patients (from what I understand about patient economics, about 1 a month justifies the spend).
- anishkothari 12y ago
  ZocDoc is certainly different, but for a small office $240 a year is easier to digest than $3600 a year. If it's for a group practice, then it's a different story. I don't think ZocDoc is particularly great with marketing and outreach, it's basically Yelp + appointment scheduling.
  - joseman 12y ago
    I can comment on both ZocDoc as I have second hand experience with a DDS that uses it. ZocDoc handles marketing and DRIVES patients to book appointments by showcasing them on their website and mobile apps. It doesn't guarantee new patients, but younger demographic of people DO prefer to use it over the phone call method. Dentists also get reviews from verified patients, which builds credibility (vs Yelp reviews from anyone). I see value in Square Appointments because they're enabling scheduling management and communications on web and mobile. So an underutilized small business website can now add that capability. Pricing is competitive. It's the cost of doing business. Another note. An API would be useful. Great post. Looking forward to integrating this for a DDS.
foobarqux 12y ago
Do you know about Weave?

chiph 12y ago

My barber uses Appointy. http://appointy.com/ http://appointy.com/

wahsd 12y ago

Another example of Google squandering a good thing. They had appointments built into calendar, pushed Google apps to businesses, then promptly shut down appointments. I just recently noticed They slipped appointments back in to Google Apps Calendar, but it's still just wonky and not integrated well in typical Google fashion.

shliachtx 12y ago
I don't think Google is interested in getting into this business...
- wahsd 12y ago
  They are inherently in this business through Google Apps, they even offer the appointment making feature and functionality. It's just poorly executed, just like so much at Google.
  - shliachtx 12y ago
    I.e. they don't care about this as a product, do they don't invest in it.

hayksaakian 12y ago

Competing with appointment reminder now ;)

victorhooi 12y ago

I wonder why there don't seem to be many open-source options in this space? I did a Google before, but I could only find a single option - https://code.google.com/p/easy-appointments/ https://code.google.com/p/easy-appointments/, a PHP app. Is anybody aware of any others?

sleepyhead 12y ago
Disclaimer: I develop http://makeplans.net http://makeplans.net which is also an online appointment booking solution (SaaS). I don't think any of our clients would be interested in hosting their own software. Most of our clients don't even have an IT-department. But sure there is a market for open-source solutions as well. Particularly if you need customisation or to be integrated with offline applications. But with a good API and API-connecting services like Zapier integration is becoming less and less a valid point to host your own software. I never heard about Easy Appointments before, thanks for the link it actually does look quite good unlike most other open source business applications. There a few other open source solutions out there but it is more like Wordpress plugins.

BruLee 12y ago

Congrats to Square on their new product. Execution looks a bit "cheap" but I'm sure they will be working hard on it. I recommend https://www.appointlet.com https://www.appointlet.com for online appointment scheduling.