Customer check-ins

Customer check-ins texts a customer after a visit to ask how it went. When they stop replying, AI reads the conversation: a happy customer gets a text asking for a review, and anything else comes to you as an alert in your inbox, where you reply to them yourself.

Before you beginCopy Anchor Link

• Beta access. Check-ins is switched on account by account. Once it is on for you, Check-ins appears in the sidebar.
• Square, connected to the location. A check-in starts from a visit, and a visit is an order Square records at that location. The customer's phone number on the order is how we know who to text.
• A registered texting number for the location. Check-ins texts from the same number as Coupons, one number per location. The carriers have to approve it with wording that covers check-ins. If you registered for Coupons before check-ins existed, Setup tells you the registration covers coupons only; email support to change it.
• The store's time zone. Every time on this page is the store's own clock, so Setup asks for the time zone if the location does not have one.
• Customers who agreed to texts. Only people who agreed to hear from you get a check-in, the same people Coupons can text.

How a check-in worksCopy Anchor Link

1. A customer pays at your counter, and Square records the order.
2. A while later, we text them your check-in, which asks how their visit went.
3. They reply, in as many texts as they like. We wait until they go quiet.
4. AI reads the whole conversation and decides whether they are happy.
5. A happy customer gets your review ask, a short text with a link to your review page. Anyone else does not: you get an alert, and the conversation waits for you in your inbox.

Every text starts with your business name. The check-in also ends with the opt-out line, so the customer can reply STOP; the texts after it carry your name only.

Who gets a check-in, and whenCopy Anchor Link

A check-in goes out after a visit, once per visit, when all of these are true:

• The order has a phone number on it, and it matches one person in your customer list who agreed to texts.
• The number is a US number.
• They have not had a check-in from you in the last 30 days, at any of your locations.
• They are not getting a coupon text from you that day. A coupon created later that same day still sends.
• The visit happened after you turned check-ins on. Earlier visits never get one.

You choose how long after the visit the check-in goes out: 1 hour, 2 hours or 4 hours, or Next morning. Every automatic text also keeps to texting hours. We only text between 9:00am and 8:00pm on your storefront's clock, and from noon on Sundays. That is not a setting. A check-in that falls due outside those hours waits for them to open, and Next morning means when texting opens the next day.

Anyone who replies STOP gets nothing more from you, at any of your locations. We never ask someone for a review we know they already left.

Set up check-ins for a locationCopy Anchor Link

Settings are kept for each location separately. Setup takes a few minutes, and nothing is texted until you turn it on.

1. Open Check-ins in the sidebar and choose Setup. If you have more than one location, pick it in the menu beside Conversations and Setup.
2. Read the panel at the top. Ready means the location's number is approved for check-ins. Anything else tells you what to do first (see If something goes wrong).
3. Under Who gets a check-in, leave After a visit on and choose how long to wait in Send ... after the visit.
4. Under The check-in text, write what customers get. Your business name is added at the front and the opt-out line at the end, and you cannot edit either. Tap a tag to add the customer's first name, the location's name, or {visit_day}, which reads "today", "yesterday" or the day of the week. A customer with no first name on file reads as "there", so Hi {first_name} becomes "Hi there".
5. Under Wait for them to finish, choose Reply about 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes after their last text. The setup screen explains why it is "about": "We check every 5 minutes, so about 10 means 10 to 15 minutes."
6. Under What we send back, write the Review ask and the Thank-you for happy customers, and choose what happens for unhappy ones (see Unhappy replies). The review ask must contain {review_link}.
7. To use the same settings at your other locations, tick them under Copy to other locations. Their on or off state is not copied.
8. Press Save. Then press Send me a test to get the check-in on your own phone, exactly as a customer would.
9. Press Turn on check-ins.

You see "Check-ins are on here." From then on, each new visit at that location gets a check-in.

Under each message box, a counter shows how many characters, text segments and credits the text uses, counted on the whole text with your business name and the opt-out line included.

What the AI read doesCopy Anchor Link

Once the customer has gone quiet for the wait you chose, AI reads every message in the conversation and decides one thing: is this customer clearly happy with their visit?

• Happy means they clearly said the visit went well.
• Unhappy is everything else: a complaint, a question, a lukewarm or unclear reply, sarcasm, or anything the AI is not sure of.
• Mixed means they said something good and something bad. It is shown as Mixed so you can see the difference, and it is handled exactly like unhappy.

Next to the verdict, the AI writes one plain sentence saying what the customer said, under AI read. If the conversation cannot be read, the box says Not read automatically with "We could not read this one automatically.", and it is treated as unhappy, so nobody is asked for a review by mistake.

The AI treats the customer's words only as something to read. A reply that tries to give it instructions is read as a reply, never followed.

Happy repliesCopy Anchor Link

A happy customer gets your Review ask, with a link to your review page. When they open the link, the conversation shows Review link opened, and when a review from them is matched to the conversation, it shows Review left and moves to Reviewed.

If we already know the customer left you a review, at any of your locations, they get your Thank-you instead, and they are never asked again.

A happy conversation stays out of your inbox. It only appears there if the customer writes again afterwards.

Unhappy repliesCopy Anchor Link

An unhappy or mixed reply never gets a review ask. Instead:

• It appears in your inbox, every time, for you to answer.
• You get an email, while Email me when a customer is unhappy or writes again is on under What we send back. It is on for every location to start with. Check-in alerts in Settings > Account, under Email preferences, turns these emails off for your whole account. You get at most one email an hour for each conversation.
• If you turn on Also text them back, the customer also gets your Apology text. It is off unless you turn it on.

Reply to a customer from your inboxCopy Anchor Link

Every reply to a check-in is a text from your business, sent from the location's number.

1. Open Inbox. Check-ins that need you are listed with your reviews, marked Check-in. To see only them, choose Check-ins in the filters, or press Open in Inbox on the check-ins page.
2. Click the check-in. The whole conversation opens, with the AI read under it.
3. Type your reply under Your Reply. Your business name is fixed at the front. For a draft written by AI, press Generate Reply; each draft spends credits, and the button shows how many.
4. Check the counter of characters, text segments and credits, then press Send SMS.

The conversation stays open, and the customer's answer comes back to the same thread. Replies go out between 8am and 9pm store time. Outside those hours you cannot send, and the panel says to try again then.

When nothing more needs doing, press Mark handled. It takes the check-in off your list of things that need you; it does not text the customer.

The badge on a check-in in the inbox says why it is there:

• NEW: an unhappy or mixed reply you have not handled.
• REPLIED AGAIN: the customer wrote again after we decided. Nothing more is sent on its own, and it is not read again.
• LATE REPLY: a happy reply that came in after the conversation had closed with no answer. It is read and you are told, but no review ask goes out.
• POSSIBLE OPT-OUT: the reply might mean they want you to stop (see the next section).
• REPLY NOT DELIVERED: a reply you sent did not reach them.

If the customer writes again before the text we send back has gone out, we wait for them to finish and read the whole conversation again first.

When a reply might mean stopCopy Anchor Link

Replying STOP, or something just as clear such as "please stop texting me", ends texting straight away. Some replies are less clear, such as "wrong number" or "I never signed up for this", and those are held for you instead: nothing is sent to that customer, at any location, and their replies are not read, until you decide.

The conversation is marked Possible opt-out, and the Possible opt-outs panel on the check-ins page lists every reply waiting for you. For each one, choose:

• That is not an opt-out to carry on as normal;
• Stop texting them to stop every text to them for good.

The Conversations viewCopy Anchor Link

Conversations is the check-ins page's first view, for one location at a time.

• Six figures over the last 30 days: Check-ins sent, Replied, Happy (asked for a review), Link opened, Reviews left and Unhappy, with how many still need you.
• A banner when conversations need you, with Open in Inbox. It never names a customer or repeats a complaint.
• The Possible opt-outs panel, when there are any.
• Every conversation, newest first. Narrow the list with All, Needs you, Waiting on reply, Happy, Unhappy, Reviewed or No reply, or Search name, phone or reply.

Click a conversation to see every message exactly as it was sent, with its time and whether it was delivered, the AI read, and the review link's history. Reply in Inbox opens it in your inbox to answer, and Mark handled clears it. If you also have Coupons, Open contact opens the customer's details there.

Where it is shows each conversation's status, such as Scheduled, Waiting on reply, Reading replies, Happy review link sent, Unhappy needs you, No reply or Reviewed. Held and Not sent carry their reason, such as Held (outside texting hours) or Not sent (opted out).

A conversation with no reply after 3 days closes as No reply, and nothing more is sent.

Turn check-ins offCopy Anchor Link

In Setup, press Turn off check-ins. Check-ins that have not gone out yet are canceled, and the message says how many. Conversations already under way carry on: replies are still read, and their follow-ups and your replies still go out.

What it costsCopy Anchor Link

Check-ins spends the same credits as the rest of your account (see Account, billing and credits).

• Texts: each text costs 1 credit for each text segment. That covers the check-in, the review ask, the thank-you, the apology, your own replies and Send me a test. A text segment holds up to 160 characters, or 70 if the text has an emoji or another special character in it, and your business name and the opt-out line count toward it.
• The AI read: free.
• AI-drafted replies: Generate Reply spends credits, and the button shows how many.

If the account runs out of credits, check-ins wait, marked Held (out of credits), until you top up or your credits renew.

Check-in texts count toward your number's daily carrier limit, which they share with Coupons. They do not count toward the monthly limit on how many coupon texts one person gets. Text segments and your texting number explains how a text is counted, the sending limits, and what the texting number costs.

LimitsCopy Anchor Link

• Check-ins start only from Square visits, and only at the location where the order was taken.
• US numbers only.
• There is no way to send check-ins to a list by hand. A check-in follows a visit.
• Automatic texts that cannot go out within 3 days are dropped.
• Setup is one location at a time; Copy to other locations saves retyping.
• Check-ins is in beta, so the screens and these rules can change.

If something goes wrongCopy Anchor Link

Turn on check-ins does nothing. The panel at the top of Setup says why:

• Needs registration: the location's number is not registered yet. Fill in the form in the panel.
• Waiting on carrier approval: the carriers are still reviewing the number. You can turn check-ins on once they approve it.
• Registration covers coupons only: the number was approved for coupon texts only. Email support.
• Texting is turned off: texting is turned off at this location. Press Reconnect if the panel offers it.
• Number released or Number withdrawn: the number is gone. Email support to set texting up again.
• Set the store's time zone: pick the time zone in the panel.

A customer did not get a check-in. Check, in order: the order had their phone number on it; that number matches one person in your customer list who agreed to texts (a customer Square has only just added can take a little while to reach the list); it is a US number; they had no check-in from you in the last 30 days; they were not getting a coupon text that day; the visit came after you turned check-ins on. If the conversation is listed, its status says what happened, such as Held (coupon text today) or Not sent (cannot be texted).

You cannot send a reply. The reply panel says why: the check-in has not gone out yet, the customer asked you to stop, a possible opt-out is waiting for your decision, it is outside 8am to 9pm store time, or the store's time zone is missing.

You are not getting alert emails. Check both switches: Email me when a customer is unhappy or writes again in the location's Setup, and Check-in alerts in Settings > Account. The inbox shows every unhappy check-in either way.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Review requests and the review funnel
• Reviews and AI replies
• Coupons overview
• Account, billing and credits
• Beta features