Instant profilesa re supposed to be created when the customer taps or swipes their card - which is not working. So we are spending an inordinate time right now assigning employees and then a customer to every open ticket that we create - after having to add a name to aticket then go back and re-assign per the above...

@JPWilkinson Instant profiles are only created after you checkout a customer's with their payment card. There isn't a way to create a customer profile by swiping a card  to start an new ticket, for example. It sounds like that's what you're expecting? 

Other systems do have that feature and I can see how useful it is! At this time Open Tickets have to be created by the employee and assigned to a customer by the employee as well.

@Helen

Yes - we were expecting that when a customer paid with debt or credit - that an Instant profile or match-up would occur within the Square POS-sphere. This has been confirmed as not working - so we are having to figure out how to do this the most efficient way - as 95% of our transactions are no longer creating or matching profiles. Hence my ask for an update to the POS to make the ticket creation process smoother.

@JPWilkinson I'm really sorry to hear that! The next time you checkout a customer and an Instant Profile is not created please make a note of the details transaction (date, time and last four digits of your customer's card) and then call our CS team. They'll be able to check the transaction and escalate this to our engineers as needed.

@Helen

I've already done this and they are aware but it's already been a month or so since this was escalated - with no recent update as to when a fix will be released... Which is why I was hoping that the time to update the POS to make creating tickets easier - might eb able to be done faster than fixing the Instant Profile issue...

Hmm that doesn't sound right @JPWilkinson, I'm sorry. Let me take a look for you and see if I can get you an update. Hang in there! 

Hi again! I was able to find the post where you originally reported this issue. In that post we mentioned that that not all card payments will automatically create an Instant Profile but I can share a bit more information about why.

An Instant Profile will not be created after a transaction if:

1. the customer tapped their card on the contactless and chip card reader. Tapped transactions are tokenized so the customer name won't be read from the card;
2. the customer's card is damaged;
3. the card-issuer doesn't make the customer's name available to Square from the card;
4. card information is manually entered to complete payment. Instant profiles can only be created for dipped or swiped card payments.

Do a lot of your customers pay with tap? That might explain why it seems as if an Instant Profile is never created!

@Helen

Ok - so I don't understand then.If you know that cards that tap will not create an Instant Profile - why release the feature for people to use? Especially in Canada where we cannot use debit - we HAVE to tap! So, the release of tap into Canada was flawed to begin with?? Where does that leave your Canadian customers?? Do we now need to look to a 3rd party app for maintaining our customer database and starting a loyalty program? Please advise as this is now a massive issue for us.

The same is true for US sellers: Instant profiles should still be created for dipped credit card payments, or swiped credit card payments. 

I know that customer information is important to your business and I'll share your concerns with the Customer Directory team. I'm really sorry for the trouble this might cause. In the meantime, if you have questions about your account or your customer directory I recommend calling our CS team directly.

@Helen

You didn't answer my question... and now I'm even more confused as to how your Square Loyalty program is actually working in the USA - when a tapped transaction does not link a customer to a sale! That or tap is not what most transactions are being done as in the USA - they must be swiping ...?

So, again - do we need to look to a 3rd party for a corrected POS that has fixed the profile issue and properly handles customer links and loyalty programs?

I'm really sorry I didn't answer your question, that certainly wasn't my intention.

The Loyalty program that is available Square sellers in the US works a bit differently. To enroll, a customer enters their phone number at the end of a sale. That way they can use different cards (or cash) with the program and still earn rewards. If the an Instant Profile isn't created, a customer profile will be created with their phone number. 

As this feature isn't available in Canada, if you do use a third-party to make a Loyalty program I hope you'll come back and share tips here to help other Canadian sellers! In the meantime this feedback is really helpful for the Loyalty team, thanks again for your questions!