Five Things Australian Salons Might Not Know About Square
If you run an Australian salon on Square Appointments, you’re probably using about half of it.
That’s not a criticism. You chose it because it takes bookings and takes payments and doesn’t charge a fortune for either, and then you got on with cutting hair. Perfectly sensible. But there are a handful of things sitting in there that are already switched on, already paid for, and rather good — and most owners I speak to have no idea they’re there.
Five of them. Then one that isn’t free, because I’d rather you heard it from me.
1. Your reminder texts don’t cost you per message
Square’s own answer, word for word:
“No, you can send as many messages as you want or need. Appointment reminders are included in all packages and include an unlimited number of texts each month.”
No per-message fee. No monthly allowance you quietly blow through in a busy December. If you’re sending two hundred reminders a month, you pay the same as a salon sending none.
Automatic text reminders are on the free plan. Plus and Premium add the confirm-by-reply request on top.
Worth checking what yours actually say, and how far ahead they go out. Both are yours to change, and most salons never touch the defaults.
2. You’re charged per salon, not per stylist
Staff calendars on Square Appointments are unlimited. That includes the free plan.
Take on a third stylist. Then a Saturday junior. Then a colourist who rents your back room two days a week. The subscription doesn’t move, because it’s priced against the location, not the headcount.
Each of them gets their own login and works from their own phone. Romain Lambert at Kawada Hair Studio in Sydney:
“Each employee has a login and can use their own device to access Square Appointments to accept, decline or change appointments with ease, wherever they are.”
Which means you stop being the bottleneck every time someone needs to shift an appointment while you’re mid-foil.
3. Your Google listing can take bookings, on the free plan
Reserve with Google is available on Free, Plus and Premium.
Someone types your salon name into Google — which is how most people find you — and books straight from the search result. They never reach your website. They never ring you. The appointment just appears in the diary.
Same with the booking button on Instagram and Facebook, with any Appointments subscription. No upgrade, no developer. A setting in your dashboard.
Phoebe Simmonds of The BLOW in Melbourne put it well:
“Phones aren’t open 24/7. Salons aren’t open 24/7, but Square is and online booking is.”
She’s right. I’d only add the obvious bit she left off: the phone is still shut.
Online booking catches everyone willing to tap a link. It does nothing for the client who has always rung you because that is what she does, or the one asking whether there’s any hope of a balayage before a wedding on the ninth, or the one cancelling first thing on a Tuesday morning. Those still go to voicemail. Some of them don’t ring back.
More on that in a moment.
4. Your iPhone is already a card terminal
Tap to Pay on iPhone has been live in Australia since October 2023. No reader to buy, no dock, no extra hardware, and no extra fee — the same 1.6% you’d pay on the counter terminal.
Your client is at the basin, wrapped and happy and not especially keen to walk to the till. So don’t make her. You take the payment where she’s sitting, on the phone already in your apron, and the appointment closes into a sale rather than into a second machine and a reconciliation after close.
Useful for mobile work, home salons, market stalls and pop-ups too, where the counter is wherever you’re standing.
5. Square left the door open
This is the one almost nobody knows, and it has the longest tail.
Square isn’t a closed box. It has an app marketplace and a proper connection for outside services, which means anything Square doesn’t do itself, something else probably does — and it connects to the Square account you already have rather than asking you to replace it. Your diary, your clients, your history, all exactly where they are.
Not every salon platform works this way. Fresha keeps its diary closed, which is why the only voice agent for a Fresha salon is Fresha’s own. Square took the opposite view.
And that open door is the entire reason I can reach you.
I’m Gordon. I answer the phone for Australian salons on Square Appointments — the calls nobody’s free to catch. I read your live Square diary, offer times that genuinely exist, and book them in before the caller hangs up. Moves and cancellations too, which is most of what a salon phone actually is. New clients get a proper record in Square, not a sticky note by the till.
Which means the early-morning cancellation gets taken. The balayage question gets answered. The long-standing regular gets a conversation. And the booking is sitting in the same diary your stylists open on their phones the next morning.
Your phone still rings first. I only step in when no one picks up.
None of that would be possible if Square had built a walled garden. It didn’t — and that’s the fifth thing.
One thing that isn’t free
No-show protection, cancellation policies and the waitlist are not on the free plan. They start at Plus, forty dollars a month per location.
Square markets the free tier hard, and plenty of owners find this out on a Saturday, after the third no-show of the day. If missed appointments are your real problem, budget for Plus. It’s the most useful forty dollars in the product, and I’d rather tell you now than have you find out the hard way.
The short of it
Square gives an Australian salon more than most owners are using: unlimited reminder texts, pricing that doesn’t punish you for hiring, bookings straight off your Google listing, a card terminal in your pocket, and a platform that lets other things plug in.
That last one is where I come in. If you’re on Square and your phone goes unanswered more often than you’d like, that’s a solvable problem now.
Ring me and see how I handle it. Rather the best way to judge.
Frequently asked questions
Do Square Appointments reminder texts cost extra in Australia?
No. Square states that appointment reminders are included in all Square Appointments plans with an unlimited number of texts each month, and that there are no hidden fees for reminder or confirmation texts. Automatic text reminders are available on the free plan.
Does Square Appointments charge per staff member?
No. Staff calendars are unlimited on every plan, including the free one. Square Appointments is priced per location — currently free for a single location, or A$40 a month per location on Plus — so adding stylists doesn’t change your subscription.
Can clients book my salon straight from Google?
Yes. Reserve with Google is available on the Free, Plus and Premium plans, so clients can book from your Google search result without visiting your website. Booking buttons for Instagram and Facebook are also available with any Appointments subscription.
Do I need a card reader to take payments?
Not necessarily. Tap to Pay on iPhone has been available in Australia since October 2023 at no extra hardware cost and the same 1.6% in-person rate, so your phone can take contactless payments anywhere in the salon.
Is no-show protection included on the free Square plan?
No. No-show protection, custom cancellation policies and the waitlist require a Square Appointments Plus or Premium subscription. Plus is A$40 a month per location.
Can an AI receptionist answer the phone for a Square Appointments salon?
Yes. Because Square allows outside services to connect to its live diary, Booked By Gordon answers calls for Australian salons on Square Appointments and books, moves and cancels appointments in the live Square diary. Plans start at $69 a month, GST included, with no lock-in. See the plans.
Related notes
- Is There a Voice Agent for Square Appointments? — the longer answer to the last question above.
- How to Get Your Square Account Ready for Gordon Phone — the housekeeping to do before you sign up.
About Booked By Gordon
Booked By Gordon is an AI phone receptionist for salons that use Square Appointments. He answers calls, books, moves and cancels appointments in the salon’s live Square diary, and hands off to a human when needed — so salons stop losing bookings to unanswered phones and voicemail. Built in Australia, for Australian salons and Australian hours.