For lots of salons, first contact happens on Instagram. Someone sees a photo, sends a message and asks what it costs, usually while your hands are full or you're already home. By the time you reply, they've looked elsewhere. Avana Connect answers your Instagram DMs automatically, within seconds, with your prices and your free times.
The big difference from an ordinary chatbot is that Connect doesn't make anything up. It reads your own details from Avana: your services, prices, address and your real calendar. If it isn't sure, it says so and sends your booking link. You choose how it sounds, and as soon as you type something yourself, it steps back in that conversation.
The client picks a time in the chat and confirms in one tap on your booking page, where service, day and time are ready. If that service has a deposit, it's paid straight away and the time is secured, and their details go into your client records. Avana Connect costs $12.99 a month on top of your plan; the plans themselves are on the pricing page.
What is an Instagram assistant for a salon, and do you need one?
An Instagram assistant answers the messages clients send you on Instagram without you having to be there. For a hairdresser, nail tech, lash artist or beauty therapist who shows their work mainly on Instagram, that's often where new clients first get in touch. The questions are nearly always the same: how much, when can I come, where are you. And they arrive while you're with a client or already on the sofa.
Avana Connect is that assistant, and it lives in the same system as your calendar and prices. Ask what gel polish costs and it quotes the price from your own services. Ask whether Saturday works and it checks your calendar and only offers free times. The client picks one and confirms in a tap on your booking page. If you get a handful of questions a week you can manage yourself; if it's a few every day and some slip through, it pays for itself quickly.
What do you need before Avana Connect answers your DMs?
Three things: an Instagram business account, services with the right prices and a schedule that's correct. A personal account can't be connected, but switching is free in the Instagram app. Then check your services in Avana, because Connect quotes exactly the prices and lengths listed there.
Then you switch Connect on in your settings and work through three steps. Link your Instagram account by signing in and giving Avana access to your messages; Avana only reads messages from that point on, not your old conversations, photos or followers. Read through the replies and adjust anything that doesn't sound like you. Then switch the assistant on, and from then on every new message gets an instant reply.
How do you stop a chatbot quoting the wrong prices or times?
By having it answer only with what you've entered yourself. A general chatbot that improvises can quote last year's price or a time that's already taken, leaving you with a disappointed client. Avana Connect only answers with your own services, prices, schedule and address, plus the answers you add to your own list of common questions, such as whether you take cards or where to park.
If it isn't sure, it says so honestly and sends your booking link, and your figures show which questions those were so you can add the answers. You also decide what it handles: appointments, prices, opening hours and address, or services. Choose how your salon sounds, rewrite any standard message in your own words, and preview exactly how a reply will look before switching it on.
What happens if you reply yourself, or a client wants a person?
Then the assistant steps back. If you send a message yourself, it stays quiet in that conversation for twelve hours so you don't talk over each other. If a client asks to speak to someone, it tells them you'll read the message and stays out of that conversation for a day, so you can always handle a tricky question or a complaint yourself.
If someone asks about an appointment but doesn't tap through, the assistant sends one reminder, after three hours by default or anywhere from one to twenty hours. Instagram only allows that within 24 hours of the client's last message, so after that nothing more is sent. If you disconnect Instagram, it stops immediately and your conversations and figures are kept.