Instagram messages

In much of beauty and personal care, the direct message is the first door, not the phone. Your receptionist answers there from your instructions and files the thread with the same customer as the call.

7 days, 20 answered calls, no card

Where the client writes first

In medical aesthetics, hair, barbering and studio work, discovery happens in the feed: before-and-after photos, the room, the portfolio. First contact follows the same path — a direct message, not a call. A client who gets no quick answer writes to the next clinic; she rarely leaves voicemail. Voicemail is a dead end in these trades.

The number on the profile is often the personal mobile of whoever is giving the treatment, and she is in the room with a client. Your receptionist takes the message meanwhile: she answers service and duration questions from your instructions, asks what you want known before a consultation, offers a slot in your calendar when your rules allow it, sends the reminder before the session and files the thread in your app. She gives no professional opinion or assessment, and commits to no outcome.

Two conversations, two meters

Your clients write to the account

They ask a starting price, a duration, an opening, or they send a photo. The receptionist answers from your instructions, qualifies and passes it on. Those replies draw on the monthly customer reply allowance, shared with whatever other channels you added.

You write to your receptionist

Between clients you ask what came in this morning, have someone called back, change an instruction. That conversation has its own meter, separate from your clients’.

The account it needs, and the connection

Connection uses accounts you already have; nothing is created on your behalf.

  • A Facebook Page and the professional Instagram account linked to it, for the same establishment
  • Admin access on that Page, long enough to authorize replying to messages
  • Your services, your durations, and what you refuse to handle in writing
  • The person a conversation goes to when the receptionist has to hand it over
  • Your written agreement for her to answer in your business name on that account

This module covers the Page and its linked Instagram account together. It does not bring WhatsApp, and it opens no right to post on your feed: posting is a separate function, chosen on its own.

What it can do on this channel

“How much for a first session?”

She answers what you allowed her to say — the service, how long it runs, what the consultation determines — then moves to the question that serves you: what is wanted, the relevant history, the opening.

The photo before the question

A client sends a photo and asks whether it can be done. The photo is scanned, then filed with the thread; the receptionist notes what is visible and leaves the decision to an in-person assessment.

The message at nine at night

The account gets most of its messages in the evening. The reply goes out then, the slot is held if your rules allow it, and you read the thread next morning in your app.

What is metered on this channel
  • Replies from the receptionist to your clients, on the monthly customer reply allowance
  • That allowance is shared across the conversation channels you added
  • Your own conversation keeps a meter separate from your clients’
  • Calls keep theirs, unchanged
  • The module covers one establishment: one Page and its linked Instagram account
  • No carrier transport charge on this channel — the platform carries the messages itself

The price shown on this page is your sector’s base. The channel is a deliberate addition, presented on its own when you choose your offer.

Windows, consent and hand-off

The platform, not Zenvox, decides when someone can be written to. These rules are stated before switch-on, because an owner who learns them afterwards feels misled.

  • A client’s message opens a reply window; once it closes, only a format the platform permits can reopen the conversation
  • With the window shut, the receptionist waits or uses a permitted format — there is no workaround
  • A client’s message opens no owner rights: writing to the account reaches no customer file
  • If the account is disconnected or the allowance is spent, the thread stays readable and the person can resume
  • Repeat events for one message are de-duplicated, attachments are scanned, and the reply is filed on the right thread
  • A withdrawal expressed here is applied across every channel on that file
  • Anything past what the receptionist handles is turned over to the person you named, with the whole thread

Help on this channel

This channel has no page other than this one. The help explains how messages arrive, what is recorded from them and what you see in your app.

Choose this channel, or another

Instagram and Messenger come together, through one module. The other channels are each added on their own, and removing one leaves the rest alone.

Questions about this channel

What account is needed for the receptionist to reply?

A professional account, linked to your business page, with the authorisation you grant yourself from the app. You keep control: the authorisation is removed in the same place, and removing it stops automated replies without touching the rest of your account.

Does the receptionist reply to public comments?

No. It handles private messages. A comment under a post is public, it commits your brand in front of everyone, and it belongs to whoever runs your account. A private conversation, by contrast, follows your service, coverage and hours instructions.

Why is there talk of a reply window?

Because the platform imposes one. A customer's message opens a window during which replying is free; past that window, only an authorised format lets a conversation resume. With the window closed, the receptionist waits or uses an eligible format: there is no way around it, and we do not claim to have one.

Does it suit a salon or a studio?

It is often the main door in beauty, salons and studios, ahead of the phone. The questions that keep coming back — availability, how long a service takes, the posted rate, the cancellation policy — are answered in writing without interrupting whoever is in the chair.

What is metered on this channel?

Written replies to customers, on the monthly allowance shared with the other conversation channels you added. Your own conversation with the receptionist keeps a separate meter, and calls keep theirs.

And if a conversation turns delicate?

It is handed to the person you named, with the whole thread. A public complaint, a price negotiation, a situation outside your instructions: the receptionist takes the request and passes it on rather than deciding in your place.

A customer writes after a post: how do you avoid an off-target reply?

By giving the receptionist what you would give a new employee: your list of services, how long each takes, your cancellation policy, your service area and the cases it must leave to you. A question outside that list becomes a request passed on, not an invented answer. You read the first exchanges, correct an instruction, republish, and the next conversation follows the new version.

Instagram messages

In much of beauty and personal care, the direct message is the first door, not the phone. Your receptionist answers there from your instructions and files the thread with the same customer as the call.

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