A Lagos-based beauty brand was managing bookings entirely through Instagram DMs. The founder was replying manually — sometimes 6 hours later — and losing customers to competitors who responded faster. There was no record of appointments, no reminders, and no way to see availability without scrolling back through conversations.
An Instagram chatbot (via ManyChat) connected to Google Sheets for booking records and Google Calendar for availability and confirmation. The flow: customer DMs a keyword → chatbot collects name, service, and preferred date → checks availability → confirms the slot → logs to Sheets → adds to Calendar → sends a reminder 24 hours before.
No human input required at any point. The founder gets a morning summary via email and intervenes only for edge cases.
Response time dropped from an average of 6 hours to under 4 minutes. Bookings increased 40% in the first month — not because of more DMs, but because the conversion rate from DM to confirmed appointment improved dramatically. Customers who previously dropped off waiting for a reply now get confirmed within seconds.
Every DM now becomes a calendar entry. I stopped thinking about it.
The critical design decision was to make the chatbot conversational rather than menu-driven. Instead of asking the customer to pick from a numbered list, it asks a question and interprets the response — making the experience feel like talking to a receptionist, not using a phone tree.
We'll show you the most relevant case study for your sector and tell you honestly whether we can replicate it for your organisation.
Book a 20-minute call →