Answering booking messages with AI

Booking messages repeat. Do you do cats? Is there room this Saturday? How much for a small poodle cross? An AI chat tool can draft the answer in seconds, and you can send it in the same inbox the question arrived in.

Start with your own answers

A tool can't know your prices or your diary. If you ask it to reply to "how much for a full groom?" with nothing else, it may invent a figure. Chatbots like this can slip believable but false details into what they write, a habit often called hallucination¹.

So build a short sheet of your real answers first. Keep it in a note on your phone.

• Services you offer, and the ones you don't
• Your price ranges and what pushes a price up, such as matting or size
• Opening days and the notice you need for a first visit
• What a new client has to bring or fill in
• Your cancellation and late policy

Paste that sheet in at the start of a chat, then ask the tool to write replies using only what's on it. When a question isn't covered, tell it to say you'll check and get back to them.

What a good draft looks like

Read the first few drafts out loud. You're listening for two things.

First, does it sound like you? A shop that jokes with clients shouldn't suddenly sound like a bank. Tell the tool what to change: shorter, warmer, no exclamation marks.

Second, does it promise anything? Watch for "we'll fit you in", a named time, a price with no "from", or a dog breed it has guessed. Each of those is a thing the tool has no way to know.

Text, Facebook and Instagram

The three places feel different. A text is quick and personal. Facebook and Instagram messages often arrive from people who've found you for the first time and haven't read your website.

Each platform has its own built-in automatic replies, such as a greeting or an away message. Those tools and their limits change, so look at the platform's own help pages for your account rather than relying on a summary here. A built-in automatic reply sends words you wrote ahead of time. It isn't an AI writing fresh answers.

Some shops let a tool chat with clients directly. If yours does, Australia's privacy regulator says a public-facing chatbot should be clearly labelled as one². A chatbot is just software that holds a conversation by text or speech³. Tell people when that's who they're talking to.

Keep client details out of it

Write the question in a way that leaves out names and numbers. "A client asks if her small dog can be booked on Friday" is enough for a draft.

The same regulator recommends keeping personal information, and sensitive information most of all, out of publicly available chatbots and similar tools². That advice is Australian. If you work elsewhere, check your own regulator. The privacy page goes further.

Where this goes wrong

Trouble shows up when a client writes back, "But you said Thursday." So check these first.

• Dates and days of the week
• Prices and the word "from"
• Anything about vaccinations or a dog's health, which is not for a booking message to decide
• A reply to an angry or upset message, which is best written by you

Once a draft has been right many times, you can save it as your own template. A template you wrote and checked is safer than a fresh draft each time. For the same idea applied to reminders, see appointment reminders and confirmations.