let's say someone reads your site at eleven at night. they want to know if you're open saturday, or what a visit costs. the only way to ask is to call, and you're closed. so they wait till morning.
a chat on your website can answer them right then, from your own pages. if they want to come in, it can book them a time too. retune does both. retune is free if you run your own copy: it runs on your own computer, with an agent that builds what you ask for.
the office in the video is bright smile dental. i made it up to show this.
the patient asks for a cleaning tomorrow morning. the bot asks for her name and email, shows the times that are still open, and she taps one. she's booked, and the confirmation stays in the chat.
the next morning, you open the bookings list and her visit is there, with a link to what she asked.
if some of your customers would rather talk than type, the chat can take voice messages too. a chat your customers can talk to shows how.
you give the bot your website, and it reads your pages. that's where its answers come from: your hours, your prices, what you do and don't offer. then you paste a short embed code into your site once, and the chat shows up on every page.
you don't start from a blank bot. there are templates for a few trades, like a dental receptionist or a restaurant host. you add your business name and a few notes.
for booking, you set your hours, how long a visit takes and the days you're closed. the bot only offers times inside those. the booking steps are here, one line each.
sometimes retune's bot can't find an answer in what you gave it. then the question shows up in a list in your retune account, next to others like it. you write the answer once, and the bot uses it after that. the letter about that list has more.
it's a chat on your website. it doesn't answer the phone. if people call you without ever opening your site, it won't reach them.
it uses its own calendar, so it doesn't sync with google or outlook. if you also book people by phone, set the bot's hours to the ones you keep free for chat. or check the list each morning.
a visitor can't move or cancel a booking in the chat. they call you, and you cancel it in the list, so the time opens up again.
booking fits visits with a set length, like a cleaning or a haircut. if every job needs a conversation first, keep that on the phone. you can tell the bot to say so. open the prompt tab, where you write its instructions, and add a line like "for an emergency, call us when we open."
you can sign up at retune.so and start there. or email me for your own copy, and i'll send the steps.
if it's useful, take it. if it's missing something for your business, tell me what, and i'll tell you if i can build it.
olive