Context
In a salon, the person who answers WhatsApp is the same person serving clients. Messages piled up during the busiest hours, and the ones that arrived at night or on Sunday waited until the next day.
Problem
The salon's inbox confirms it. In 90 days:
- messages from clients
- 5,016
- before 9:00 or after 19:00
- 1,960
- on Sunday, with the salon closed
- 607
Solution
Coco replies in seconds with the salon's services and prices, on all three channels, and works on the salon's real calendar.
- Offers real slots: checks the salon's calendar, including appointments written in by hand, before suggesting a time
- Creates, reschedules and cancels appointments without the team's help
- Reminds clients an hour before and, since October 2026, the day before too
- Goes quiet when someone from the salon writes, and comes back when the conversation is marked as resolved
Results
- appointments createdBooked by Coco on its own in the salon's calendar in 90 days (258 since May). 51 were booked before 9:00 or after 19:00.
- 136
- median reply timeMeasured over 4,803 replies. Nine out of ten go out in under 12 seconds.
- 8 s
- replies sentAcross 1,429 conversations on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.
- 5,328
- after hoursOf client messages arrive before 9:00 or after 19:00.
- 39%
How we measured: direct count in the salon's message inbox and calendar, July 12 to October 10, 2026, Quito time. "After hours" means before 9:00 or after 19:00, the salon's Monday to Saturday hours. Figures count appointments created; some were later rescheduled or cancelled.
What we learned
An assistant in production improves through real conversations. These three adjustments now ship with AndesIA.
The calendar rules
At first the assistant couldn't see appointments the salon wrote in by hand and could offer a taken slot. Now it reads that calendar before suggesting any time.
People come first
If someone from the salon writes in a chat, the assistant doesn't interrupt. It sounds obvious; it had to be built and tested.
Knowing when not to push
If the client says "later" or "I'll let you know", the automatic follow-up doesn't write again.
[TODO: quote approved by the customer]