What actually happens when a client messages niia

A client sends your salon a WhatsApp message at 10pm: "Hi, can I get a blowdry on Saturday?" Here is what niia does with it, step by step, and where you come in.

It answers from your salon's own information

niia doesn't make anything up. It answers from what you've set up in your dashboard:

• Your services, with their prices and how long each one takes
• Your team, and which services each person does
• Your opening hours, including closed days, per branch if you have more than one
• Your address, phone, website and Maps link
• Anything else you've written down in Additional Notes or your own Q&A list, like parking, how to find the entrance, or payment options

If a client asks about something you haven't covered, such as gift cards, niia says it doesn't have that detail and offers a follow-up from your team. It doesn't guess.

It replies in the client's language

Clients write the way they talk. niia replies in the language the client writes in, so a client who messages in Arabic gets an answer in Arabic. If a client sends a voice note, niia transcribes it, replies in text, and sends a spoken voice note back too.

It checks availability before asking for anything

As soon as niia knows the service and the day, it checks what's actually free: your opening hours, your team's schedules and the bookings you already have. Only then does it ask for the client's name. Nobody types out their details only to hear the time has gone.

It then offers specific times, for example 11:00 or 2:30 with a named stylist, and waits for the client to choose. If you have more than one branch, it first confirms which branch they want, offering only the branches that do that service.

It reads the booking back before confirming

Before anything is booked, niia repeats the details back to the client (the service, date, time, and the stylist or branch where known) and waits for a yes. Then:

• The booking appears on your Bookings page straight away.
• The client gets a confirmation with an Add to calendar link for their phone.
• If you've connected Google Calendar, the appointment shows up there too.

When it can't book, it says why

niia never just says "not available". It tells the client the reason and offers something real instead:

• You're closed that day: it names the day and offers the next dates with openings.
• The time is outside your hours: it gives that day's hours. It also won't book an appointment that would run past closing.
• The time is already taken: it offers the closest free times that day.
• The whole day is full: it offers the next dates with openings.
• You don't offer the service: it says so plainly and suggests the closest services you do.

"We're closed on Sundays. The next openings are Tuesday from 9:00 AM or Wednesday from 9:00 AM."

If nothing suitable is open in the next two weeks, it offers to have your team get in touch.

When a person is needed

Some conversations need you. niia is built to hand them over rather than push on:

• If a client asks to speak to someone, niia tells them your team will be in touch and flags a callback request. It appears in Alerts with a short summary of what they need.
• If niia isn't sure what to do, the conversation is marked Escalated so you know to follow up.
• Click Take Over on any conversation to reply yourself. niia stops replying in that chat.
• If a conversation that needs a person goes three hours without a reply, you get a Customer Waiting notification, and another every three hours until someone answers.

niia can't look at photos yet. If a client sends a reference picture for a cut or colour, niia asks them to describe what they want, and the photo stays in the conversation for you to see.

Try it before your clients do

The Test Bot panel on the Agent Config page lets you message niia exactly as a client would. Test chats don't use any credits and don't appear in your conversations or reports. One thing to know: a booking you make in Test Bot is real and holds the slot, so delete it when you're done.