Booking assistant conversations (Beta)

The booking assistant answers your customers when they text you, use Book by chat in the customer portal, or chat in the WagDay app. It books and cancels in plain language and hands anything else to your team. It's a Beta feature and is off until an owner or admin turns it on.

Turning it onCopy Anchor Link

Go to Settings → Beta features and turn on Booking assistant conversations. While it's on, it answers customer texts instead of the SMS booking assistant, and the Book by chat link appears in your customers' portal and app.

To stop it, turn the setting off. Customers who text you then get your usual SMS handling, and the chat link disappears.

What customers can doCopy Anchor Link

• Book one or more of their pets, on one or more days or for a stay: "Book Max and Bella for daycare Monday and Tuesday" or "Boarding for Max from Friday to Sunday".
• Cancel an upcoming booking: "Max won't be in tomorrow".

The assistant asks for anything it needs: which pet, which service, which location, which days, or the pick-up day for a stay. If two pets share a name, or you offer more than one service that fits, it asks which one. If a day is full or you're closed, it offers up to three free days in the next two weeks.

Nothing happens until the customer confirmsCopy Anchor Link

Before booking, the assistant shows the pets, service, location, each day with drop-off and pick-up times, the total price including GST and any deposit. It books only when the customer replies YES (or taps Book it in chat). Your normal rules still apply: vaccinations, assessments, breed rules, notice periods, capacity, approvals, deposits and payment. If a booking needs your approval, the customer is told you'll confirm it. If it needs payment, they get a link to pay.

Cancellations work the same way. The assistant names the booking, states any late-cancellation fee, and sends you a cancellation request only after the customer replies YES. You review it as you do any portal cancellation request.

What comes to your teamCopy Anchor Link

The assistant hands the conversation to you, with a Customer needs a reply alert, when a customer:

• wants to change a booking (it can't change bookings yet),
• asks a question or raises a problem,
• asks for a person (texting STAFF works too),
• may want to stop messages (their consent isn't changed; to stop texts they reply STOP),
• isn't understood twice in a row, or sends a lot of messages in an hour.

The customer is told you'll be in touch and given your phone number. If the assistant can't work just then, it does the same.

Reviewing conversationsCopy Anchor Link

Open Communications → Booking assistant (managers and above) to see each conversation: the customer, whether it was by text or chat, how it ended, and whether it's with your team. Chat conversations show what was said. Text conversations link to the SMS inbox, where you reply as usual.

For a text conversation, Take over stops the assistant answering that customer while you talk to them. It starts answering again when you choose Hand back to the assistant, or after the conversation has been quiet for a day.

Texts, consent and creditsCopy Anchor Link

The assistant replies to texts straight away, even in quiet hours, because the customer messaged you first. It never replies to a customer who has opted out of texts or is marked do-not-contact. Its replies use your SMS credits. The first reply in a conversation says it's an automated assistant.

PrivacyCopy Anchor Link

The customer's message, their pets' names, your service names and the dates or bookings being offered are sent to our AI provider, which keeps nothing. Contact details, prices and notes are never sent. Every reply is a fixed message written by WagDay, not by the AI. Conversations are deleted 30 days after the last message, and straight away if you erase the customer.