What does Heyhannah actually do?

Hannah is an AI receptionist for your business. She answers every call and message 24/7, asks the right questions about the job, and sends you the lead on WhatsApp within seconds, so you never lose an enquiry because you couldn't pick up. If you need a website, we build and run one for you as part of the package.

R1,999 a month with 100 minutes of calls included, or R23,988 a year with 150 minutes a month. Extra minutes are R6 each and Hannah never stops answering. A website is included if you need one, and busier businesses can ask us for a package with more minutes.

How does call forwarding work?

You forward your existing mobile number to your Heyhannah number by dialling a few short codes on your phone. It takes about three minutes and works on all the major South African networks; rain is the one exception, so talk to us first if you're on it. When you're available, turn forwarding off and answer calls yourself. When you're busy, turn it on and Hannah handles everything.

Does it sound like a real person?

She holds a normal conversation rather than reading a script: she answers with your business name, listens, asks follow-up questions about the job, and reads the details back to check she got them right. If she mishears something she asks again instead of guessing.

What happens during load shedding?

Heyhannah runs in the cloud, so it keeps answering calls even when your office has no power. This is one of the biggest advantages: you never miss a call due to load shedding again. WhatsApp summaries are delivered over mobile data.

Can it handle Afrikaans callers?

Ja. Hannah can run entirely in Afrikaans: she greets your callers in Afrikaans and understands them in Afrikaans, not just English with an accent. We set your language when we set your account up, and each Hannah answers in one language, so tell us which one your customers actually phone in.

How is this different from a normal answering service?

An answering service takes a message, usually charged per call and often only during business hours. Hannah answers every hour of the day and actually qualifies leads: she asks what they need, when, and how to reach them, and you get a structured WhatsApp message, not a vague callback note. A full-time receptionist doing the same job averages R7,865 a month for office hours alone (Indeed, September 2026).

What about data privacy?

Heyhannah is fully POPIA compliant. We don't collect ID numbers, bank details, or other sensitive information. Call data is stored securely and you can request deletion at any time.

How does billing work?

Pay monthly or yearly. Monthly has no contract: you're billed when you sign up and then each month, and you can cancel anytime. Yearly is paid once for 12 months and renews each year, with an email reminder well before it does. Hannah can be answering your calls within 24 hours of you finishing setup, and if you're not happy in your first 30 days, tell us and we refund your first payment in full, monthly or yearly.

Following up a quote, when to chase, and what to say

By André Bergan, 2026-10-09

You sent the quote. You were proud of it, it was fair, you priced the job properly. Then nothing. A week goes by, then two, and you tell yourself they went with someone cheaper. Often that's not what happened. They meant to reply, something came up, and your quote is sitting in a WhatsApp chat under three other things they were going to get to.

Following up isn't nagging. It's part of the job, and it's the part most of us skip.

Why quotes actually go cold

Price is the easy thing to blame, and sometimes it's true. But a lot of quotes go quiet simply because they got forgotten. The customer asked three people to quote, got busy with work or family, and when they finally sat down to decide, the business that had been in touch recently was the one front of mind.

If you've ever lost a job to someone you know charges more than you do, that's worth thinking about.

A simple chase timeline

You don't need software or a CRM system to do this well. You need three touch points and the discipline to actually send them.

Day 2 or 3: the easy check-in. Not "did you decide yet", just confirm you're still in the picture. Something like: "Hi [name], just checking the quote I sent landed okay and you can see everything in it. Happy to chat through any of it." Low pressure, gives them an easy way back in if they had a question they never asked.

Day 7: the gentle nudge. If you haven't heard anything, a short message that reminds them you're available without sounding desperate: "Hi [name], following up on the quote from last week, still keen to help if the timing works for you. Let me know if anything's changed on your side." This is also the point to mention if you have a gap in your schedule coming up, people move faster when they think a slot might close.

Day 14: the close-the-loop message. This is the one most people skip, and it's the one that gets replies. Something like: "Hi [name], I'll close this quote off on my side unless I hear from you, just didn't want it sitting open. Shout if you still need the work done." It gives them permission to say no, and people who were feeling awkward about not replying often answer this one, even if it's just to tell you what happened. Some will reply "actually we're still deciding" and that tells you to keep going.

What to actually say, and what to leave out

Keep every message short enough to read in five seconds on a phone. Skip the hard sell, nobody wants to feel chased. And always give them a graceful exit, "no worries if the timing's not right" costs you nothing and keeps the door open for the next job even if this one's a no.

One thing worth doing: if the quote was for something urgent, like a burst geyser or storm damage, your follow-up window compresses to a day, not a week. Everything else about the timing above assumes a normal, non-urgent job.

Why this is worth the ten minutes

If you want to see what a small improvement in your close rate is actually worth to you in rands, our missed call cost calculator does that maths for a missed call, and the same logic applies here. A few extra jobs a month from quotes you'd otherwise have let go cold adds up faster than most people think.

The hardest part of following up isn't knowing what to say, it's remembering who you quoted and when. That's the part we built Hannah's dashboard for. Every call and WhatsApp enquiry Hannah takes gets logged with the contact details and the job, so when it's day 7 and you're trying to remember who you spoke to on Tuesday, it's sitting there waiting instead of buried in your call history. If you want to see how that works for your business, have a look at Hannah as an AI receptionist.