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 that package is for one business at one location with a small team (up to 5 people). Businesses with several branches, a bigger team or a lot of calls get a custom package.

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.

Google Business Profile can't handle a three-week December shutdown

By André Bergan, 2026-11-02

If your business is closing for more than six days this December, Google Business Profile doesn't actually have a setting for that. Special hours, the tool most people reach for when they're closing over the festive season, only covers a closure of up to six days in a row (support.google.com). The builders' break most South African trades take runs well past that, often from the second week of December into the new year.

That gap matters more than it sounds like it should, because of when someone actually checks your listing. A customer looking for a plumber or an electrician on the 20th of December doesn't care that you told them in person you'd be back on the 8th of January. They see whatever Google is showing, and if that's wrong, you've lost them to the next name on the list before you've even switched your phone off.

Why the six day limit catches people out

Most trades set up special hours the first time they close for a long weekend or a public holiday, it works fine, and they assume it'll work the same way for a longer break. It doesn't scale up. Google's own guidance draws the line differently for a genuinely extended closure: once you're closed for seven days or more in a row, the tool you're meant to use is "Temporarily closed," not a run of special hours entries.

The two settings aren't interchangeable and they don't fail the same way. Leave regular hours showing past day six and your profile can still say "open" on a day you're not, which is the exact problem the checklist I wrote on getting your Google Business Profile basics right warns about, a wrong "open" is worse than an honest "closed." Mark yourself temporarily closed and forget to switch it back in January, and you've told Google, and everyone searching, that you've shut down for good, right when the new year's work starts coming in.

What to actually do before you close

There's no single Google setting that solves a three or four week break cleanly, so the honest fix is to do the parts it does cover, then stop relying on it for the rest.

Set special hours as "closed" for every day the tool will let you, and do it before you leave rather than on the morning you lock up.
If the break runs longer than that, switch to temporarily closed rather than leaving stale "open" hours showing. Put a reminder in your own diary to switch it back the day you're open again, because nothing on Google does that for you.
Say the actual dates somewhere a customer will read before they dial: your profile description, a pinned WhatsApp status, a line in your voicemail greeting. The platform can only show a toggle, it can't tell someone when you're actually back.

Where this leaves the phone and WhatsApp

A tidy Google listing still can't have the one conversation that actually matters to a customer calling in the gap: "are you open, and if not, when are you back." That's the part we built into Hannah. Add your closed dates and one line saying when you're back to your dashboard, and every call or WhatsApp that comes in during your break gets told plainly that you're closed and when you'll be back, instead of ringing out or landing on a status nobody reads. If you're already planning your shutdown, it's worth having a look at how that part works before you switch the kettle off for the year.