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.

Social media for a trade business when you have no time for social media

By André Bergan, 2026-10-16

Most trade business owners I talk to don't have a social media problem. They have a time problem, and social media is just the thing that loses to everything else on the list. You get to 7pm after a full day on site, and the last thing you feel like doing is thinking up a caption. So nothing goes up for three weeks, then you feel guilty and post four things in one afternoon, and a month later the page looks abandoned again.

You don't need a content calendar, a brand voice or a posting strategy. You need one habit that survives a bad week, because for most trade businesses most weeks are a bad week.

The only rule that matters: one photo, one post, every week

Forget daily posting. A trade business that posts once a week, every single week, for a year will beat one that posts eight times in a good month and then nothing for the next two. Consistency reads as "still in business and still busy." Gaps read as the opposite, even if you were busier than ever.

So keep the bar low on purpose: one photo and a short caption, once a week. Miss a week and you missed a week. Pick it up the next one. There's no streak to protect.

Where the photo comes from: a job you already did

You don't need to stage anything. The photo is the one you'd take anyway: before you start, when something interesting turns up (an old installation, a problem you had to work around), and after you've packed up. Most trade work makes its own before-and-after, which is the one format that needs almost no writing. "Geyser replacement, Brackenfell, done this morning" with two photos says more than a paragraph would.

Make the photo part of finishing the job, not something you try to remember once you're already home and tired. Take it, and it sits in your camera roll until Friday.

Batch it so it only costs you one sitting a week

Pick a fixed time, Friday afternoon or Sunday night, whatever actually happens in your week. Go through the photos, pick the best job or two, write one line each, and post them.

If you're on Facebook or Instagram through a business account, Meta Business Suite lets you schedule posts for free from your phone or a laptop, so you queue up the whole week in that one sitting instead of remembering to open the app every day. It only covers Facebook and Instagram, not every platform, but for most trade businesses those are the two that matter anyway.

Don't overlook WhatsApp Status

If Facebook and Instagram feel like one more account to manage, WhatsApp Status costs you nothing extra and reaches the people who already matter: everyone who has your number saved, which is every past customer and every lead who's ever messaged you. There's no algorithm deciding who sees it and no following to build up from zero. You post the same photo you'd post anywhere else, and for 24 hours it sits in front of people who already know your work.

One platform beats three half-done ones

If you're not already posting anywhere, don't try to run Facebook, Instagram and a Google Business Profile at the same time. Pick the one place your actual customers already are. For most South African trade businesses, that's Facebook or WhatsApp, not Instagram. We've written separately about getting your Google Business Profile right, which is worth doing properly, but it's a different job from posting weekly and you don't need to start both on the same day.

What this has to do with Hannah

None of this works if your evenings are already gone to catching up on missed calls, which is the real reason most tradespeople give up on the "one photo a week" habit after three weeks. Hannah answers your calls and WhatsApps you the job while you're still on site, so the ten minutes you get back at the end of the week can go to the photo instead of the catch-up. If missed calls are what's actually eating the time you'd rather spend on this, have a look at what Hannah does.