Doing it yourself does not scale
Look at when your enquiries actually arrive. For most small businesses a large share land in the evening, at weekends, and in the hour before opening.
That is not people being awkward. It is people dealing with you when they are not at work. And it is the time you are least able to reply.
How the chatbot handles after-hours support
A 24/7 AI Chatbot answers those messages at the moment they are sent, using your own pages, prices and policies.
Not an auto-reply promising to come back tomorrow — an actual answer. And when the person is convinced, it takes their details or points them at a booking link, so the enquiry is finished rather than parked.
