What advice would you give someone building a service business using Manychat?

Hey ​@Guelphcakes ! Super excited that you’re exploring Manychat.

When I first started - some years back, and this is still advice that I give now - I started with my ‘proven offer’ ie something that I knew people wanted and that was helpful to them. This, for me, was a PDF lead magnet, with name and email gathered within the DMs. DM opt-ins were really where I saw the benefit of Manychat as it provided a much smoother customer journey - and they were being kept on platform, rather than being sent to an external link, so conversions were higher.

Once I knew this had traction I automated my webinar registrations - again all the details were gathered within the DMs and users weren’t sent to an external link. 

For my own business - these tend to be the two types of automation that I run. But for clients, some Manychat flows go into much more depth, predominantly with gathering more unique customer data (DOB, location, income etc) within the DMs. And the results are always better than using external links.

If your platform is predominantly Instagram - I am guessing it is! - then you have huge opportunities here, namely because there are so many points of entry. Not only posts and reels etc, but I’d highly recommend putting some automation behind Story Mentions as well as the Post/Reel Share trigger as I would imagine your content is highly shareable and visual. Don’t forget Conversation Starters and the menu too - both ideal places for new and existing customers to find out more about your services!

Good luck!

Hi ​@Guelphcakes  — congrats on building such an engaged audience 🍪, that's the hardest part and you already did it.

The biggest shift for most service businesses isn't a feature, it's a mindset one: stop thinking "chatbot" and start thinking "conversion system." The automation only pays off when it's tied to a specific business outcome you can measure — a workshop seat filled, a product delivered, an inquiry that turns into a booking.

A few things that tend to move the needle:

Start with one funnel, not ten. Pick your highest-value action (probably workshop registrations) and automate that end to end before touching the rest. One flow that converts beats five half-built ones.

Use native ManyChat triggers and keep attribution clean from day one. Knowing which content or ad drove each lead is what lets you double down on what works instead of guessing.

Don't over-automate the human moments. For a service business, the relationship is the product. Automate qualification, FAQs, and delivery — but leave room for you to step in where it matters.

The shift, in one line: automation isn't there to replace the conversation, it's there to make sure no good lead falls through the cracks.

Happy to go deeper on any of these. 

Catalina Rendon

CEO Dominari AI