How Mahana Works

Mahana gives your business a dedicated phone number that customers can text with questions. An AI assistant handles common questions automatically - so you spend less time answering the same texts over and over, and more time running your business.

What Mahana Does

When a customer texts your Mahana number, our AI reads the message and checks your knowledge base - a collection of facts you've written about your business, like your hours, services, and pricing.

If the AI is confident it knows the answer, it sends a helpful reply right away. If the question is too complex or needs a personal touch, the message comes straight to your inbox so you can handle it yourself.

The result: your customers get fast, accurate answers around the clock, and you only step in when it actually matters.

Who It's For

Mahana is built for service businesses that get the same questions over and over by text - things like "What are your hours?", "How much does X cost?", or "Do you have availability this week?"

It's a great fit for businesses like:

Salons and barbershops
Auto repair shops
Medical and dental clinics
Restaurants and food businesses
Property managers and landlords
Cleaning and home services
Fitness studios and personal trainers

If your team spends meaningful time each week answering routine customer texts, Mahana can give that time back.

How It Works

Here's what happens from the moment a customer sends a text:

Customer sends a text to your dedicated Mahana phone number.
Mahana's AI reads the message and searches your knowledge base for a relevant answer.
If confident, the AI replies automatically - for example, "We're open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm."
If unsure or the question is urgent, the message is routed to your inbox for a personal reply.
You get an email notification and can reply directly from your Mahana dashboard.

The more detail you put in your knowledge base, the more questions the AI can handle on its own. Even 10–15 well-written entries can dramatically reduce the texts you need to answer manually.

What Mahana Doesn't Do

Mahana is focused on one thing: handling inbound customer questions by SMS. It's not a general-purpose chatbot builder, and it's not a marketing tool.

Specifically, Mahana does not:

Send outbound marketing texts or blast messages to your customer list
Replace email, phone calls, or other communication channels
Handle voice calls - it's SMS only
Integrate with booking systems or process payments (though it can answer questions about them)

Think of Mahana as a knowledgeable first responder for your business texts - it handles the easy stuff so you can focus on everything else.

What You'll Need to Get Started

Getting started with Mahana is straightforward. You don't need any technical experience.

A Mahana account (free to start)
About 15 minutes to set up your knowledge base
Basic information about your business: hours, services, pricing, and any policies customers ask about

Most businesses are up and running in under 20 minutes. The hardest part is just deciding what questions you want the AI to handle for you.

Ready to set up your account? Read the Getting Started guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.