The fastest way to lose a customer in 2026 is to reply 4 hours late. The second fastest way is to reply instantly with something that sounds like a bot.
Kompa replies to about 9,000 DMs a day across its customers. We obsess over this. Here’s the structure that works.
1. Mirror, then specify
If the customer wrote “hi, do you do bouquets?”, don’t reply “Yes, we make custom bouquets!”. Reply “hey — bouquets yes, what occasion?”. You used their tone. You moved them one step.
2. One question, never two
A bot asks “what occasion, what budget, what date?”. A human asks the highest-information question first and waits. Kompa is trained to ask the one question whose answer unlocks everything else.
For a florist that’s “what occasion?”. For a restaurant it’s “how many people?”. For a workshop it’s “what’s the bike?”. Pick yours.
3. Reply at human speed
If the AI replies in 0.4 seconds, the customer knows they’re talking to a bot. Kompa adds a small variable delay — usually 4–20 seconds — so the conversation feels like a real person checking their phone.
4. Hand off cleanly
If the customer asks something the AI shouldn’t answer (a complaint, a refund, anything legal), the AI says “let me get María on this — give me a sec”. María sees the alert in her morning digest and replies during her actual work hours.
The customer never gets ghosted. María never gets a 11pm ping.
That’s it. Four rules, zero typing. Try it for a week.