At a glance
- Who
- A tattoo studio. New tattoos, cover-ups, touch-ups, laser removal and training. Sales start with a quote that the team prepares.
- Problem
- Before Setor only 36.5% of replies went out within 5 minutes, and the slowest 10% waited over 17 hours. 8.2% of conversations never got a reply.
- Change
- Since Oct 22, 2026 Setor runs the first conversations: it asks about the design, placement and size, asks for a phone number and hands the client to the team. In 9 days 13 new clients left a number.
- Scope
- One account, first 9 days with Setor. Counted: new clients who left a phone number.
Who they are and what they sell
The client is a tattoo studio. It does new tattoos and custom designs, cover-ups and touch-ups, as well as laser tattoo removal and tattoo training.
Traffic is mostly Instagram. Since Oct 22, 2026 152 people have written in DMs, most often asking for a quote. The studio has no calendar in the chat, so the goal differs from booking consultations: gather the details and a phone number so the team can reply with a quote.
What wasn't working
The studio's clients write asking for a quote, often with a photo of a design. By the time the team sits down to the messages, more keep arriving.
hey, how much is a small flower on the forearm?
- next message from the account: the following day
More people write in the evening and at night than you might expect: since Oct 22, 2026 570 of 1,403 messages from clients (41%) arrived between 6 pm and 8 am.
The 90 days before Setor tell the same story. On Instagram only 36.5% of replies went out within 5 minutes, and the slowest 10% waited over 17 hours. 8.2% of 766 conversations never got a reply.
How we set Setor up
Setor has been on the account since Oct 22, 2026. It replies to Instagram DMs and runs the conversation until the team has everything needed for a quote. The whole setup comes down to four things.
- QualificationSetor asks what the team needs for a quote: what the client wants tattooed, where, how big and in what style. For a cover-up or touch-up it asks for a photo of the current tattoo.
- Phone number and handoverOnce it has everything, it asks for a phone number and hands the conversation to the team. It doesn't ask for a number at the start and doesn't push if someone prefers to stay in messages.
- Follow-upsWhen a conversation stops halfway, Setor comes back with one short question.
- Handover to a personComplaints, healing problems, rescheduling and price negotiations go straight to the team, with no standard sales conversation.
What Setor doesn't do. It doesn't give final prices or enter dates, because it has no access to the studio's schedule. It doesn't promise that an old tattoo can be covered or removed with a laser, and it doesn't judge healing. The team handles that.
What changed
We compare Instagram across two periods: the 90 days before Setor and the time since it went live, Oct 22, 2026.
| Metric | before Setor | with Setor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slowest 10% of replies | 17.5 hours | 5.3 minutes | |
| Conversations with no reply at all | 8.2% | 1.3% |
Instagram, the 90 days before Setor and the 9 days since it went live. We don't show the median reply time: before Setor 15% of replies went out within 30 seconds, so that comparison wouldn't be fair.
In that time 64 new conversations started on Instagram, and in 13 of them the client left a phone number. Setor sent 311 messages in total, 77 of them (25%) between 8 pm and 8 am.
What a conversation looks like
The pattern is simple: a description or photo of the design, the placement, the size and a phone number for the team.
- 1Price question
hey, how much is a small flower on the forearm?
hey 🖤 the price depends on the design, the size and the placement. do you have a photo of a design you like?
I've got a screenshot from pinterest
- 2Details
thanks for the inspiration 🖤 roughly how big should it be?
max 10 cm
and where on the body?
the inside of the forearm
black and grey or colour?
black and grey, fine lines
- 3Handover
we have everything we need for a quote. could you send a phone number too? I'll pass it all to the team and we'll get back to you as soon as we can
sure, here it is
thank you 🖤 I'm passing everything to the team, we'll be in touch as soon as we can
- Passed to the team for a quote
Setor doesn't give a final price or promise a date. The team sets the quote and the date.
What you can copy
You don't need Setor to start. You can put these three things in place even if you reply yourself.
- 1
Gather the details before you quote
The design, placement, size, colour and photos. The team gets a ready enquiry and doesn't have to ask from scratch, and the client doesn't explain the idea twice.
- 2
Reply in the evening
41% of client messages (570 of 1,403) arrived between 6 pm and 8 am. If you only reply during the studio's opening hours, those enquiries wait until morning.
- 3
Ask for the phone number last
13 of 64 new conversations ended with a number. Setor asks only after gathering the details and never more than twice, so the client doesn't feel they're filling in a form.
The honest part
- These are the first 9 days of one studio. Setor has been live since Oct 22, 2026, so this is a start, not a quarter's result.
- In the dashboard 9 conversations have the booked status, but 8 of them are people who wrote to the studio before Setor went live. We don't count them as appointments booked by Setor.
- Setor doesn't enter dates in a calendar, because the studio has no calendar connected. It gathers the details and a number, and the team sets the quote and the date.
- Setor handles traffic, it doesn't create it. The number of new conversations also depends on the account's reach.
Data read from the Setor dashboard on Nov 1, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, as the first line of the conversation. Setor AI is an AI appointment setter that replies to DMs on Instagram and Messenger. On the account in this case study 152 people wrote in DMs over 9 days, Setor replied in 124 conversations, and in 13 new conversations the client left a phone number for the team. A person sets the quote and the date.
No. Setor doesn't give final prices or discounts. It explains that the price depends on the design, size and placement, gathers the details and passes the enquiry to the team.
Connect your calendar: Setor sees open slots, offers two specific ones and books whichever the person picks. At this studio no calendar is connected, so Setor gathers the details and a phone number and the team sets the date. Without a connected calendar Setor sends a booking link or asks what time suits them.
Yes. On this account 77 of 311 messages from Setor (25%) went out between 8 pm and 8 am.
Setor passes such cases straight to the team, with no standard sales conversation. It doesn't judge healing or recommend treatment. You can also take over any conversation and reply yourself, and Setor won't talk over you.
From the Setor dashboard, read on Nov 1, 2026. A new conversation is a contact who wrote for the first time after Setor went live (Oct 22, 2026), and the phone number is the one saved on that contact. The before and after comparison covers Instagram: the 90 days before Setor and the 9 days after. In the dashboard 9 conversations have the booked status, but mostly they are older contacts, so we don't base the result on it.