A website chatbot for printers and sign makers

"How much for a banner?" cannot be answered without four more facts, and a print shop that asks for them by e-mail loses a day on every enquiry. An Allinaa assistant on your website asks for them in the conversation, explains what file you need and why, and on Premium takes the artwork there and then.

The four facts behind every print price

1. Size. Finished dimensions, and whether there is bleed in the file.
2. Quantity. One, ten or five hundred - the per-item price is a different conversation at each.
3. Material and finish. Paper weight, vinyl, foamboard, correx, acrylic; laminate, eyelets, hems, mounting.
4. When. Standard, or the rush that changes everything.

The assistant asks up to three of these at a time, one per turn, only the ones still missing, and keeps the answers on the enquiry. Your estimator then quotes from a complete brief instead of writing the same four questions again. See quote requests.

Artwork: the questions that save a reprint

Write your file requirements into the knowledge in plain words, not as a spec sheet: which formats you accept, what resolution at what size, whether you need outlined fonts, what bleed you want, and what you do with an RGB file. Then write what happens when the artwork is not right - whether you fix it, what you charge, and whether you send a proof. Those sentences prevent most of the arguments in this trade.

On Premium a visitor can attach the file to the enquiry: it is checked for viruses and stored privately against the request, so your studio opens the actual artwork rather than asking for it. Documents and images are covered; very large production files still belong on a transfer service, and your knowledge should say which one you prefer. See files customers send.

Why it quotes nothing it has not been given

Configure the assistant so that it does not price a job from a description. Print pricing turns on quantity breaks, sheet usage and machine time, and a figure that is wrong by half is worse than no figure. If your website publishes prices for standard items, the assistant can quote those published prices exactly - it quotes only what is written in your knowledge, so a price list you keep current is safe to use and a guess is impossible.

Signs: the site questions a printer never has

Sign work adds a whole second set of facts, and they are worth asking in the chat because they decide whether a job is a print or an installation:

• Is it going indoors or outdoors, and at what height?
• What is it fixing to - brick, render, glass, timber, a vehicle?
• Do you need to install it, or is the customer fitting it?
• Is it a listed building, a shopping centre unit or a rented shopfront where permission is needed?

On the last one the honest answer is what you do and what the customer must obtain: the assistant should not say whether planning consent is needed, because that is between the customer and their authority. Write that boundary before you publish.

Vehicle graphics and the photo that settles it

Van and car wrapping cannot be quoted from a make and model alone - the panels, the curves, the existing paint and whether the roof is included all matter. Ask for the make, model and year, ask what the customer wants covered, and ask for photographs of each side. On Premium those photos arrive with the enquiry, and your estimator can tell at a glance whether it is a half wrap or a full one.

Trade customers and repeat orders

Agencies, resellers and regular trade accounts ask different questions: trade pricing, white-label delivery, whether you hold artwork on file, and lead times for repeat runs. Write that path separately. The assistant has no access to your job records and cannot look up a previous order or re-run it, so it should say so and hand over to a person with the whole thread visible. See existing-customer questions and the launch checklist.