Getting started — your first day with Della

You just hired Della. She answers your salon's phone, replies to texts, Instagram DMs and WhatsApp messages, books into Square, and remembers your clients. Her name is Della unless you gave her a different one during setup. This article walks you through day one, the first week, and where to look when something feels off.

What "Della" means

Della is not a chatbot or a feature you switch on. She is a worker with a name, a job description, and a written record of everything she does. We use those words on purpose, because the framing matters: a worker asks before doing anything risky, follows the rules she was given, and learns from corrections.

Della does five things on day one:

• Answers the phone, including after hours and when every tech is with a client.
• Drafts replies to texts, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp messages and email.
• Looks up services, prices and open times in Square.
• Hands you anything that falls outside her rules.
• Writes down every action she takes, and the reason she took it.

What she does not do, on day one or any other day: diagnose a nail or skin problem, take card or bank details over the phone, quote a price that is not in your service list, or settle a refund or a complaint. Those are hard limits in the code, not just policy. Each one goes to a person instead.

The first 24 hours

We already imported your services, prices, techs and hours from your website and your Square account. That is the setup you saw at signup. Check it. Anything wrong in there is something Della will say wrong on a call. You can edit it on the Knowledge page in your workspace.

For the first week Della runs in supervised mode. She drafts, you approve. Drafts wait for you on the Approvals page and on Today. Approve as written, edit, or dismiss. Every edit teaches her the way you actually talk to your clients.

The voice line is different. It goes live when you say so, not automatically. Until then Della works your written channels, and we listen to how your calls actually go so we can tune her tone and pacing. You will be told before the phone switches over.

What you'll see on Today

Today is your morning briefing. Three parts, top to bottom:

• What needs you now. Drafts waiting for approval, calls Della passed to a person, anything odd she noticed overnight.
• Handled by Della. What she got done. Calls answered, messages replied to, appointments booked.
• Recap. Calls, bookings and revenue, with a link to the fuller weekly recap.

Click any row to open it. Every client, call and appointment can be opened in place without leaving the page.

The voice line

We set up a phone number for you. It rings Della first, and falls back to your existing number if anything misfires.

She says who she is at the start of every call. The default opening is close to this:

"Hi! Thanks for calling Luna Nail Studio. I'm Della, the AI receptionist. How can I help?"

Where your state requires it, the opening also says the call may be recorded and that the caller can ask for a person at any time. You can edit the wording where Della's name and voice are set.

If a caller asks whether she is an AI, she says yes. She is never allowed to deny it. If a caller asks for a person, she takes a message and puts it in front of you straight away.

The Trust Center

Everything Della does is written down. The Proof section of your workspace, on the Trust page, is where you read it.

• Filter by date, status and category.
• Open any row to see what she did, what she said, and why she decided it.
• Pause one channel, or everything, from the same page.

Four things worth doing there in your first week:

1. Open one conversation. Read what was said and the reasoning behind her reply.
2. Open one draft you corrected. See what she did with your correction.
3. Open the Knowledge page. Check that services, prices and your techs match reality.
4. Find the pause switches, so you know where they are before you need them.

When something feels off

If Della did something you did not expect, whether that is the wrong tone, wrong information, or missing something obvious, you have three options:

• Report an issue from the top right of the workspace, or press ⌘+/ from anywhere. Tell us what happened. The report picks up the page you were on, the last ten things Della did, and any errors, so you do not have to describe any of that. We reply inside the times your plan promises. See Reporting an issue.
• Email support@hellodella.com.
• Founding-10 salons only: text Nate's cell. You have the number.

Critical issues page the on-call phone 24/7. That means the voice line down, payments broken, or anything marked urgent.

What to do this week

Day 1: approve five drafts. Read one of her reasoning notes. Open the Knowledge page and spot-check the import.

Day 2: read the greeting she opens calls with. Change it if it does not sound like your salon.

Day 3: read three conversations end to end. Correct anything off-tone in place. Your correction is saved and feeds the next draft.

Day 4 to 7: keep approving. Watch for patterns in your own edits, because those are the rules worth writing down.

A note on autonomy

What Della may do on her own is set for each kind of work, not all at once. You can let her send appointment reminders on her own while every reply to a new client still comes to you for approval.

She only moves off supervised mode when the record supports it: enough approved drafts to mean something, a high approval rate, few edits, few hand-offs. Even then you decide when to flip it, and you can flip it back at any time. The hard limits hold in every mode, so no diagnosing, no card details on the phone, no invented prices, and refunds and complaints always go to a person.

What this article doesn't cover

Two more articles worth reading:

• Reporting an issue. How to tell us something is wrong, and how fast we reply.
• Privacy. What Della keeps about your clients, who can see it, and how to have it deleted.

If anything in this article is wrong or missing, use Report an issue and tell us.