Typing the same message forty times a week
Customers ask whether their garment is ready. If the answer has to be typed out by hand each time — name, outfit, new date, what is still owed — it either eats the afternoon or it does not get sent, and then they ask again.
Eleven templates, all editable
Shona ships eleven customer message templates covering the moments that actually come up:
- A welcome message for a new client
- One for each of the six order stages
- Deadline changed
- Staff member assigned
- Payment receipt
- Ready-made sales receipt
Every one of them can be rewritten in your own words, and placeholders like {name}, {outfit}, {deadline} and {balance} are filled in when you send.
WhatsApp or SMS, your choice per message
Open any order and tap the message button — Shona opens WhatsApp with the message already written for that client. If they are not on WhatsApp, send the same thing over SMS instead. The phone number comes from the client record, so there is nothing to look up.
Messages can also go out automatically as an order advances a production stage, which is where most of the typing disappears.
Your language and your customers' language are separate
This is the setup most shops want, and it is two settings rather than one: the app's language and your customer-message language are independent. Read the interface in English while every client hears from you in Swahili — or the other way round.
Both languages have their own copy of all eleven templates, so rewriting one does not touch the other.
What this is not
Shona composes messages and hands them to WhatsApp or your SMS app to send from your own number. It is not a bulk marketing or broadcast tool, and there is no appointment or fitting calendar behind it — messages are tied to a client and an order.
More of what Shona does
The rest of the app, one job at a time.
- A tailoring app that works with no internet at allEvery action saves on the phone first and syncs when a connection turns up — a week without a data bundle costs you nothing.
- Keep every client's measurements in one place59 standard measurements grouped by body area, plus any you add yourself, saved once per client and pre-filled by outfit type.
- Track every clothing order from received to deliveredSix production stages, one tap to advance, design photos and deadlines, and work assigned to the tailor doing it.
- Know what every client owes and what every job earnedDeposits and part-payments record against the order, balances track themselves, and material and labour costs show the profit on each job.
Try it on your next order
Shona is free to download and free to run your shop from — no subscription. Android and iOS.
Questions first? Read the support answers.