Plenty of small operations handle inbound messages as an afterthought: they answer a day later and lose half the enquiries. That is a service niche.
What automation closes
The first reply, clarifying questions, and the standard facts: price, timelines, how to order. That is most of the inbound flow, and it is exactly what eats the owner's day.
The value is not replacing a person but the speed: an answer in a minute instead of a day moves conversion more than any wording change.
Where a person is needed
Non-standard cases, complaints, negotiation — anything requiring a decision. The right shape is not «bot instead of a person» but «bot before a person»: it holds the conversation, gathers the details and hands over context.
Pricing it
Your cost is model calls proportional to message volume, plus a share of the subscription, plus time spent writing the persona and revising it. The client price comes from the alternative: what keeping someone on those messages even part-time would cost.
Note that spend follows messages, not customers. One talkative buyer with twenty follow-ups costs more than ten who asked the price and left, so a tariff based on message volume is more predictable than a flat one. Capping the conversation length before handover helps too: past a certain point the exchange needs a decision anyway.
What to show the client
The conversations. Full access to what the system says is the only way to remove the real fear — that it will write something embarrassing to a customer. The ability to step in at any moment sells the service better than any feature list. Start with the twenty most common questions from last month: usually most of them close safely. The tool is on the automation page.