How home service pros answer quote requests in DMs

Home service pros answer quote requests in DMs by replying within minutes with a price range or the details they need, the next opening and a booking link, inside Instagram's 24-hour reply window. BetterSocials is best for an owner who quotes from DMs, because its AI drafts each reply from prices the owner writes. Meta Business Suite is best for a few quote DMs a day at no cost. Manychat is best for multi-step flows and WhatsApp.

What a quote reply carries, and the clock it runs on

BetterSocials, Meta Business Suite and Manychat all work inside the same Instagram rules, so this entry takes the rules angle. We log the windows, caps and counts that decide whether your quote reply lands, with the date each one applies.

A quote request is a DM asking what a job costs or when you can come out. The reply that books the visit carries four things:

1. 1A price range, or the one or two details you need before you can give one.
2. 2A request for a photo of the job when the range depends on what you'd see on site.
3. 3Your next opening.
4. 4Your booking link, so the customer can lock the slot without another message.

Speed matters because Instagram sets the clock. Instagram only lets a business reply to a DM within 24 hours of the person's last message. After that, the conversation is closed until they write again.

Which tools answer quote DMs for a small business in 2026

BetterSocials leads our table because answering DMs with replies drafted from your own prices is the job its product facts describe most closely. Prices below are as of October 2026, except Agorapulse, which is as of July 2026. Agorapulse, Hootsuite and Sprout Social bill annually at the prices shown.

Meta Business Suite is cheaper than every paid tool here, at nothing. What BetterSocials' $29 a month buys is AI replies drafted from your prices, a lead tag on each quote request and comment-to-DM on Instagram and Facebook, with unlimited contacts.

Meta Business Suite: free, with limits to know

Meta Business Suite is free on desktop and in its mobile app. Meta's help page says it lets you "read and reply to new messages and comments from your Facebook Page, Messenger, Instagram account and WhatsApp Business account in one inbox."

Three limits shape how it handles quote requests, as of October 2026:

• Keyword automations send templates you write, or Meta Business Agent, and they're set up on desktop.
• An automation waits 15 minutes before sending unless you reply first.
• Each keyword message automation takes up to five keywords, and matching is case-sensitive, as of July 2026.

Meta also caps how late you can message a commenter. Its help page says "you can't send a message in response to comments posted more than 7 days ago."

Stay on Meta Business Suite if a handful of quote DMs come in each day and you answer them yourself. It costs nothing and covers WhatsApp in the regions where Meta offers it.

What Manychat costs a home service business

Manychat Pro is $39 a month with 2,500 active contacts, as of October 2026, billed monthly. Each extra contact costs $0.10 on Essential, $0.05 on Pro and $0.025 on Business.

The bill grows with your reach. A Pro account that passes 2,500 active contacts in a month pays $39 plus $0.05 for every contact over, so a busy month costs more than a quiet one.

Manychat works on Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and TikTok. WhatsApp is its clear win for home service pros whose customers text there, since BetterSocials doesn't connect WhatsApp.

Pick Manychat if you want multi-step sequences built in its flow builder, or if WhatsApp carries your quote requests. Pick BetterSocials if your quotes come through Instagram, Facebook and TikTok DMs and you'd rather pay a flat price with unlimited contacts. Creator is $29 a month, or $24 billed yearly, for four accounts.

Team inboxes priced per person

Hootsuite includes its inbox from Standard at $99 per user a month, and Sprout Social puts its inbox on Standard at $199 per seat a month, both billed annually, as of October 2026. Agorapulse is $79 per user a month on annual billing, as of July 2026.

These prices are per person. They fit a business where several people share one inbox and split support from marketing.

A one-truck business pays for seats it doesn't use. At matching prices, Hootsuite Standard is $99 a month for one user, and BetterSocials Team is $99 a month, or $79 billed yearly, for twelve accounts and unlimited teammates.

Meta Business Suite also lets you share the work for free. You can assign conversations across Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook comments and Instagram comments to the people who help run your page.

How fast each platform lets you answer a quote

Instagram and TikTok each run their own clock, and a tool can only send inside it. These are the windows and counts as of October 2026:

• Instagram DMs: a business can reply within 24 hours of the person's last message.
• Instagram comment-to-DM: Meta's private replies documentation allows one message per comment, sent within 7 days of the comment. It lands in the person's Inbox if they follow you and in their Request folder if they don't.
• TikTok DMs: reply-only, at most 10 replies within 48 hours of the person's last message, and the account must be a Business account.
• TikTok replies: text up to 6,000 characters or one image, never both.
• TikTok comments can't trigger a private DM on any tool outside TikTok's limited rollout in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

BetterSocials flags quote requests so the clock doesn't run out unseen. Every new DM asking about price, booking or availability gets a Lead tag, a push notification goes to the owner's phone, and unanswered leads get at most one reminder email a day.

What BetterSocials shipped for DM replies in October 2026

BetterSocials' AI replies have answered DMs as well as comments since October 23, 2026, on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. The DMs section has three settings: Off, Draft for me and Reply in my voice.

On Draft for me, every new DM gets a draft in the owner's voice and nothing sends until they approve it. On Reply in my voice, a DM gets an answer about a minute after it arrives.

Quote requests are questions, so they wait in Needs reply by default. The opt-in switch Answer questions too lets the AI answer them, and it only turns on once the owner has written at least one AI rule. An AI rule is a plain sentence such as a price range, a service area or a booking link.

When the rules don't cover what someone asked, the AI doesn't guess. The DM waits for the owner in Needs reply. The AI reads the conversation so far, and after five AI replies in one conversation in a day, the rest wait too.

Story replies and voice notes land in the Inbox but get no AI reply. TikTok only lets apps answer DMs for accounts outside the UK and Europe.

Each AI reply uses one AI credit. Creator is $29 a month, or $24 billed yearly, for four accounts, one login and 1,000 AI credits. Pro is $49 a month, or $39 billed yearly, for six accounts and 2,000 credits. Team is $99 a month, or $79 billed yearly, for twelve accounts, unlimited teammates and 4,000 shared credits. Every plan has a 7-day free trial with a card required, listed on BetterSocials' pricing page.