Set Hamla up for your business

There is no page here called Hamla for restaurants, or for clinics, or for gyms. Not because those businesses are unsupported — the opposite. Hamla does not assume what you sell, so a page for each industry would be an endless list that still managed to miss yours. Here is what is true instead. Every business has the same six moments. A restaurant, a dental clinic, a law firm and a software company all have all six. Only the names change. These are not a framework invented for this page — they are the six stages Hamla already tracks on every single contact. Find your six and you have everything Hamla needs from you: what to tell it, who to group together, and what to run first. It takes about fifteen minutes, and you do not need a developer to do it.

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The six moments

Find the column closest to your business, then fill in the last one. If a row feels wrong for you, the row is not wrong — the wording is. Moment 3 is whatever “yes” looks like in your business. It might be a signed contract, a paid deposit, a filled seat, an enrolled student.

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Work through your own six

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1. They become known to you

Ask: what is the first thing that turns an anonymous stranger into somebody I could contact tomorrow? This is the moment you get a name, a phone number, or an email. Before it, Hamla can count the person but cannot reach them. Everything else on this page depends on it, so if you only fix one moment, fix this one. For most businesses it is a form, a signup, a first booking, a loyalty join, or an Instagram DM. If your answer is “they walk in and I never get their details”, that is not a small gap — that is the whole problem, and growing your list is where to start rather than anything below. What Hamla does with it: starts the welcome sequence, and attaches everything they did anonymously beforehand — including which ad or post first brought them.

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2. Interest, without commitment

Ask: what does somebody do that shows they were close, and then did not go through with it? This is the most valuable moment on the list and the one most businesses never act on. The person has already decided they want it. Something small stopped them. An abandoned cart is the famous version, but it is only the online-store spelling of it. It is also a booking form left half-filled, a quote request never answered, a viewing enquiry that went cold, a menu browsed at 11pm with no order. What Hamla does with it: catches them before they leave, then follows up.

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3. They commit

Ask: what is the moment somebody says yes? Order placed, appointment booked, contract signed, plan subscribed, deposit paid. Whatever your version is, this is the one moment worth being certain Hamla knows about, because it is what everything is measured against. What Hamla does with it: stops chasing them immediately — nobody gets a “come back and finish” message after they already paid — and moves them to the Decision stage.

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4. It completes

Ask: when is the customer happiest? Not when they pay. Slightly after: when the food arrives, the treatment is done, the parcel lands, the setup finishes. This is the only moment they will ever gladly leave a review or tell a friend, and the window is short. What Hamla does with it: asks for the review while the goodwill is still warm, and starts the sequence that gets them back for a second time.

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5. They go quiet

Ask: how long is too long between visits, for my business? Thirty days for a cafe. Six months for a dentist. Two weeks for an app. There is no universal number — you already know yours, and it is the single most useful number you will give Hamla. This one is different from the other five: nothing happens. There is no event to send, because silence does not announce itself. It is a question Hamla asks on a schedule instead — who has not been back since? What Hamla does with it: reaches them before they forget you. These are the cheapest customers you will ever get back, because you already paid to win them once.

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6. They become a fan

Ask: what does a customer do that proves they are not just satisfied but attached? A third order. A referral. An upgrade. A five-star review. A friend brought along. What Hamla does with it: stops selling to them and starts asking them to bring others, which is the cheapest acquisition you have.

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What you now have

Three things, from one table. Your events. Moments 1, 3 and 4 are things that happen in your system at a specific instant, so they are events — one line of code each, at the point your system already handles them. Moment 2 sometimes is too, if your system knows about it. Your audiences. Moment 5 is not an event. It is silence, so it becomes a segment — ordered before, nothing in 30 days — and it keeps itself up to date as people age into it. Your first three campaigns. Which three depends less on your industry than on where customers reach you: Three is deliberate. Six campaigns at once means six things half-configured.

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Where each moment reaches Hamla

You do not have to send everything yourself. Most businesses send far less than they expect. If you run on a platform Hamla already connects to, moments 2 through 4 may need no code from you whatsoever. Check the connections list before writing anything.

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The method, run once

A restaurant with online ordering and a loyalty scheme. Fifteen minutes, start to finish. Change the nouns and it is your business. A clinic replaces order with appointment and 30 days with 6 months, and the six campaigns are the same six campaigns.

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Just describe it instead

You can skip the table entirely and say it in your own words:

“I run a dental clinic. Remind people a day before their appointment, ask for a review after the visit, and chase anyone who hasn’t been in for six months.”

That is the same six moments in a sentence, and Hamla will build it. The table is only here for when you want to see the whole shape before you start — and to prove that the shape is the same whatever you sell.

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