Agents
Agent roles
The four kinds of work an agent does, sales, support, resolution and outreach, what each covers in your industry, and how one deployment combines them.
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Your customer conversations are not one kind of work. Answering a new enquiry, telling a policyholder where their claim has got to, completing a booking change and reminding a buyer about an instalment each need different skills, different permissions and a different moment to hand over. Telonic organises this into four roles: sales, support, resolution and outreach. Each role is built for your industry, and one deployment can combine several of them on the same customer record.
The four roles at a glance
| Role | What it does | Property | Travel and hospitality | Insurance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | Answers and qualifies new enquiries, and moves them towards a sale | Enquiry qualification, matching units to requirements, booking viewings | Availability, fare and package enquiries | Qualifying new enquiries, and quoting where your rules allow |
| Support | Answers questions about an existing booking, unit or policy | Payment plan and project questions | Booking questions and changes | Claim status, coverage and policy questions |
| Resolution | Completes the process the conversation is about | Logging snagging items against the unit | Rebooking within fare rules, vouchers within policy | Taking the first report of a claim (first notice of loss), collecting claim documents |
| Outreach | Starts the conversation, at the right moment | Instalment reminders, viewing reminders | Pre-arrival contact, feedback after the trip | Renewal reminders, claim updates |
The workflows behind each role are configured during implementation for the processes and systems you choose. None is switched on by default.
Sales
The sales role answers new enquiries and qualifies them as part of a helpful conversation. It captures budget, timing and intent, scores the lead against your own qualification criteria, and books the next step, such as a viewing, into the right calendar. In property, matching units to a buyer's requirements from your live inventory is configured during implementation. In insurance, quoting within your rating rules (the rules that set the price of a policy) is configured the same way, with anything outside them handed to your sales team.
When a buyer shows strong signs of being close to a decision, the sales role can route them to a salesperson straight away, configured during implementation. Your sales team starts with the lead in your CRM (the system that holds your customer and sales records), scored, with a summary and the next step already in the diary.
Support
The support role answers questions about something the customer already has: a booking, a unit, a policy, a claim. It looks the answer up in your systems during the conversation, and answers general questions from your approved documents.
In insurance, that means claim status from your claims system and coverage questions from the policyholder's own policy wording. In travel, it means booking questions and changes. In property, it means payment plan, construction progress and service charge questions for the buyer's own unit and project. These workflows are configured during implementation for the systems they depend on.
Resolution
The resolution role completes the process the conversation is about, inside your systems, within your limits. It logs the snagging item against the right unit in your maintenance system. It takes the first notice of loss in the structure your claims system needs, and requests and attaches the documents the claim requires. It rebooks a passenger onto a flight the fare permits, and issues vouchers within your policy limits.
Resolution is where limits matter most, because the agent is changing something. Every action is one your team has permitted, with the values your rules allow. Decisions that belong to your people, such as a claims decision or a refund outside policy, are not available to it. See Policies as limits.
Outreach
The outreach role starts conversations. It sends reminders and confirmations, follows up on instalments, handles renewal reminders, asks customers how things went, and runs campaigns across your contact lists. Scheduled calls and appointment reminders work as standard. Collections follow-up, feedback collection, retries at better times and sequences that move from one channel to another are configured during implementation.
Outreach works only within the contact rules that apply. Consent is checked before every outbound message, opt-outs and do-not-contact lists are honoured, and calls are placed only within permitted calling hours. When a payment is due, the agent sends a payment link from your payment provider, so card details stay with the provider and the agent never sees them. See Contact rules for outbound messages and calls.
Each role has its own limits and handover
The four roles share an agent and a record, but not their permissions. Each has the actions its work needs and no more, and each hands over to the team that owns the next step.
| Role | Typical limits | Typical handover |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Shares approved prices and availability. Books viewings. Cannot negotiate price or offer a discount | A ready buyer to a salesperson, with the lead and the conversation |
| Support | Reads from your systems. Answers from approved wording | A disputed answer or a complaint to customer care, with the question and the history |
| Resolution | Takes permitted actions with permitted values. Sensitive actions wait for approval | A decision outside its limits to the team that owns it, with a brief |
| Outreach | Contacts only customers who may be contacted, within permitted hours | A request to change a payment plan, or a customer in difficulty, to collections or customer care |
Combining roles in one deployment
Customers do not stay in one role's lane. A guest asking about a booking change may go on to ask about adding a night. A policyholder receiving a renewal reminder may ask about a claim from last year. Because the roles share one agent and one record, the conversation moves between them without the customer noticing, and each part is handled with that role's limits.
Most deployments start with one role, on one channel, in one department. Adding a role later uses the same record and, often, the same connections to your systems. Separate departments or brands can run with their own agents, data and reporting under one contract. See How a deployment works.
In practice
Sahel Crest Properties, a Dubai developer, starts with sales for one launch and later adds the other roles.
- Sales. Maryam enquires about a two-bedroom unit on WhatsApp on a Friday evening. The agent answers from the inventory, asks about her budget and timing, and books a viewing for Saturday. The sales team finds a scored lead in the CRM.
- Outreach. After she reserves unit C-1402, the agent reminds her of each instalment as its milestone approaches, with the amount from the payment schedule and a payment link.
- Support. She calls to ask how construction is progressing. The agent answers from the project data for her tower.
- Resolution. After handover, she reports two defects. The agent logs both against her unit in the maintenance system and tells her what happens next.
- Handover. She disputes whether one defect is covered. That decision sits with the handover team, and the agent passes it to them with a brief and her full history.
What your team controls
- Which roles your deployment uses, in which departments and on which channels.
- The actions and values each role is permitted, and which need approval.
- The handover route for each role, and who receives it.
- For outreach: who may be contacted, when, on which channel, and how often.
Related
- Workflows and customer journeysAgents
- Policies as limitsAgents
- Handover to your teamAgents
- Contact rules for outbound messages and callsLegal and compliance
- How a deployment worksGetting started
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