Channels overview: one agent, several ways in

Your customers reach you in different ways depending on the moment: a call when something is urgent, a WhatsApp message from a queue at the airport, an email with a document attached. Telonic gives you one agent across all of them. It carries the same industry model, the same limits your team has set and the same memory of each customer on every channel, so a customer who calls on Monday and messages on Wednesday is not starting again. This page sets out each channel, what the agent does on it, and what your organisation provides.

The same agent on every channel

The channel changes how a conversation arrives and how the agent replies. It does not change who the customer is dealing with. Three things are the same everywhere:

• The industry model. On every channel, the agent understands requests in terms of your business: units and payment plans, reservations and rate rules, policies and claims. See Industry models.
• Your limits. The actions it can take, the values it can offer and the triggers that send a conversation to your team apply in the same way on a call as in an email. See Policies as limits.
• The customer's history. Every channel reads from and writes to one record of each customer, so the agent knows what was said, promised and done before, wherever it happened. See The customer record.

Telonic is one agent with several ways in, not a set of separate channel products. That is what lets a conversation start on one channel and continue on another without anyone repeating themselves.

The channels at a glance

How each channel works

Voice

The agent answers calls to your existing numbers and places calls to customers through your own carrier. Your phone system connects to Telonic over SIP (the standard protocol business phone systems use to set up and connect calls), so your numbers, carrier and routing stay yours. The agent listens as the caller speaks, recognises when they have finished, and replies in a natural spoken voice. See Voice: inbound and outbound calls and Voice: connecting your telephony over SIP.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is where many customers in the region prefer to reach a business. The agent replies within the conversation, and starts conversations with message templates (pre-written messages that Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, has approved). Reading and sending images, documents and voice notes is configured during implementation for the conversations that need it. See WhatsApp: overview.

SMS

SMS reaches customers who do not use WhatsApp, and serves as a fallback in a sequence across channels. The agent treats SMS as another way into the same conversation, not a separate one. See SMS.

Email

The agent reads email arriving in the mailboxes you choose, understands the issue and replies in the same thread. A thread is treated as one issue until it is resolved, so nothing is answered twice. For sensitive inboxes, holding each reply as a draft for your team to approve is configured during implementation. See Email: mailbox connection, threading and attachments and Email: drafts for human review.

Web and app

The website widget, the in-app agent and browser voice (speaking to the agent from a web page, without dialling) are configured during implementation for the sites and apps you choose. A customer who is signed in is already identified, so the conversation starts with their account in front of the agent. See Web and app and Signed-in customers.

A customer moving between channels

Customers do not choose one channel and stay on it. They call when they are driving, message when they are in a meeting, and email when they have a document to send. Because every channel writes to the same record, the agent picks up where the last conversation left off, whichever channel it was on.

The agent links each conversation to the right customer using verified identifiers: phone number, email address, customer ID, and booking or policy reference. Where a match is uncertain, it is suggested to a person on your team to confirm, rather than assumed. Before sharing account details, the agent runs the identity checks you set for your deployment. See Matching contacts to customers.

Sequences across channels

When a customer does not respond on one channel, the next step can be on another. Multi-channel sequences are configured during implementation: you choose the channels, the order and the gap between steps. Each step runs the same checks as any outbound contact: the customer's consent, any opt-out, and the hours you have set. See Contact rules for outbound messages and calls.

The sequence ends when the customer replies on any channel, because every channel writes to the same record. A customer who answers the WhatsApp message is not then called about the same thing.

Starting with one channel

Deployments start with one channel in one department, such as out-of-hours calls to a reservations line or WhatsApp enquiries for one property launch. Adding a channel later uses the same agent and the same record. The industry model, your limits and every customer's history carry over, so the new channel starts with everything the first one has learned about your customers.

In practice

A hotel group in Dubai runs its reservations line and WhatsApp number through the same agent.

1. On Monday evening, Layla calls to ask for early check-in on Friday and an airport transfer. The agent finds her reservation, books the transfer, and records the early check-in request for the front office to approve.
2. The front office approves the request in the reservation system on Tuesday.
3. On Wednesday, Layla messages on WhatsApp: "Is my early check-in confirmed?" The agent recognises her number, sees Monday's call, and confirms early check-in from the reservation system.
4. She asks for a transfer back to the airport on Monday. The agent books it and sends her both transfer times.
5. On Thursday, the front office opens Layla's record and sees both conversations, both transfers and the approved early check-in in one place.

What your team controls

• Which channels the agent runs on, and for which departments, numbers, mailboxes, sites and apps.
• The limits and handover rules, which apply on every channel.
• The channels, order and timing of follow-up sequences.
• The hours in which the agent may call or message customers first.
• How long conversation records are kept, and who in your organisation can see them.

Related

• The customer record: overviewCustomer record
• Memory and contextAgents
• Voice: inbound and outbound callsChannels
• WhatsApp: overviewChannels
• Web and app: website widget, in-app and browser voiceChannels

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