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Getting started

Key concepts

The ten terms used throughout these docs, what each means in practice, and how they fit together.

On this page
  1. Where conversations happen
  2. Deployment
  3. Agent
  4. Channel
  5. What conversations build
  6. Conversation
  7. Issue
  8. Customer record
  9. What the agent works within
  10. Workflow
  11. Policy
  12. Limit
  13. Where a person takes over
  14. Handover
  15. In practice
  16. Related

Ten terms carry most of the meaning in these docs. Each one names something your team will see, set or sign off: the agent that holds the conversations, the record those conversations build, the rules the agent works within, and the point at which a person takes over. This page defines each term in plain language, gives an example, and points to the page that covers it in full. For every other term, see the Glossary.

Where conversations happen

Deployment

Telonic set up for your organisation: your agents, the channels they work on, the connections to your systems, your limits and your customer record, hosted in the option and region you chose. A deployment starts with one channel in one department and grows from there.

Example: a hotel group's deployment starts with overnight reservation calls, then adds guest requests on WhatsApp. See How a deployment works.

Agent

A specialised AI agent, built for your industry, that holds conversations with your customers. It understands what the customer wants, looks up the facts in your systems, acts within your limits, and hands the conversation to your team when a person is needed. It always tells customers it is an AI agent. A deployment can have more than one agent, for example one for each department.

Example: the reservations agent for a hotel group changes a guest's dates on its booking system. See How an agent works and Agent roles.

Channel

A way a customer reaches you: voice, WhatsApp, SMS, email, or web and app. The same agent works on every channel, with the same knowledge and the same limits. What changes is how it listens and replies, such as short spoken sentences on a call, or tappable buttons on WhatsApp.

Example: a guest calls on Monday and messages on Wednesday, and is dealing with the same agent. See Channels overview.

What conversations build

Conversation

One exchange between a customer and your organisation on one channel: a phone call, a WhatsApp exchange or an email thread. Every conversation the agent holds produces a transcript, a summary, an outcome and a log of what the agent looked up and did, kept for as long as your retention settings allow.

Example: a call in which a guest asks about airport transfers and books one. See How an agent works.

Issue

The thing a customer got in touch about, followed from first contact to resolution, however many conversations or channels it takes. An issue opens when the customer first raises it and closes when it is resolved.

Example: a buyer reports a misaligned cabinet door by phone, sends a photo on WhatsApp, and receives the repair date by email. That is three conversations and one issue. See Issues and threading.

Customer record

One continuous record of each customer, across every channel and department: their contact details, preferred language, conversations, issues, commitments and the actions taken for them. The agent reads it at the start of each conversation, so nobody is asked to explain themselves twice. Your CRM (the system that holds your customer and sales records) stays the authoritative source for customer and account data.

Example: the handover team can see what the sales team told a buyer. See The customer record.

What the agent works within

Workflow

The stages of a process in your industry, and the valid next step from each. The agent knows where a customer is in a longer journey and what should happen next.

Example: in property, enquiry, viewing, reservation, payment milestones, handover and snagging (defects reported at handover). In insurance, quote, cover, claim and renewal. See Workflows and customer journeys.

Policy

One of your organisation's business rules: a pricing structure, a fee, an entitlement, an approval level or a fare rule. In these docs, "your policies" means these rules. Where an insurance policy is meant, the text says so.

Example: date changes are free on a flexible rate and not permitted on a non-refundable one. See Policies as limits.

Limit

A policy built into what the agent is able to do, rather than written as an instruction it is asked to follow. Limits set the actions the agent can take, the values it can use, the actions that wait for a person's approval, and the topics it does not discuss. If an action is not permitted, the agent has no way to take it.

Example: an agent can issue a meal voucher up to your policy amount, and has no action that issues more. See Policies as limits and Decision boundaries.

Where a person takes over

Handover

Passing a conversation to a person on your team, with the full conversation and a written brief of what has been established and what is outstanding. A handover happens when the customer asks for a person, when a rule you set is triggered, such as a complaint or a customer in distress, or when the agent is not confident enough to answer.

Example: a guest asks for a refund outside policy, and the front office manager receives the request, the booking and the rate rules in one brief. See Handover to your team.

In practice

One guest's week with a hotel group, Qamar Stays, shows the ten concepts working together.

  1. Qamar Stays' deployment covers reservations and guest services, on voice and WhatsApp.
  2. On Tuesday evening, Noura messages on WhatsApp, one channel, to move her booking. This starts a conversation and opens an issue: a change of dates.
  3. The reservations agent finds her booking. The workflow shows she is in the pre-arrival stage.
  4. Her rate is flexible. The hotel's policy allows free date changes on that rate, and the agent's limits permit it to make the change. It moves her stay and closes the issue.
  5. On Friday, she calls to ask for a refund on a separate, non-refundable booking. The agent has no action that refunds that rate, so it makes a handover to the front office manager with a brief.
  6. Both conversations, both issues and the handover sit in her customer record, with her preference for English.

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