Explaining the online admin to a salon owner

The situation: an owner asks what the online admin will do with clients and what it will never do. The answer is the same for a staff member and for an agent, and it names the screens where the owner decides.

1. What it is and what it cannot reach

The online admin is one of two built-in agents. It answers clients in the business's WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger chats by itself. The other agent, the assistant, works for the team and is a different thing (see Built-in agents). The online admin is a member of the business with rights of its own, and it answers only after the owner or an administrator of the whole business gives them in What the online admin may do. talemo_get_agent_grant shows what it may do. It never connects channels or keys, never gives rights to anyone, and does not see money, the team and roles or the note and category of a client's card.

2. How a conversation goes

It reads the script of the place the client wrote to, asks the steps in order, shows the options as buttons where the channel has them, and writes each answer into a field under What we write down. It writes in the client's language, in short messages (see Following the script). At the start of a conversation it names the business, says it is the online administrator and says it is an AI, and if a client asks whether it is a person or a bot, it says it is an AI. It does this again after a long gap, or after a person of the business wrote in the chat. It answers while the channel window is open, which is a day after the client's last message.

3. Booking

It finds times with the same finder as the team and books or moves a visit for the client of that chat only. The confirmation of a visit it booked or moved waits until it finishes replying: if it wrote to the client after the booking, Talemo skips the confirmation, because the booking was confirmed in the chat, and if it finished without writing to the client, Talemo sends the confirmation itself within a minute. Talemo sends the reminder as for any visit (see Visit notices). It cannot cancel a visit: it asks the team, a card appears in Waiting for you, and the client is told that the business will confirm.

4. What it knows

It answers from the voice and the entries of Knowledge, and it takes prices and times from the price list and the schedules. It does not invent an answer. When it has none, it tells the client it will find out, hands the chat to the team with the reason "doesn't know the answer" and goes on with the rest of the conversation. The question goes to the knowledge suggestions as Question without an answer. After a person approves the answer, the online admin answers the waiting client by itself while the window is open (see How the online admin uses the knowledge).

5. When it hands over to people

It tells the client first and then hands over, with a reason (see Handoff to people).

• A client asks for advice, for example about health: it says politely that it does not advise, and keeps answering the rest.
• A client asks for a person, complains, or a rule of the script says so: it goes quiet until a person gives the chat back.
• It is set up not to promise a refund, compensation or a discount.

The handoff waits in Waiting for you and rings the app, and goes away when a person has answered the client.

6. Draft mode

In Only drafts the online admin prepares the reply and its actions, and nothing is sent or done. The owner sees the draft in Today or Waiting for you and decides Send, Edit or Don't send (see Draft replies). A new channel starts in this mode, and the owner moves it to Answers by itself when the drafts are right. Only a person can do that. talemo_get_channel reads the mode of a channel, and a single conversation can have its own.

7. When a person steps in

A reply from Talemo or from the WhatsApp Business app on the business phone, or Take over, pauses the online admin in that chat. Give back to the online admin ends the pause, and when you reply from Talemo you choose at once: Reply and give back to the online admin or Reply and keep it yourself (see Who answers a conversation). It does not answer a message with only an emoji or a sticker, history from before the channel was connected, or a client's "stop", and it is off for cards in Spam (see Ignore, Spam and "stop").

8. Limits and spend

AI work is paid from the business's balance as it is done, and Balance and spending shows it by assistant on the What it went on tab. The owner can set a Spending limit for the month, and the online admin has a daily ceiling set with its rights. When either is reached, or the balance comes down to the reserve, it stops, clients' messages wait for people, and the rest of Talemo works (see Spend of a run). Take the rights back stops it in every channel at once, and the rights can be given again.