Robottino

Management

Let outside agencies work on your phone system, each with its own operators

Create agencies and sub-agencies, give each one portal access to only the pages you choose, and assign its operators. On agency queues every call one of their operators answers is charged to the agency, at the price you set.

  1. Call in the Sales queueagency queue
  2. Julia answers, extension 305operator at North Agency
  3. North Agency is chargedthe queue’s price per call
  4. Agencies reportcharged calls and amounts this month

What it is for

If you hand part of your calls to outside call centers, resellers or separate branches, agencies let them work on your phone system without full access for anyone. Each agency signs in to the portal with its own user or a link, sees only the pages you grant and only its own operators.

For each menu page you pick the level: View, if the agency may only look, or Manage, if it may also create, change and delete. An agency can in turn create sub-agencies and give them at most what it received from you.

Agency queues are where outsourcing pays: when an agency operator answers a call from one of these queues, you pay for the call as usual and the agency pays you its per-call price. A sub-agency pays its agency, which pays you. You set the price queue by queue, or it comes from the agency’s price list.

The Agencies report shows charged calls, average cost and total amount for every agency and sub-agency, with the list of charges. You top up their credit, assign price lists and, when needed, enter their portal with "Sign in as".

Use cases

Sell inbound calls to partner call centers

You own the numbers and the ad campaigns, partners have the operators. Mark the queue as an agency queue and set the price per call: each call answered by a partner’s operator is charged to its credit, and the Agencies report gives you the month’s total.

A reseller network with its own sub-agents

Each reseller is an agency and creates its own sub-agencies, with their price lists. Sub-agencies pay the reseller, the reseller pays you. You see everything, they see only their part.

Branches or teams that should see only their operators

Assign each branch’s operators to its agency: the branch manager signs in, sees their operators and reports, and cannot touch numbers, queues or settings you did not grant.

An operator who answers for several agencies

An operator works for its own agency but also answers another agency’s queues. For each queue you pick which agency is charged, so calls land in the right agency’s reports and credit.

Keep a new partner under control

The hourly limit sets how many agency queue calls its operators may answer each hour, and without the out-of-credit option its operators stop ringing when the balance reaches zero.

How it works

  1. Create the agency

    In Agencies press New agency: a name is enough. The agency takes your account’s currency, language and time zone. Email and password are optional: access can be given with a link only.

  2. Choose how it signs in and what it sees

    On the Access tab turn on email or username and password sign-in, or create an access link. On the Visible menu tab tick the pages and choose View or Manage for each.

  3. Assign the operators

    Select operators in the operator list and assign them to the agency. From then on the agency sees and manages only those; for a shared operator, list the other agencies it answers for.

  4. Set agency queues and prices

    Turn on Agency queue in the queue. On the agency’s Agency queues tab set the price per call for each queue, or keep the price list one, and set the hourly limit and the out-of-credit behaviour.

  5. Top up, assign a price list and keep track

    From the agency list use Top up / Adjust for credit and choose the price list. The Agencies report follows calls, charges and amounts for the period, and you can export it.

What you can set

Access

Name
The agency or sub-agency name, the only required field.
Username and password login
The agency signs in from the login page. With an email it can recover the password itself; with a username you reset the password.
Username
Instead of an email: lowercase letters, digits, dot and dash, unique on your domain.
Link sign-in
Whoever opens the link is signed in directly, without a password. You can generate a new link, which replaces the old one at once, or disable it.
Turning access off
Turning a sign-in method off signs out whoever came in that way, right away.
Sign in as
Enter the agency’s portal as if you were the agency, to see what it sees or fix something.

Visible menu

Pages
Choose which pages the agency sees, among the ones you see. The Dashboard is always visible; you can tick every page of a section at once.
View
The agency sees the page but cannot change anything.
Manage
The agency can also create, change and delete, and decide what its sub-agencies may do. You cannot grant Manage on a page you can only view yourself.
Always managed
An agency always manages its own sub-agencies and their price lists.
New agencies
A new agency sees the pages you can give it, but changes none until you grant Manage.

Operators

Assign to agency
Move one or more operators to an agency or sub-agency; "None" gives them back to you. The agency sees only its own operators.
Main agency
The agency the operator belongs to: it sees and manages the operator, and its calls are billed to it.
Also works for
The other agencies the operator answers for, if it is shared.
For this queue bill this agency
For each of the operator’s queues choose which agency pays for the calls and sees them in its reports. Direct and outbound calls stay with the main agency.

Agency queues

Agency queue
The queue option: when an agency operator answers, the agency pays you its per-call price. Other queues are not charged.
Price per call
A price for that agency on each agency queue. Empty uses the "Queue" price of its price list; 0 makes the queue free for it.
What agencies pay
From the queue you see, agency by agency and sub-agency by sub-agency, what each pays per answered call.
Hourly limit
How many agency queue calls its operators (and its sub-agencies’) may answer since the start of the hour. Empty for no limit, 0 for none.
Receives calls even when out of credit
Without this, when the agency pays for a queue’s calls and its balance is zero or negative, its operators do not ring.
Sub-agencies
The agency above applies its rules too: a sub-agency operator rings only if both pass.

Credit, price lists and reports

Top up / Adjust
Add credit to the agency, for example after it pays you, or correct it with a negative amount.
Price list
Assign the agency one of the price lists you create under Price lists; a sub-agency gets its price list from its agency.
Transactions
Each agency has its own transactions, with top-ups and charges line by line.
Agencies report
Charged calls, average and total cost per agency and sub-agency, answered calls day by day and the Charges tab, exportable to CSV, Excel or PDF.
Agency filter in reports
The Queues report filters calls by agency.

Bulk actions

What they see in the menu
The pages chosen replace the menu of every selected agency.
Enable and Disable
A disabled agency can no longer sign in; its data stays.
Delete
Deletes the agencies together with their sub-agencies and signs their users out at once.

Frequently asked questions

How do I run an outsourced call center on my phone system?

Create an agency, give it portal access to the pages it needs and assign its operators. To get paid for the calls it handles, mark the queues as agency queues and set the price per call.

What is the difference between View and Manage?

With View the agency sees the page but changes nothing. With Manage it can also create, change and delete, and decide what its sub-agencies may do.

Can an agency see my operators and data?

No. It sees only the pages you grant and, among operators, only its own. A sub-agency sees at most what its agency sees.

How are calls charged to agencies?

On agency queues, for each call one of its operators answers, the agency pays that queue’s per-call price, or the "Queue" price of its price list. A sub-agency pays its agency, which pays you.

Can I limit the calls an agency receives?

Yes, with an hourly limit on agency queue calls. You can also stop its operators ringing when its credit runs out.

Can an agency sign in without a password?

Yes, with an access link: whoever opens it is signed in directly. You can regenerate or disable it at any time.

Try it on your own phone lines

Sign up free and try this feature with your numbers, or message us on WhatsApp and we’ll show it to you.