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Customer Support agent

Shared inbox triage

Order status, invoice copies, how to send something back: answered as they land, in wording you approved. The rest of the shared inbox goes to its owner, and disputes go to a person.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Shared inbox triage: four items, three done, and one (Dispute) waiting for the support lead, who is asked: A customer says they’ll dispute the $186 charge with their bank. Take it from here?
How it works

The routine mail answered while your team takes the rest.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Shared inbox triage, in 5 steps. It starts with “Mail lands in the inbox” and ends with “Answered, or with an owner”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Shared inbox triageA typical run
Starts withMail lands in the inboxOrder questions, invoice requests, supplier pitches and the odd complaint, all to one shared address.
The agent: Reads the subject, the body and any attachment, and files each one: order question, invoice copy, return question, complaint or pitch.
~30h/mo

Step 1 of 5Sort each email

  • The agent

    Reads the subject, the body and any attachment, and files each one: order question, invoice copy, return question, complaint or pitch.

    “Quick one about my last delivery” can mean five different problems. The subject line rarely says which.

Reads
  • Shared inbox
Writes
  • Shared inbox

~30 hours a month back

Where teams differFive kinds of email is plenty for one team and twenty for another. A few sort by customer instead of by topic.

Automation: Looks up the sender in the CRM and the order number in the store, and pins both to the email with any open tickets.
~18h/mo

Step 2 of 5Match the customer

  • Automation

    Looks up the sender in the CRM and the order number in the store, and pins both to the email with any open tickets.

    The sender’s address finds the account, and the order number on the email finds the order.

Reads
  • CRM
  • Orders
Writes
  • Shared inbox

~18 hours a month back

The agent: Answers order status, invoice copies and how to return something, with the tracking link, the PDF or the return steps attached.
~40h/mo

Step 3 of 5Answer the routine ones

  • The agent

    Answers order status, invoice copies and how to return something, with the tracking link, the PDF or the return steps attached.

    An approved reply still has to fit the question asked, with the right order and the right link in it.

Reads
  • Orders
Writes
  • Shared inbox

~40 hours a month back

Where teams differHow much counts as routine is your call: order status alone, or most of what comes in.

Automation: Anything on the list you set, like a bank dispute or a lawyer’s letter, goes to the support lead with the customer and order attached.
IfYour team: Reads the email on order 55288, then refunds, offers a replacement or calls the customer before the bank is involved.
~6h/mo

Step 4 of 5Hold the risky ones

  • Automation

    Anything on the list you set, like a bank dispute or a lawyer’s letter, goes to the support lead with the customer and order attached.

    You name the topics that always need a person. Holding them is a match against that list.

  • Your teamIf it mentions a dispute

    Reads the email on order 55288, then refunds, offers a replacement or calls the customer before the bank is involved.

    A customer threatening a chargeback is deciding whether to stay. That’s a conversation, not a template.

Reads
  • Shared inbox
Writes
  • Support desk

~6 hours a month back

Automation: Sends supplier invoices to AP, pitches to purchasing and anything else to the right team’s queue, and marks each one done.
~16h/mo

Step 5 of 5Route the rest

  • Automation

    Sends supplier invoices to AP, pitches to purchasing and anything else to the right team’s queue, and marks each one done.

    Once an email has a kind, who owns it is a table your team already knows.

Reads
  • Shared inbox
Writes
  • Support desk

~16 hours a month back

Ends withAnswered, or with an ownerA reply sent in wording you approved, or the email in the right queue with the customer attached.
Total~110h/mo

What changes

The shared inbox gets sorted as mail lands. Routine questions are answered in your wording, and the rest reaches its owner with the customer attached.

  • 3steps automated
  • 2steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~110 hours a month back

$50,200 a year in time

For a shared support inbox getting about 3,000 emails a month, at $38 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never offers a refund or credit on its own

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentYour shared inbox, with your CRM and store for customer and order records.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentWhat it may answer alone, and the topics that always need a person.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe support lead for disputes and complaints, each team for its own queue.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentReplies from the shared address, Slack when something is held.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentAn answered email, or one filed in the right queue with the customer attached.

Resolving tickets and refunds, and entering orders that arrive by email, are other agents in the catalog. Complaints and disputes stay with your team.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your support lead and team.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past emails, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real emails.
The number we agree

Hours from an email landing to it being answered or with its owner. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, three months of mail from your shared inbox, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of mail from your shared inbox.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past emails.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

What does it answer on its own?
Only what you list, in wording you approve: order status, invoice copies, how to return something. Everything else goes to a person or a queue.
What about spam and sales pitches?
It files them where you choose. Nothing is deleted, so anyone can check what it moved.
Can it work more than one inbox?
Yes. Each shared address gets its own list of what it may answer and where the rest goes.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the hours from an email landing to it being answered or with its owner. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Curious how much of your shared inbox an agent could answer?

Tell us how your team handles emails today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to Customer Support
New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent