ChatDeskOps / Partner FAQ
Section 09The questions partners actually ask before signing
Eleven answers, followed by the full list of things we will not promise you.
Is a seat the same as a person on this process?
No, and this is the most important thing on the site. A seat is a continuously staffed position. Covering one seat every hour of the year takes roughly 4.9 people once shrinkage is included, so a twelve-seat engagement is about sixty people. Pricing off the seat number is the most common way partners lose money here.
Why is there no premium for the overnight bands?
Because the client is buying coverage as a whole, not a set of shifts. A night premium would make the quiet hours look separately unprofitable and create pressure to thin exactly the band where production issues surface. The flat rate prices the obligation the way it is actually delivered.
What exactly counts as an uncovered hour?
Any clock hour in which the agreed minimum staffing for a band is not met for fifteen continuous minutes or more, measured from the client platform's own presence data rather than from your roster document. One seat-day is credited per uncovered hour, capped at 5% of the monthly invoice.
Do we need prior 24/7 experience?
Either prior experience or a credible plan with night transport and security contracted before go-live. It is checked at the readiness audit. A day floor that intends to figure out the night shift after go-live will not pass.
Can we run this with a team leader managing the roster?
Not at this scale. A dedicated workforce-management analyst is an eligibility criterion. On a process with a 4.9 multiplier the roster is a full-time analytical job, and skipping the role reliably costs more in credits and overtime than the salary saved.
Is voice ever part of this?
No. Chat and email only. There is no voice component, no callback obligation and no plan to add one under this placement.
What concurrency should we plan for?
Three is the working target, within a range of 2.5 to 3.5. Above that, quality falls before speed does, and the composite is weighted so that the trade never pays. Concurrency is built over six weeks and cannot be brought forward.
Can agents issue a refund or a credit to resolve a complaint?
Never, under any circumstance. Billing outcomes are the client's decision. The same absolute line applies to touching production code or configuration. Both feel small in the moment and create a liability the client did not agree to.
Is contact volume contracted?
No, in either direction. What is contracted is the seat and the coverage. A quiet month is not a shortfall and a spike is not a breach; both are managed through the roster, and a sustained change triggers a capacity review.
What happens if the composite score falls below 95?
A written remediation plan within five working days, weekly review until recovery, and an increased audit sample on the agents and queues driving it. Two consecutive months below the floor escalates to the account manager and the client.
Who owns the client relationship?
Akontec. You will not be introduced to the client as the contracting party, and direct approach is a material breach. In return Akontec carries the commercial risk and pays you against the seat register regardless of when the client pays.
What we will not promise
This section exists because a partner who is told the truth at the start does not become a dispute in month six.
On money
- We do not guarantee contact volume in either direction, and the rate does not change with it.
- We do not promise a rate increase at renewal, and we will not agree an indexation clause we cannot fund from the client contract.
- We do not promise to reimburse ramp, certification, re-training or attrition cost.
- We do not promise a night premium, now or later.
- We do not promise the margin at twelve seats resembles the margin at thirty.
On people
- We do not promise this can be run without a dedicated workforce-management analyst or without overnight team leadership.
- We do not promise an experienced voice agent becomes a productive concurrent-chat agent inside the ramp window.
- We do not promise that your night-shift attrition will match anyone else's.
On operations
- We do not promise the client's platform will be available. Client-side outage is billable only up to the agreed allowance, on evidence.
- We do not promise the knowledge base will be complete. Gaps are expected, and raising them is part of the work.
- We do not promise customer satisfaction outcomes. A customer angry about a defect will rate the interaction badly however well it was handled.
- We do not promise the contact mix will stay where it is.
On the obligations
- Akontec does not claim any certification it does not hold.
- We will not waive a coverage credit because the cause was a provider-side transport or power failure.
- We will not agree to an agent issuing a refund or touching production, for any customer, in any circumstance.
- We will not accept a floor that is not night-ready in order to hold a go-live date.
What we do promise
- You are paid against the seat register on the agreed terms, whether or not the client has paid Akontec that month.
- Sixty days' written notice on staffed seats. No same-week reductions.
- A base rate that does not move downward during the term.
- Coverage credits capped at 5% of the invoice, so one bad night cannot become an existential one.
- A knowledge base and escalation matrix maintained by us, not left to your floor to invent.
- A coverage plan agreed before go-live and reviewed monthly against real arrival patterns.
- Named owners on our side who answer within the published response times.
- That we will not place a second provider on your bay or your certified agents during the term without telling you first.
Known risks, and who carries them
| Risk | Carried by | Mitigation in this structure |
|---|---|---|
| Client stops paying or becomes insolvent | Akontec | You invoice Akontec against the seat register, not the client |
| Coverage failure | Provider | Credits capped at 5%; roster approved before go-live; adherence measured daily |
| Night-shift attrition | Provider | Rate held flat for the term; slow-rotating patterns and bench planning are yours |
| Contact volume moving | Shared | Volume is not contracted; sustained change triggers a capacity review |
| Client platform outage | Akontec | Billable up to 8 hours a month on evidence; excluded from coverage credits |
| Knowledge-base gaps | Akontec | Maintained centrally; gaps raised by agents count positively at calibration |
| Rupee appreciation against the dollar | Provider | Not hedged; price your cost sheet at a rate you can live with |
| Data-protection incident | Provider | No data export, no personal devices, access limited to the platform boundary |
| Loss of the client contract | Akontec | 60-day notice; where possible, seats redeployed to another Akontec process |
Next step
Raise a commercial problem during contracting.
It will not be held against the application. On this process in particular, an honest look at your night-shift cost sheet is worth an afternoon.
Apply to deliver this process Read the commercial terms