How to use the Agent Desk: a video course for new agents

This course is for a new support agent on the Kav Agent Desk. It follows one real conversation from the moment the assistant hands it over to the moment you close it, and it takes about 15 minutes. You will learn how to set your status, read the queue and the handoff card, take a conversation safely, use the context panels and the copilot, understand the audit record, reply, hand over or close, and work a callback.

Every screen in it is the Studio of Kav's own organization, on a test copy. All people and data are fictional training examples.

What you will learn

Each item starts the video at that chapter.

1. Welcome to the desk (0:00): what the Agent Desk is, where your work comes from, and the loop you follow every day.
2. Your status (0:53): how to switch yourself available, and what makes you available, unavailable or offline.
3. Departments and opening hours (1:42): how departments, opening hours and days off decide what happens to a request.
4. The queue and the handoff card (4:09): how to read the queue, the badges and the wait time, and the handoff card.
5. Taking a conversation (5:12): how to take a conversation safely, and what the takeover mode means.
6. Who am I talking to? (6:02): which context panels show who you are talking to, and what your clearance changes.
7. Your copilot (7:01): what the copilot does, why it sometimes says nothing, and why you check every figure.
8. Privacy, purpose and consent (8:22): why the desk records every time you open a person's data, and the one-time choice about the purpose form.
9. Replying well (9:51): how to reply on any channel, and what happens when a reply window closes.
10. Handing over and closing (10:59): how to return, transfer, move or close a conversation with the right outcome code.
11. Callbacks (12:22): how to work a callback request and open the return details correctly.
12. For supervisors and administrators (13:14): where supervisors and administrators watch, configure and review the desk.
13. Good habits and recap (14:30): the six habits, the common mistakes, and the whole loop in one minute.

Before you start

• Who this is for. Anyone who works conversations on the Agent Desk: agents, senior agents and the supervisors and administrators who look after them. Chapter 12 is for supervisors and administrators.
• What you need. A staff account in the Studio, created by your administrator. The Agent desk icon appears in the Studio's left rail once your account may read the queue. A role grants the actions (take, reply, return, transfer, close); your department clearance decides which conversations those actions reach. Membership of a department is not access on its own.
• You must be available to receive handoffs, and keep the Studio open and visible.
• Nothing is ever assigned to you automatically. You choose what to take.
• Every time you open a person's conversation or details, the desk writes an audit record with your name and a purpose. Accepting the one-time dialog only removes the form. It never removes the record.
• The assistant never writes a number by itself. You check every figure.
• About the demo. The video was recorded in the Studio of Kav's own organization, on a test copy with fictional people and data. Three things are explained in the narration but not shown live, because the training tenant does not have them: the request-access dialog, Draft with AI, and the reply window with approved templates (the last one is drawn on illustration cards).

Chapter by chapter

1. Welcome to the desk

Play this chapter (0:00, 0:53 long)

Goal: Understand what the Agent Desk is, where your work comes from, and the loop you will follow every day.

• The virtual assistant answers people first, on your website, WhatsApp, Telegram and other channels. When it cannot finish, or the person asks for a human, it hands the conversation over.
• The handover arrives as a card in one queue, for every channel.
• Your loop: set yourself available, take a conversation, read the context, reply with help from the copilot, then hand over or close with an outcome code.
• Two promises run through everything: nothing is assigned to you automatically, and every time you open a person's data the desk keeps a record.

2. Your status

Play this chapter (0:53, 0:49 long)

Goal: Switch yourself available, and understand what makes you count as available, unavailable or offline.

• At the top right of the Studio, the switch Available for handoffs has two settings: Available and Unavailable. Turn it on and the assistant may hand your department's conversations to you.
• Offline is never your choice. If the Studio stops sending its regular signal, because the laptop slept or the tab is hidden, you show as Offline, and after about ninety seconds the desk stops counting you.
• Keep the Studio open and visible while you work. There is no Busy or Break status: to step away, switch to Unavailable. Signing out does it for you.
• The same bar holds the bell, for requests that need your decision, and Messages, to write to a colleague.

3. Departments and opening hours

Play this chapter (1:42, 2:26 long)

Goal: Know how departments, opening hours and days off decide what happens to a request, and how to check who is available.

• Every conversation belongs to a department, and every department has its own queue, members and opening hours. Agents can read the Departments page; supervisors and administrators edit it.
• The General tab holds the name and a short description that tells the assistant what the department deals with, the department's key and its intake queue, and classification hints. The default department catches anything the assistant cannot place, so it cannot be paused.
• Opening hours are weekly, day by day, with as many spans as needed, or around the clock. Days off win over the weekly hours. For any date the desk applies one fixed order: a special day, then the holiday calendar if it is switched on, then weekly closed days, then the weekly hours. In the video, adding a closed special day flips the department from Open to Closed at once.
• Hours decide what the person is told. Open with someone available: the handoff is live. Open with nobody available: the person is offered a callback and the administrators get an email. Closed: the request is registered and waits in the queue until the department opens.
• The Members tab shows who belongs to the department and who administers it, with an administrator flag, a callback handler flag and the clearance status. Membership is not access: a person also needs a clearance, which your administrator sets.

4. The queue and the handoff card

Play this chapter (4:09, 1:03 long)

Goal: Read the queue, understand the badges and the wait time, and use the handoff card before you answer.

• The queue shows every conversation waiting for a person, oldest first. There is no sort button on purpose: the longest wait is always at the top, and new arrivals appear at once.
• Each row shows the channel, the data class, how well the desk knows who the person is, the department and the wait. A band above the list warns you when a wait is over the target.
• Filters narrow the list by channel, queue, department or tag. A filter is only a view; it never changes where a conversation is routed.
• Open a row and choose What you need to know: the assistant's summary, how the person was identified, what it already tried and why it handed over. Read it first, so nobody has to repeat themselves.

5. Taking a conversation

Play this chapter (5:12, 0:49 long)

Goal: Take a conversation safely and read the conversation screen, including the takeover mode.

• Choose Take the conversation when you are ready. If two colleagues press it together, the server gives the conversation to only one of you.
• The person is told that someone has joined, and your header now says you are holding it. Every turn in the thread is labelled: the person, the Assistant, the agent or a System notice.
• The banner in the side panel shows the takeover mode: Bot off (you write every word), Bot suggests (the assistant offers replies beside you) or Bot drafts (it writes and you approve or rewrite). The mode is set per queue and recorded.
• Below the banner are the context buttons: Contact details, Past conversations, Customer profile and Return details.

6. Who am I talking to?

Play this chapter (6:02, 0:59 long)

Goal: Use the resident context panels, understand clearance, and ask for more access the right way.

• Contact details shows what your organization knows about this person. It is read through your systems, only when you open it. If the person is not identified, the panel says so.
• Your clearance decides how much you see. If it does not include identity data, the address and identifying details are held back, and the panel tells you so.
• Past conversations lists earlier contact. Matches by sign-in are reliable; matches by device only are marked Unverified, because a shared device can be a different person. Customer profile shows the customer record from your CRM.
• When something is out of your reach, the panel says so and offers Request access: give a short reason, an administrator decides, and an approval opens the details for this conversation only, for a limited time. This part is explained in the narration; the training tenant does not show the request dialog. If it is denied or expires you can ask again; never work around it.

7. Your copilot

Play this chapter (7:01, 1:21 long)

Goal: Use suggestions and AI drafts well, and know why the copilot sometimes says nothing.

• The panel called The assistant depends on the queue's takeover mode. In Bot suggests mode you get Suggestions: passages from your published knowledge and approved templates, ranked against what you are typing. A model does not invent them.
• Every suggestion shows its source: the article or template, the version and a link to view it, and a note if it may be out of date. Use this suggestion places it in the reply box for you to edit; the desk records whether you used or ignored it.
• Some organizations also switch on Draft with AI, which writes a draft for this one conversation, marked as AI-drafted, that you must confirm with a tick box before it enters the reply box. The video describes this in the narration; the training tenant does not have it switched on.
• The assistant never writes a number by itself. If a draft has an amount, a date or an identifier that is not in its source, the desk removes it and tells you. Check those figures yourself.
• Sometimes the copilot says nothing on purpose: sensitive topics such as minors are human-only, with no suggestion and no draft, and Bot off works the same way. That is not a fault; the judgment is yours.

8. Privacy, purpose and consent

Play this chapter (8:22, 1:28 long)

Goal: Understand the audit record, the purpose form, and the one-time choice offered to ordinary agents.

• Each time you open a person's conversation or details, the desk writes an audit record: who you are, whose data, which department and why. The why is the purpose.
• If the conversation is yours, or belongs to a department you are a member of, you do not have to explain: the desk proves it from your assignment or your clearance. Outside that, a form asks you to choose a purpose and write a short explanation, without the person's own details in it.
• Ordinary agents also meet one dialog, Before you open a colleague's conversation. It says every conversation you open that is not your own is recorded with your name, either way; the only choice is about the form. Understood, don't ask me every time fills in the purpose for you (consented routine access); Keep asking me every time keeps the form. Accepting never turns the record off.
• You can change your mind at any time: open your Profile from the user menu, find the Agent desk section, switch the choice and press Save choice.
• The person is always told when someone joins or leaves the conversation. Nothing happens silently.

9. Replying well

Play this chapter (9:51, 1:08 long)

Goal: Reply on any channel, respect the reply window, and use approved templates and attachments.

• The reply box opens once you hold the conversation, and you answer on the channel the person is already using. A character count under the box shows that channel's limit; it informs you and never blocks you.
• On WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram a reply window limits free text. When it closes, the desk keeps what you typed and offers Send an approved template: pick one, fill in the short details it asks for, check the preview and send. Amounts, dates and identifying numbers are refused there, because they must come from the system. The reply window and the templates are shown on illustration cards in the video, not on a live conversation.
• There is no private folder of canned replies: your organization's approved templates are the shortcuts, and knowledge suggestions are the rest.
• To send a file, choose files or drop it on the box. The desk scans it first, and you can send one attachment per message.

10. Handing over and closing

Play this chapter (10:59, 1:22 long)

Goal: Choose between return, transfer and move, and close a conversation with the right outcome code.

• There are three ways to hand over and one way to finish.
• Return to the queue puts the conversation back for any suitably cleared colleague; Urgent, return to queue does it in one tap and colleagues see Returned, urgent. Transfer sends it straight to a named colleague, with a reason. Move to department is for the wrong department: each department shows whether it is open, how many agents are connected and what will happen (live, callback or wait), and you write a note for the receiving team that only staff see. The waiting time does not restart.
• If you asked the customer a question, choose Waiting for the customer; the card shows Waiting for an answer and clears when they reply.
• Internal notes are for your colleagues: what was done and what is pending. The person never sees them.
• To finish, choose Close and code and pick a wrap-up code. It says what was decided, not what the conversation was about, and some codes need a note. If the list is empty, tell your supervisor: a department without codes cannot close conversations. Afterwards the platform writes a short summary for the next agent and, if surveys are switched on, the person may be asked how it went.

11. Callbacks

Play this chapter (12:22, 0:51 long)

Goal: Work a callback request and open the return details correctly.

• When nobody is available or the department is closed, the assistant collects a way to reach the person: a name, a phone number or an email. Every question can be skipped. The card waits in the queue and the department's administrators are emailed.
• Open it and choose Return details. The details stay hidden until you choose a purpose and press Show the details; every time you show them it is recorded, and nothing stays on the screen. You see the name and phone number the person gave, when they were given and when they will be deleted.
• Call or write to the person, then close the conversation with a wrap-up code.
• People your administrator has cleared may open return details, including colleagues marked as callback handlers. If the desk refuses, ask your administrator for access.

12. For supervisors and administrators

Play this chapter (13:14, 1:16 long)

Goal: Know where supervisors watch the desk, configure it, and review outcomes.

• This chapter is for supervisors and administrators. The Status board has six tiles (Waiting, Held, Waiting on the resident, Resolved today, Abandoned and Expired); select a tile to see its table.
• The Archive lists requests that have ended, filtered by date, department, outcome and status. Searching inside transcripts asks for a purpose first, and sensitive classes are never searched.
• Presence and availability shows who is available, away or offline, the history and the time in each state. Exports ask for a purpose, and every export is logged.
• Staffing sets each person's clearance: which department, and up to which class of data. Nobody can change their own. Queue policy, wrap-up codes and tags are configured here too.
• Satisfaction, under Analytics, shows how many were asked, how many answered and the average. There are no leaderboards and no per-agent rankings, by design.

13. Good habits and recap

Play this chapter (14:30, 0:59 long)

Goal: Remember the habits that make a good desk agent, the common mistakes, and the whole loop.

• Six habits: read What you need to know before you write; check every figure yourself; keep the Studio open and visible; close with the code that says what was decided; hand over with a note, never by walking away; and if access is refused, request it.
• Common mistakes: forgetting to switch on Available, taking a conversation you are not ready to answer, putting a person's details in a note, sending a number from memory, and reading an empty copilot panel as a fault when it may be protecting a sensitive topic.
• The loop, once more: switch yourself available, check the hours, read the queue and the handoff card, take the conversation, use the context and the copilot and mind the audit, reply within the window, then hand over properly or close and code.

Full transcript

Related guides

• Configuring the agent desk's queues
• Departments and approvers
• Wrap-up codes
• Staffing your desk: agent clearances
• Staff roles and permissions