Roles and what each can do

Every person in your workspace has a role, and the role decides what they can see and do. This page explains the six roles, what each one is for, and which ones take a paid seat.

The six roles at a glance#

• Owner: has full control of the workspace, including handing it to someone else. There is one owner.
• Admin: runs the workspace day to day, with everything the owner can do except hand the workspace over.
• Support: the agents. They work the queue: reply to, assign, snooze and close dockets.
• IT: sets up channels and integrations. They have no access to docket contents, which are customer conversations.
• Viewer: follows dockets and joins the discussion without working the queue. This suits someone from another department, such as product or engineering.
• Billing: handles payments and invoices, and nothing else.

What each role can do#

Every role can see the list of people in the workspace, so you always know who your colleagues are. Beyond that:

Owner and Admin#

Owners and admins can do everything below, and the owner can also transfer the workspace.

• Read and work every docket, including dockets assigned to someone else
• Invite, change the role of, suspend and remove members, and manage squads
• Set up channels and integrations, such as email, Slack, Telegram and live chat
• Change the workspace's name, branding and address
• Manage billing and invoices
• See Insights, Deskstar's reporting and analytics
• Send broadcasts to customers with Outreach
• Write and publish help center articles, and manage the help center itself: its sections, name and when it goes live
• Use Wingman, Deskstar's AI assistant

The owner can also transfer ownership of the workspace to another member. The previous owner then becomes an admin. Nobody can be made an owner any other way.

Support#

Support is the role for agents who answer customers.

• Read the queue and every conversation in it
• Work dockets: reply, assign, snooze and close
• Write and publish help center articles
• Use Wingman

Support can't change workspace settings, set up channels, manage members or see billing. They also can't act on a docket assigned to someone else, which keeps the queue orderly. An admin or owner can.

IT#

IT is for the person who connects Deskstar to your other tools.

• Set up and manage channels and integrations: email, Slack, Telegram, live chat and the others

IT can't open dockets or read customer conversations, so they can set up a channel without seeing customer data.

Viewer#

Viewer is for people who need to stay informed about customer conversations without owning any of the queue.

• Read the queue and the conversations in it
• Use Wingman

Viewers can also take part when your team works in Slack or Telegram. If a viewer connects their account, what they write in a customer channel is recorded on the docket under their name. See the article "Connect your Slack and Telegram accounts".

Billing#

Billing is for finance or the person who pays the invoices.

• Manage billing: the plan, payments and invoices

Billing can't see dockets, customers or settings.

Which roles take a paid seat#

Your plan is billed by the number of seats. Only the roles that run support take one:

• Owner
• Admin
• Support

IT, Viewer and Billing are free, so you can bring in finance, engineering or product without increasing your bill. Only active members count. A member you suspend stops taking a seat.

Choosing a role#

If you aren't sure which role someone needs, start from what they'll actually do:

• They answer customers every day: Support.
• They look after the workspace and its people: Admin.
• They need to connect a channel or integration but shouldn't read customer messages: IT.
• They need to follow conversations and chip in: Viewer.
• They only deal with invoices and payments: Billing.

You can change someone's role at any time from the Members page.

Next#