Introducing the Smith.ai Partner Portal: One Account to Manage Your Clients

In the past year, we’ve partnered with agencies of all sizes to bring call answering and managed chat services to their clients — and the results have been astounding. Agencies’ clients are seeing improved lead generation, higher conversions from marketing campaigns, and happier clients who sing praises and leave 5-star reviews.

Our agency partners value results — their clients’ are converting more generated leads when live agents are in place to respond to calls and chats (no more begging clients to pick up their phones when leads call). But performance-driven partners need the right performance management systems to track these results. Having billing integrated within that system completes the picture.

So we built a partner portal where agencies can manage all of their clients’ answering services and live chat accounts in one place. Our new portal allows agencies to track every conversation with a lead, and manage every invoice, for all clients.

Custom Smith.ai partner portals for three partner types

We offer three partnership models, each of which comes with a portal catered to your specific needs:

1. Referral affiliates: If you’re interested in helping your clients succeed with the responsiveness Smith.ai offers, but not looking to get involved with billing, you can sign up to be a referral affiliate partner. We’ll give you a promo code and link to get your clients started with a discount on calls/chats, and you can help them capitalize on the full value of our services. If you plan to actively manage accounts, we’ll set you up with a portal where we’ll add each of your client’s accounts (with their permission).
   
   
2. Authorized resellers: Become a virtual receptionist and live chat reseller and earn a commission on every account. Each plan is catered to the service(s), add-ons, and quotas your client needs. Plus, you’ll have complete access to all of your resold accounts through the portal, where you can access settings and management tools, track data, and view invoices.
   
   
3. Wholesalers: Get our virtual receptionists and chat services at discounted bulk pricing and offer your own custom phone answering and chat plans to your clients, branded your way. By committing to a minimum amount of monthly calls and chats amongst your client pool, and setting up and managing those accounts with us, you unlock our most competitive price for all of your clients, regardless of individual client volume. Your clients benefit here, and so do you. You’ll have access to every account through the portal, where you can access settings and management tools, track conversation logs for every client, and view invoices.
   

Reseller and wholesale partners can white-label services with the option to show your receptionist and chat services are powered by Smith.ai, a global, award-winning leader in business communication services. You can manage the entire relationship between your client and Smith.ai yourself.

Who can use the Smith.ai partner portal?

We partner with agencies of all sizes. Whether you have 2 or 2000 clients — our services increase the profitability of companies across the board. We work with many types of companies throughout North America including (but not limited to):

• Marketing agencies
• MSPs/VARs
• Consultants
• Strategic advisors & coaches
• Web designers
• Software companies
  

Interested in becoming a Smith.ai partner?

Want to give your clients a leg up on getting better results from your services? Browse our partnership options and apply to become a Smith.ai partner today!

For more information or to talk to a dedicated partnership manager, please email partners@smith.ai.

Now let’s dive into what the partner portal is, and how it can help you and your clients.

What is the partner portal?

The partner portal is a single-login dashboard that gives you access to every account you manage, including both virtual receptionist and chat services. 

When you first log in, you’ll see all of your accounts and a search bar where you can find specific ones. Here, you’ll have one-click access to each of your clients’ account dashboards.

Below your accounts, you’ll see links to download a CSV of all calls, chats, and integrations. You can also download the data for smaller time periods, like “last month,” “this year,” etc.

Reseller and wholesale partners will also see a comprehensive breakdown of billing invoices in their portal.

Let’s break down the big picture. Here’s exactly what you’ll see when you log in to your partner portal:

All clients’ account data, in one place

When you log in to your portal, you’ll see links at the bottom of your account dashboard to download client data in CSV format. The data includes information about you, your clients, and the person who called, texted, or messaged you, including:

• Contact phone number
• Contact email
• Contact’s full name
• Call/chat time and date
• Call duration in seconds
• Inbound or outbound call
• Status: New lead, repeat caller, attorney or court staff, etc.
• Disposition & priority
• Integrated platforms
  

This information is exceedingly valuable. You can use it to:

• Calculate costs to bill each of your clients
• Track lead conversions
• Add to your chatbot Q&A
• Track the success of marketing campaigns
• Calculate ROI
• Review new lead follow-up processes
• And more!
  

Conversion data is critical when tracking a lead funnel or calculating ROIs. After all, how often has a client questioned the value of marketing services while making no effort themselves to be more accessible and convert the leads you generate? Answering the initial call or chat from a new inbound lead is the single most important factor in the conversion. Two-thirds of potential clients base their decision to hire a company on that company’s initial responsiveness to their first call or email. Maximize the success of your campaigns and prove the value of your marketing efforts to your clients when you control more of the funnel and can show them the complete picture from lead generation to lead capture, when that first conversation occurs.

Call and chat account access

Without needing any additional login credentials, you can sign into any call or chat account that you manage directly from the portal by clicking on the “VR” or “Chat” button next to the client’s name.

Your clients’ individual virtual receptionist and chat account dashboards offer quick and complete access to:

• Account settings
• Call and chat history, including call summaries, chat transcripts, and full contact information for callers and chatters
• Scheduling, billing & CRM integrations
• Call and chat instruction
  

Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect from the call and chat dashboards.

What’s available in the call dashboard?

In the virtual receptionist call dashboard, you’ll see a Call History section, where you have access to every call throughout the history of this account. Click into each conversation for:

• Caller’s contact info (name, phone, email if collected)
• Timestamp
• Status
• Priority
• Disposition
• Call summary

In the Call Handling section of the dashboard, you can:

• See this account’s Smith.ai number 
• View all transfer destinations
• Upload lists of blocked or direct transfer numbers
• Add custom voicemail greetings
  

In the Instructions section of the dashboard, you can:

• Read all of the receptionist instructions 
• Review connected calendars, billing links, and intake forms
  

Finally, in the “Integrations” section, you can see the status of CRM integrations and scan through our list of available integrations for options that fit your client’s current needs.

What’s available in the chat dashboard?

In the chat dashboard, you have full access to monitor and update the client’s chat account. 

From the Chat History section you have access to data from every chat conversation. 

Filter based on time, channel, and disposition and click into any individual chat for:

• Visitor intake information (name, email, phone number, URL, channel, disposition)
• Custom intake responses
• A full transcript of the conversation

While in the chat dashboard, you can also

• Create or update chatbot playbooks and Q&A
• Train your bot by approving or denying answers
• Set up CRM integrations and Zapier connections
• Adjust widget colors and settings
• Create custom intake fields
  

A tip for analyzing your clients’ chat performance: Use playbook funnel data to improve lead conversion. The funnel makes it easy to see what point(s) in a playbook may be causing frustrations for web visitors and resulting in lead abandonment during a chat, so you can remedy those stages of a chat and improve lead capture, screening, and conversion.

Billing data and invoices

Reseller and wholesale partners have access to current and previous invoices in the portal. 

From the billing section you can:

• View and print bills
• See the amount owed in the current and previous billing cycles
• Review call and chat overages
• See your payment status
  

A complete view of your invoice history is provided so you can assess costs, ROI, and accurately bill clients for services, if you’re footing the initial bill and passing the costs on to your clients.

For affiliate partners with manage-only access (in which the client is responsible for their Smith.ai bill, and directly charged), you will not see any invoices in the partner portal.

Benefits of the partner portal

Now that we’ve gone over what the partner portal offers, let’s talk about ways to use this access and information to improve your clients’ experience.

Review Client Account Settings and Instructions

Smith.ai’s onboarding team uses our combined expertise from over 2 million conversations to set up accounts with happy clients, callers, and chatters in mind. That being said, it’s generally a good rule of thumb to take it upon yourself to regularly review your clients’ accounts.

Within your clients’ dashboards you can check on receptionist instructions, transfer destinations, direct transfer numbers, uploaded voicemail greetings, chatbot settings, and much more. Need to make an update? Some settings can be updated directly in the dashboard — and for everything else, simply email your dedicated Partner Account Manager (you’re always welcome to reach out for updates and recommendations, too).

Track New Lead Engagement and Acquisition

Let’s face it — the main reason you’re urging (or requiring) your clients to use Smith.ai’s virtual receptionist and chat services is to improve their lead conversion and maximize the value of your marketing. The immediate responsiveness we offer is the key to capturing and converting these new leads — and demonstrating positive ROI from your clients’ campaigns.

Use your partner portal data to track clients’ leads across the timeframes of certain marketing campaigns and different channels (namely phone calls, web chats, and SMS texts).

Compare these lead stats to converted clients and new sales, and you can easily determine:

• Effectiveness of certain marketing campaigns 
• Which channels to invest more marketing in
• How many touch points it takes to drive a conversion
• Lead acquisition rates
• Total cost of conversion, with the relatively minor cost of Smith.ai factored in
  

Make Data-Driven Strategy Decisions

Most successful marketing strategies are backed by data and effective business planning. Use call and chat data points from the partner portal to pitch campaigns and identify key objectives and milestones for your clients. Use the number of incoming leads month-over-month or quarter-over-quarter to set reasonable — or ambitious — expectations for growth.

From there, you can use the portal to make data-driven suggestions for your clients on:

• Lead outreach and follow-up
• Marketing spend across channels
• Expanding hours of availability
• Opportunities to expand into additional channels full of high-performing leads and revenue-driving clients
  

Your clients can make informed decisions about the best way to market their services and which channels have the highest response rates.

In the end, their growth shines the best light on your business — the Smith.ai partner portal will give you all of the tools you need to guarantee your clients the results they’re looking for.

Set Up SMS Messaging Channels

Set up SMS Messaging in your clients’ chat accounts and we'll capture and convert leads, just like we do on your website. You can add them at no additional cost — each conversation costs the same as a chat and pulls from their quota. 

These added channels are practically guaranteed to result in more leads, as every new channel provides an opportunity for you to capitalize on the marketing your clients invest in. Adding them is easy, and a no-brainer.

Set up CRM and Zapier integrations

Set up CRM integrations for your clients to have chat contact information and transcripts logged in popular platforms like Clio, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more. You can also connect to thousands of other tech platforms using our Zapier integration.

Syncing your clients’ current software with Smith.ai means your clients can have access to all of their vital information without receiving communication directly from us.

How to get signed up for a partner portal

1. To get started as a partner, go to Smith.ai/partners. Look over the different programs we offer — affiliate, reseller, and wholesale — and apply at the bottom. Our partnership team will reach out to help you determine the best partnership solution for you and your clients.
2. Once you’re signed up as a partner, we will provide you with a portal account. Sign in at app.smith.ai/partners. You can begin using your portal straight away.

For more information on how to use your partner portal, see our documentation here. For more information about partnerships or to talk to a dedicated partner manager, please email partners@smith.ai.