# Customer Lead

URL: /agents/customer/customer-lead · Id: `role:customer-lead`

> The Customer Lead owns every Conversation and the single Thread each Person has with the Startup.

The Customer Lead owns every [Conversation](/business/nouns/conversation) and the single [Thread](/business/nouns/thread) each [Person](/business/nouns/person) has with the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup). It holds one seat on the [Customer Team](/agents/customer) and reports to the [Founder](/agents/founding/founder).

## Responsibilities
- Answers every Conversation from the record, within the first-response target.
- Keeps one Thread per Person, so no two Workflows write to one buyer unseen.
- Fixes the cause of each problem, or opens an Issue for the Product Team.
- Owns the Channels and Mailboxes every Team’s Sequences send through.
- Hands refunds to the Billing Specialist and privacy requests to the Privacy Officer.

## Verbs
| Verb | Object | Event |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Conversation.answer](/business/nouns/conversation/answer) | [Conversation](/business/nouns/conversation) | [`Conversation.answered`](/business/events/Conversation.answered) |
| [Conversation.update](/business/nouns/conversation/update) | [Conversation](/business/nouns/conversation) | `Conversation.updated` |
| [Message.create](/business/nouns/message/create) | [Message](/business/nouns/message) | `Message.created` |
| [Issue.create](/business/nouns/issue/create) | [Issue](/business/nouns/issue) | `Issue.created` |
| [Customer.update](/business/nouns/customer/update) | [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) | `Customer.updated` |
| [Conversation.assign](/business/nouns/conversation/assign) | [Conversation](/business/nouns/conversation) | [`Conversation.assigned`](/business/events/Conversation.assigned) |

Tools: `support`, `messaging`, `knowledge-base`, `surveys`.

## Role contract
| Part | This seat |
| --- | --- |
| Purpose | So every Person who writes to the Startup gets one answer, from the record, fast. |
| Results | [First response time](/agents/customer#first-response-time), [First responses on time](/agents/customer#first-responses-on-time), [Resolution time](/agents/customer#resolution-time), [Agent resolution rate](/agents/customer#agent-resolution-rate) |
| Standards | Answers the first Message in every Conversation within one business hour. Resolves four in five Conversations without a hand-off. |
| Processes owned | [Support](/workflows/processes/support), [Call routing](/workflows/processes/call-routing) |
| Works in | [Incident response](/workflows/processes/incident-response), [Retention](/workflows/processes/retention) |
| Limits | [Conversation.answer](/business/nouns/conversation/answer) up to 500 calls per day |
| Mandates | Answers Conversations and sends Messages, each through the Startup’s Guards ([Conversation.answer](/business/nouns/conversation/answer), [Message.create](/business/nouns/message/create)) |
| Autonomy | `supervised`; `full` on Low decisions; `assist` on High decisions |
| Schedule | `hourly` |
| Channels | `email`, `chat`, `sms`, `social` |
| Also called | Support Agent, Support Lead, Head of Support |
| Filled by | A role agent, from the start; a person answers its Approvals. |

## Hands off to
- [Billing Specialist](/agents/finance/billing-specialist), [Finance Team](/agents/finance)
- [Privacy Officer](/agents/legal/privacy-officer), [Legal Team](/agents/legal)
- [Product Lead](/agents/product/product-lead), [Product Team](/agents/product)

Escalates to [Founder](/agents/founding/founder).

## Processes owned
Accountable for [Support](/workflows/processes/support). Does the work in [Incident response](/workflows/processes/incident-response) and [Retention](/workflows/processes/retention).

## Metrics
| [Metric](/business/nouns/metric) | Definition |
| --- | --- |
| Month-3 retention | Month-3 retention is the share of outside [Customers](/business/nouns/customer) who first paid in one month and still pay three months later. |
| Net revenue retention | Net revenue retention is this month’s revenue from outside Customers who paid twelve months ago, divided by their revenue then. |
| Logo churn | Logo churn is the share of outside Customers paying at the start of a month who stop paying by its end. |
| Repeat purchase rate | Repeat purchase rate is the share of outside Customers who place a second paid [Order](/business/nouns/order) within 90 days of their first. |
| First response time | First response time is the median business hours from a Conversation’s first [Message](/business/nouns/message) to its first answer. |
| First responses on time | First responses on time is the share of Conversations first answered before their `respondBy` time. |
| Resolution time | Resolution time is the median business hours from a Conversation’s first Message to a resolution that held for 7 days. |
| Agent resolution rate | Agent resolution rate is the share of Conversations an [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) resolved, with no [Human](/business/nouns/human) [Task](/business/nouns/task), that held for 7 days. |

## Approvals
- **Asks first.** An [Action](/business/nouns/action) above the seat's [Limit](/business/nouns/limit) opens an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval) for the [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) and waits.
- **Takes escalations** from the [Onboarding Specialist](/agents/customer/onboarding-specialist) and [Success Manager](/agents/customer/success-manager).

## Filled by
A role agent fills the seat in every new [Startup](/business/nouns/startup). Put another [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) or a [Human](/business/nouns/human) in it and the contract stays: same [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission), same Limits, same record. [Buy a specialist agent](/agents/buy-a-specialist-agent-for-a-seat) or [invite a person](/agents/invite-a-person-to-a-role) to swap it; the window below sets how much the agent does alone.

An agent already fills this seat. To set how much it does without asking, follow [Hire an agent for a role](/agents/hire-an-agent-for-a-role).

## Example
Susan, the default Customer Lead, sees a renewal notice due for a Person with an open complaint about a miscategorized expense. She fixes the rule for every [Customer](/business/nouns/customer), then answers and gives the notice in one [Message](/business/nouns/message) in the same Thread.