Glossary

Dedicated agent: what it is and what it means for you as a buyer

Also called: Dedicated staff, Dedicated team, Dedicated support agent. Last reviewed .

A dedicated agent is one person who works only on your account, on your schedule, every working day. They learn your products, tools and customers, unlike a shared agent who splits each shift across several clients.

What it means for you as a buyer

With a dedicated agent you train one person once. The same agent answers your customers on Monday and on Friday, so they remember last week's missing order and the customer who always wants a call back. When agents are shared across clients, a different person may pick up each ticket, so you write longer instructions and still explain things twice. A dedicated seat also has one owner: if quality slips, there is one person to coach, and a team lead on the office floor does the coaching. The trade-off is cost. You pay for the whole shift, busy or quiet, so plan work for the slow hours.

A worked example with numbers

One full-time dedicated agent costs about USD 1,817 a month: 173 billable hours at USD 10.50 an hour, the current figures on our pricing page.

Example: one full-time dedicated agent for one month
Line Figure
Hourly rate (from) USD 10.50
Billable hours in a month 173
Monthly cost about USD 1,817

I am paid a commission by the provider for clients I introduce. The provider bills you at the rate shown on this site. How I'm paid

That buys the same person for every one of those hours. If your inbox is busy for four hours a day, the other hours can go to back-office chores such as order updates, refunds or data entry. That keeps the agent's occupancy, the share of logged-in time spent on real work, steady.

Cover around the clock is a different sum. One seat staffed every hour of the week needs about 5 agents, not one, because a week has 168 hours and people take leave. The shrinkage page shows that sum line by line.

Where this appears in our pricing or process

The rate on this site is for a dedicated, full-time, office-based agent, employed, trained, supervised and billed by our partner provider in Davao City; you decide the work and the rules. The four steps on the how-it-works page show who recruits, trains and replaces the agent, and the pricing page lists what the hourly rate includes.

Questions buyers ask

Is a dedicated agent the same as a virtual assistant?

Not quite. A virtual assistant is often a freelancer who works from home for several clients at once. A dedicated agent in the model on this site is employed by our partner provider in Davao City, works from its office, and works only on your account.

What happens if my dedicated agent leaves?

The provider replaces them free for as long as you are a client, in 3–5 working days on average, and does not bill you for the empty seat in the meantime. You interview and approve candidates before your first agent is assigned; ask on the call whether you also interview the replacement. The steps are on the how-it-works page.

  • Team lead
    A team lead is the manager on the office floor who coaches agents, checks their work and answers the client. Why it matters, with a worked example.
  • Shrinkage
    Shrinkage is paid time an agent is not available: breaks, training, leave. Why one seat covered 24/7 needs about five agents, with the sum line by line.
  • Staff leasing
    Staff leasing: another company employs the worker who does your work. How it differs from staff augmentation and who manages whom, with a cost example.

How it works: who recruits, trains, manages and replaces your agent

Sources

  1. Outsourcing, Wikipedia, checked 7 November 2026.
  2. Distal Desk pricing: hourly rate and billable hours, Distal Desk, November 7, 2026.

We publish what the provider has confirmed in writing. If a figure is not here, we have not been able to confirm it.