The short version
- A handful of steps need a person: the inspection, the close, the color confirm, the final walk.
- Everything else is paperwork and follow-up that used to fall between people.
- Agents run that part. Your people keep the part that's the business.
- Your install crew is still your install crew.
What a person still does
Somebody has to climb the ladder and run the inspection. Somebody has to sit across the kitchen table, present, and close. Somebody confirms the shingle color with the homeowner, walks the finished roof, and signs off on the punch list. And when a step is a real decision, a person clicks approve. Those are the parts of the business that are the business. Take them away and there's no company left.
What runs underneath
Everything else is the work that leaks. The day-of call to the carrier. The photo uploads. Ordering, scheduling, the status that lives in somebody's head until they forget it. Those steps stall files when a person has to remember them, and none of them should be anyone's job. That's what the agents run. If you ever see the words on the board, Bench calls the human steps surface and the agent steps shadow.
Not a headcount cut
Your reps still sell. Your managers still decide. Your install crew still installs. The agents take the work that used to fall between people, so the people you have can finish more jobs. The point is to expand what your people can do, not to replace them.
Questions
Will this replace my people?
No. Your reps still sell, your managers still decide, your install crew still installs. The agents take the work that fell between them so your people can finish more jobs.
Does the install crew use Bench?
On their phones, to see the job. They don't need a Mac.
What do surface and shadow mean?
Surface is the few steps a person has to touch. Shadow is everything the agents run underneath. You'll only see those words on the board.
Keep going
- A chatbot thinks. A harness gets a job done.
- Call it a job, a claim, or a deal. The board uses your word.
Every Bench word above is on Glossary / FAQs, in plain English.