Setting Admin, User, and Account Owner Roles

Sometimes, you don't want everyone who has a Drift login to be able to access billing, change your widget settings, and more. That's why we have distinct roles with different permissions. There are three roles (available in all paid plans): Account Owner, Admins, and Users. (See section 7 for additional Enterprise roles.)

 Help Doc Overview

1. What is an Admin?
2. What is a User? 
3. Finding and Setting User vs. Admin Roles
4. What Admins vs. Users have access to
5. Controlling Conversation Access of Users
6. What is an Account Owner?
7. Enterprise User Roles

1. What is an Admin?

An admin user is able to access everything within Drift! This includes all conversations, and all settings including, billing, teammate management, security, and integrations. Please note that only admins are able to access the specific areas that are listed above. The Account Owner is by default an Admin. 

2. What is a Chat User?

A Chat User seat allows teammates to access conversations, Drift Meetings, and a limited view of playbooks and contacts. The types of conversations a teammate can access are determined by their conversation access level which is set when you assign a user to a seat. The three different access levels available are: 

• All conversations
• Their conversations only
• Their conversations only and ones with no participants

3. Setting User versus Admin Roles

There's only a few steps. Firstly, navigate to your Team Settings.

Click on the teammate table row to change the role/permissions. 

Use the checkbox to make a user an admin. To make someone a chat users use the dropdown menu to assign them the proper role. If you're setting a teammate's role to User, make sure that you're conscious of what Conversation permissions you're giving them. We'll go over what each of these options are in Section 5 of this article.

4. User vs. Admin permissions

Users still do have access to the following features:

• Their profile settings
• Their calendar settings
• Their notification settings
• The ability to change their status
• The ability to view the Drift conversation stats report
• The ability to search conversations

Unlike admins, Users cannot access the following features:

• The ability to view or edit billing information
• The ability to change any of the settings related to the Chat Widget (styling, customization, hours, etc)
• The ability to edit, add, or remove other users in Drift
• The ability to edit your Drift team directory
• The ability to export contacts in the contacts view
• Configuring any Integrations settings
• Configuring any settings for tags, installation, routing, saved replies
• The ability to edit any playbooks besides sales sequences they created

5. Controlling Conversation Access of Users

Administrators can control which conversations users will have access to.

When selecting a chat user role, the drop down menu will show you the different types of access chat users can have. 

There are three types of access a user can have:

• All Conversations - the User has access to all conversations, regardless of participant.
• Only Their Conversations - the User only has access to conversations they are already participants of.
• Their Conversations and Ones with No Participation - the User only has access to conversations they are participants of or have no current participants.

6. Account Ownership

The Account Owner is, by default, whoever set up the Account. They are also the Drift team's point of contact for Billing concerns. The billing information in your settings, however, is static and will not change just because the Account Owner changes.   

To transfer account ownership, select the account owner, then select the ellipsis in the pop up and select "Transfer Account Ownership."  From here, you'll be able to update the account owner.

7. Enterprise User Roles

When you're on our Enterprise pricing tier, you have two additional types of users Playbook Editor, and Reporting Only users available to you via the invite team modal as well as the edit teammate side panel.  (See screen shots below for reference.)

(Above: Invite team modal.  Below: Edit teammate side panel.)

Neither of these roles have the ability to contribute to Live Chat and are meant for your support and reporting teams.

Playbook Editors have the ability to search conversations and modify and build bot playbooks.  This role is ideal for marketing leads to be able to create playbooks that solve business needs without giving them access to other Drift settings.  

Reporting Only users have the ability to search conversations, and view playbook overviews, site coverage, and revenue influence.  This role is ideal for team leads who need to evaluate their reps in Drift without giving them access to other Drift settings.  

Note for Enterprise users on the FY22 plan:

Playbook Editor and Reporting Roles have been replaced for the FY22 plan.  In lieu of the two roles, you now are able to choose between the roles of Sales Rep and Marketer.

Sales Rep roles allow your agents to chat and video conversations, and includes sales and pipeline reporting, but not the ability to build a bot playbook.

Marketer roles allow your agent the ability to modify and create playbooks, and have access to chat reporting, but not sales nor pipeline reporting, nor conversations.

Enterprise customers can update existing teammates to these roles if desired, or they can also invite new teammates into those roles.

Still stuck? Email us at support@drift.com. Not using Drift yet? Get your free account here.