Human Handoff

Human handoff is the transfer of a conversation from the AI to a team member. It is used when a customer wants to talk to a representative or the topic requires human support.

When Is a Handoff Requested?

A handoff can be started by the customer's explicit request or according to the rules you configure. Low AI confidence and suitable automation conditions can also be part of the handoff process. Determine the conditions to use according to your business needs.

Wanting a conversation or an appointment at a future date is not the same as wanting to connect to a live representative immediately. Separate these two needs when preparing your handoff rules.

Where Is It Configured?

Open AI Agent → Human Handoff in the panel. Check the handoff system's master switch and these areas:

• Representatives: Details of the team members who can take conversations.
• Handoff Distribution: How the request is offered to representatives, working hours and the path followed when no suitable representative is available.
• Rules: Settings for which situations request a handoff.

Preparing Representatives

Inviting a person to the team and making them ready to take handoffs are separate operations. Complete the required profile information such as language and expertise.

Choosing the Handoff Distribution

The options offered on the distribution screen are:

• First to accept: The request is offered to suitable representatives together; the first to accept takes the conversation.
• Sequential: The request is offered to representatives one by one. If not accepted, it moves to the next suitable representative.
• Hybrid: The request is offered first to the representative with the fewest active conversations among the suitable ones. If not accepted, it moves to the next suitable representative.

Also set the time to wait for a representative to accept the request. The options on the screen are 15, 30, 45 and 60 seconds. Make your choice according to how your team works.

Working Hours and Time Zone

You can set the company's general working schedule and define a personal schedule for representatives who work at different hours. The time zone determines which local time the hours you write are evaluated against.

Setting the Company's Working Hours

24/7 means no time restriction is used in the company schedule. It does not mean a representative is available to respond at any moment.

Representative-Specific Working Hours

Open the relevant person's card in Human Handoff → Representatives. In the personal working hours area, you can use the company schedule or enable custom hours. If you enable custom hours, select the representative's time zone; determine whether they work each day from Monday to Sunday and, if so, the start and end times. Save the changes on the representative card.

When the custom schedule is enabled, it is used instead of the company schedule for that representative. When you turn off custom hours, the company's working schedule applies.

Availability, Handoff Acceptance and Capacity

The working schedule alone does not determine whether a representative can take a conversation right now. Check the status indicator on the representative card, handoff acceptance and the number of conversations they can take at the same time together.

• Handoff acceptance: Turns on or off the representative receiving new handoff offers.
• Away: Indicates the representative is not available for new offers, e.g. during a break. When they return to work, turn this option off and save.
• Concurrent conversation limit: The number of conversations the representative can take at once. Set the limit according to the workload.
• Status indicator: Shows available, busy, away or offline. Turning on handoff acceptance does not by itself make an offline representative online.

A representative who is online, has handoff acceptance on, has not marked themselves away and whose capacity is not full can receive requests outside the defined working hours too. If you do not want to receive new offers at the end of a shift, turn on the Away option or turn off handoff acceptance and save. Also complete the follow-up of ongoing conversations or transfer them to another representative.

When No Suitable Representative Is Available

Choose the option suitable for your business in the Handoff Distribution section:

• Queue: The request waits for a suitable representative. When a representative comes online, it can be re-offered according to the availability conditions.
• Callback request: Taking the request so contact can be made later.
• Contact form: Asking the customer for missing contact information for a follow-up. Do not treat this choice as a separate form window opening on every channel.

If no suitable representative is available, the customer is informed; while the request waits, the AI continues to help in subsequent messages. In the callback and contact form options, if there is saved contact information it is used; if not, the customer is asked for a phone or email.

Check how the path you chose looks on the customer side. If a follow-up is needed, decide within the team who will track these requests. A request being taken does not mean the follow-up has been done or the appointment has been finalized.

Get to Know the Customer Before Taking Over

By opening the conversation, you can review the customer's last messages, the AI analysis summary, purchase intent and lead score. This information helps you understand the need; a high score alone does not mean the conversation has been handed to a representative. Track the handoff request and assignment separately.

For the meaning of the scores and the steps to refresh the analysis, review the Messages guide.

Managing Pending Requests

Notifications and Widget Experience

Check the notification channels and related contact information on the representative profile. If you use the Slack integration, also review the configuration of handoff notifications.

To edit the messages shown during handoff and the customer experience in the web widget, see the Widget Human Handoff Settings page. The waiting message should not give the customer the impression that a representative has already connected.

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