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When should a chat bot hand a conversation to a person?

A bot should answer what it knows and pass on what it does not. Hand over anything about money, any unhappy customer, and any question your information does not cover, and tell the customer what happens next.

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Illustration of a robotic hand passing a glowing chat bubble to a human hand
Screenshot of the staff handoff section on the AI-SNS.IO website chat bot page, showing the plain-language rule example

Short answer

Hand a conversation to a person when the customer asks for one, when the topic is a refund, a complaint or a contract, and when the bot has no information to answer from. Write these rules down before you switch the bot on, so nobody is left waiting without an answer.

Step by step

  1. List the topics a person must always handle: refunds, cancellations, complaints, legal or safety questions.
  2. Add a rule for customers who ask to talk to a person. They should never have to ask twice.
  3. Add a rule for questions the bot cannot answer from your information.
  4. Choose where the conversation goes: a live chat when staff are online, a helpdesk ticket when they are not.
  5. Tell the customer what happens next and when to expect a reply, then test each rule with a sample message.

How to do it in AISNSIO

In AI-SNS.IO chat bots you set handoff rules in plain words, for example "send refund requests to staff". When a question needs a person, the bot passes it to your team.

The handoff goes to a live chat or to a helpdesk ticket. A ticket keeps the request on record for your team. The website chat bot and the channel bots such as WhatsApp and Instagram all pass difficult conversations to your staff.

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Conversations a bot should hand over

  • The customer asks for a person.
  • Refunds, cancellations and billing questions.
  • Complaints, or a customer who is clearly upset.
  • Questions about contracts, law, health or safety.
  • Anything your website and documents do not answer.

What a good handoff looks like

  • The customer is told that a person is taking over and when to expect a reply.
  • The person can read the conversation so far, so the customer does not repeat it.
  • Outside business hours the request is saved as a ticket instead of being lost.
  • You review handed-over conversations each month and add the missing answers to the bot's information.

Words on this page

Handoff

Passing a conversation from the bot to a person on your team.

Live chat

A chat answered by a person in real time.

Helpdesk ticket

A record of one customer request in a support tool.

FAQ

How do I tell the bot when to hand over?

You write the rule in plain words, such as "send refund requests to staff".

Where does the conversation go?

To a live chat, or to a helpdesk ticket.

Should every difficult question go to a person?

Yes, if your information does not cover it. A wrong answer costs more than a short wait, so let the bot pass on what it does not know.

Related pages

Published by: Freeborn Inc. (株式会社フリーボーン) · Suita, Osaka, Japan · contact@ai-sns.io
Updated: