Handoff to a human
The agent handles most exchanges on its own, but knows to step aside on the cases that need a human, without the customer having to repeat themselves.
A good handoff at the right moment is what makes automation acceptable, for your customers and your team alike. The agent recognizes the cases beyond its reach and passes the baton cleanly, never leaving the customer hanging.
When the agent hands off
In the agent's instructions, you describe the situations it doesn't handle on its own. In practice, they fall into four families:
| Situation | Example |
|---|---|
| Sensitive case | Complaint, dispute, visibly unhappy customer |
| Money | Payment, refund, goodwill gesture to approve |
| Out of scope | A request that falls outside what the agent knows how to handle |
| Explicit request | "I want to speak to someone" |
What the customer sees
When the agent hands off, the customer first receives a short, courteous holding message, in their own language, along the lines of "I'm passing your request to our team, someone will get back to you shortly." So they know right away that a human is taking over. Your colleague then replies in the same conversation: the customer has nothing to repeat, the full history is already there.
What the team sees
On the team side, the conversation moves into the "Handoff" filter and the person, or team, concerned is alerted with a notification. They open a complete thread: the exchange, the context, the contact record, and the reason for the handoff noted by the agent. Meanwhile, the AI stays paused: it doesn't talk over your team. For assigning to the right person, see Teams and access.
Take over, then hand back to the AI
You handle the case at your own pace. Once it's resolved, you can click "Hand back to AI" to return the conversation to it, leaving a note for its next reply if needed. The agent then picks up the thread again, including any messages that arrived while you had the lead. This back-and-forth is open-ended: you take over and hand back as many times as necessary.
Adjusting the handoff behavior
The tone of the holding message, the cases that trigger a handoff, the target team: it's all set in the agent's instructions and guardrails. The limits of what it does on its own are set under Hours and limits.
Set up well, it protects the customer relationship. A clean handoff beats a risky answer on a sensitive topic.
By directing the handoff to the "Sales" or "Support" team, the right person is alerted, rather than everyone at once.