Why Human Handover Matters
While your BusinessChat AI Bot will handle most customer queries automatically, there are situations where a human agent will need to take over—for example, refunds, complex requests, or when the customer is frustrated. Setting up human handover ensures a smooth experience for your customers and keeps conversations productive.
Types of Escalation for the BusinessChat AI bot
Automatic handover
The bot is governed by the following escalation rules:
Default escalation: You can define a default team for escalations. All escalated conversations will be routed to the team unless a custom rule applies.
Custom escalation rules: You can assign the conversation to a specific team based on the case type. Configured escalation rules are five rules and are the following:
Frustrated customer
Missing Knowledge
Refund requests
Order management
Delivery management
Overall, based on the rules and the live conversation, the bot will decide when to hand over the conversation and to which team. If no custom rules are defined, the Default Escalation Team will be used.
Default vs. Custom Handover
Default Team: If you do not configure specific rules, all escalations will go to your Default Escalation Team.
Custom Team Rules:
Assign different teams for different scenarios.
Example: “Frustrated customers” go to the Customer Success team, while “Refund requests” go to Finance.
=> Custom escalation rules will take priority, and conversations will be routed based on the detected case. If the conversation doesn't match one of the configured rules, the conversation will be routed to the default team. If no custom rules are configured at all, all conversations will be routed to the same default team.
Manual Handover
If one of your customer service agents is viewing a conversation in the Bot View within your BusinessChat inbox, they can manually take over at any time. Once the agent types anything in the reply box and sends it to the customer, the conversation will be automatically assigned to that agent, and the bot will cease to interact with that customer. Then that agent can reassign the conversation to a different team or agent if necessary.
Hardcoded escalation rules
While you can control when your bot will escalate to the team, there are some hardcoded escalation cases that you need to be aware of. These are the following:
If the bot fails to understand the user's intent 3 times.
If the customer asks about the future availability of a product.
If the customer insists on a question even though the bot delivered an answer more than 2 times.
In these cases, the bot will route to the correct team automatically. You don't need to configure any rules for those hardcoded cases.
Escalation guidelines for your BusinessChat AI bot
These are guidelines to consider when setting up your escalation rules:
Team working hours: You must configure your team working hours correctly from the team settings, because the AI bot will use that information to set expectations on human follow-up for the customer.
Recap: When a conversation is escalated to a team, the agent will see an AI-generated recap of the conversation. This will allow the agent to reply faster to the customer, thanks to having the full context at hand, regardless of the length of the conversation.
Continuous Value after escalation: after escalating a conversation to the team, the bot's job isn't over. When your team is outside of working hours, or an agent hasn't replied to the customer yet due to workload, for example, the AI bot will continue to assist the customer by offering to help and providing info as requested. The bot will stop only when the agent takes over by replying.
How to Set Up Escalation rules for your BusinessChat AI bot
To configure how escalation would work on your account, follow these steps:
Go to Escalations under AI bot
Click on the drop-down under Default Escalation Team and choose the team you want to route to.
Under Custom Rules, click "Add Rule."
From the pop-up, choose the Case Type and the Team to handle it, then click "Save." You can set up to 4 custom rules.
After you configure all rules, click "Save" from the top right to activate the rules.
If you need to change the assigned team, simply click the rule you need to edit, change the team, and click "Save" again.
Note: while you can skip configuring any custom escalation rules, choosing the default escalation team is mandatory.
Key Points to Remember about Escalation
Handover setup is mandatory, since the bot does not handle all actions.
Without custom rules, all escalations go to your default team.
You can manually reassign any conversation to take over immediately.