Hand a conversation to a person
Your team can take over any customer conversation a customer-facing agent is having, and hand it back when they are done. The agent can ask for a person too, when a customer wants one or one of your rules says so. It can also ask a teammate to check an answer before it sends it, or to approve an action.
At any moment either the agent or a person answers the customer, never both. While a person handles a conversation, the agent does not reply. It keeps reading, and knows what was said when you hand back.
This works on messaging Channels such as Telegram and WhatsApp, on the Website channel, and on phone calls.
The Inbox
Section titled “The Inbox”The Inbox in the workspace header lists what waits on your team. It has two tabs, Customers and Approvals. Approvals is the list you already had.
The Customers tab groups conversations by who has them:
| Group | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Asked you a question | An agent paused its reply to ask a teammate to check it (see Ask a teammate) |
| Needs a person | A customer or the agent asked for a person and nobody has taken it yet, with how long the customer has waited |
| You’re handling | Conversations you took over |
| Agent active | Conversations the agent is answering, which you can watch |
Conversations that a teammate is handling sit in a folded Teammates handling group. Each row shows the customer, the Channel, the reason, the wait and who has the conversation. Select a row to open it.
The number on the Inbox icon is what waits on you. It adds up these:
- Conversations that need a person
- Open questions from the agent
- Your own conversations where a customer is waiting
- Pending approvals
Owners and admins see every customer conversation. Members see the conversations of agents they have Watch only access to or better. Taking over needs Run only or Run & edit (see Agent access). An agent a member has no access to never appears.
Takeover and hand-back
Section titled “Takeover and hand-back”In a customer conversation, the pill by the composer reads Agent active, Needs a person or You’re handling. Open it and choose:
- Take over conversation to stop the agent answering and reply yourself.
- Hand back to agent to give the conversation back. You can add a note under What should the agent know? Only the agent sees it.
In a conversation that needs a person, a card above the composer shows why, along with the brief the agent wrote for you. Select Take over on the card to start replying.
Replying to a conversation the agent is answering also takes it over. If a teammate got there first, your message is not sent and you see “Priya took this one”.
Use Note to the agent to steer the agent while it is answering, such as “offer the 10% code”. The agent reads the note on its next turn. The customer never sees it.
Settings for each Channel
Section titled “Settings for each Channel”Open the Console, go to Loops, and edit the Channel’s Loop. A customer-facing agent’s Channel has a Hand-off section. Only owners and admins can change it.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| People to notify | Members who can run the agent. They are told when a customer needs a person, in the workspace and by email. If you choose nobody, the agent’s owner is told. Whoever takes over first has the conversation, and the others see who it is |
| Automatic hand-back | Off, or after 10, 15 or 30 minutes, or 1, 2, 4 or 24 hours. It starts at 30 minutes |
| Reply time shown to customers | Free text, such as “within an hour”. Leave it empty to say nothing about timing |
| Escalation rules | Pro and up. See Escalation rules |
| Post the agent’s questions to | Pro and up. See Team chat |
If nobody takes a conversation within 10 minutes, the organization’s owners and admins get one more notification.
Automatic hand-back covers a conversation someone took over and then left. If the customer writes and nobody replies within the time you chose, the agent takes the conversation back and answers the waiting message. The person who had it is told. It applies to messaging Channels, not to the Website channel or to phone calls.
Escalation rules
Section titled “Escalation rules”The agent asks for a person whenever a customer asks for one, on every plan. On Pro and up you can add to that.
Under Escalation rules, write rules in plain language, such as “Refunds over $500” or “Legal threats”. You can add up to 10, each up to 300 characters. When a rule applies, the agent asks for a person and writes a brief for your team in the Inbox.
On Pro and up the agent also asks for a person when it has tried three times and the customer’s problem is still not solved. This covers messaging Channels and your website.
Ask a teammate
Section titled “Ask a teammate”On Pro and up, an agent on a messaging Channel can pause its reply and ask your team one question, with a draft answer. The customer is told the agent is checking with the team.
The question and the draft appear in the Inbox under Asked you a question, and in your team chat if you set one up. A teammate can:
- Send this reply, which sends the draft as written.
- Answer in their own words. The agent rewrites its reply with the answer and asks again. A teammate approves the new draft before it goes out.
- Take over the conversation.
The customer receives nothing the agent drafts until a person approves it. If nobody answers within 10 minutes and the agent does not have the customer’s email address, the customer is told a person will follow up and is asked for an email address. The question remains open and the draft still needs approval.
Team chat
Section titled “Team chat”Under Post the agent’s questions to, choose a Slack or Telegram Channel you have already set up, then enter the ID of the chat to post in. Questions and “needs a person” alerts go there, never to the customer’s chat.
- A question shows the customer, the question, the draft, an Approve draft button and an Open in Inbox link.
- A “needs a person” alert shows the reason and the link.
To type an answer instead of approving the draft, open the Inbox.
Find a Slack channel ID. In Slack, select the channel name at the top, open the About tab and copy the Channel ID at the bottom. Add the Slack app that your Channel uses to that Slack channel.
Find a Telegram group ID. Add the Telegram bot that your Channel uses to the group. A group’s ID is a negative number, and a supergroup’s starts with -100. Telegram has no single place to read it, so if you can’t find it, contact support.
Actions that need approval
Section titled “Actions that need approval”Without hand-off, an action that needs approval is refused in a customer conversation, because the customer cannot give one. On Pro and up it goes to the Channel’s People to notify instead (on a website, only with the Hand-off to a person switch on). They approve or decline it in the Inbox under Approvals, like any other approval. The customer is told the team is checking, never gets an approval button, and hears how it went.
Abilities that always ask, sensitive actions and anything on a phone call are still refused. On a website, an ability the website does not allow is refused too.
The website chat
Section titled “The website chat”On the website’s page in the Console, the Content panel has a Hand-off to a person switch under Features. It starts off. With it on, you also set:
- People to notify, the same list as for other Channels.
- Reply time shown to visitors, such as “We reply within an hour.”
Visitors then see a Talk to a person button. The chat’s home screen reads “Need a person?” followed by your reply time, or “Ask here and the team will reply.” if you set none. After a visitor asks, the chat says “Asking a person to join…” and then tells them a person will reply. The chat turns your reply time into minutes, so “within an hour” reads “usually within 60 minutes”. With no length of time in it, the chat says “A person will reply here.” The agent can start a hand-off too, and the visitor sees the same.
When a teammate takes over, the chat shows “Priya joined the conversation” and Priya’s replies, each marked with the first name, and “Priya left the conversation” when they hand back. If the visitor has closed the chat, the reply waits in the conversation until they open it again.
If you ask for contact details During the chat, a visitor who is still waiting when the reply time has passed is asked for an email address the next time they write. The wait is 10 minutes if you don’t set a reply time, or if what you wrote does not state a length of time. The visitor’s email address appears in the brief at the top of the conversation in the Inbox. Auteryn does not send email for you, so write to the visitor from your own mailbox.
The website does not hand back automatically. A teammate hands back from the Inbox.
The website’s Numbers also show Answered without a person: the share of conversations in the last 30 days that did not need a person. The line under it counts them, such as “36 of 40 conversations never needed one”.
Phone calls
Section titled “Phone calls”On Business and up, an agent on a phone call can move the caller to a person. When the caller asks for one, or the agent cannot help, the agent tells the caller it is getting a person and asks them to hold. It plays hold music and stops listening and replying.
The call appears in the Inbox under Needs a person, with the brief and a Join call button, and the agent’s owner is notified. Anyone who can run the agent can select Join call and speak to the caller from the browser. Your browser asks for microphone access. The agent leaves the call when you are in the room. If a teammate joined first, you see “Priya took this call”.
If nobody joins within a minute, the agent comes back to the call and tells the caller nobody is free right now. The request remains in the Inbox, and a teammate who joins later still takes the call. If the caller hangs up first, the call leaves the Inbox.
Phone calls need a number from your own Twilio account. See Voice.
Messages the customer reads
Section titled “Messages the customer reads”Every message a customer reads shows whether the agent or a person wrote it.
On messaging Channels, the customer reads plain messages:
| When | The customer reads |
|---|---|
| A person is wanted | “A person will reply here within an hour.” (your reply time) |
| A teammate takes over | “Priya from Acme joined the conversation.” Each of Priya’s messages then starts with “Priya: “ |
| The conversation is handed back | “You’re chatting with the Acme assistant again.” |
| Automatic hand-back | “Thanks for waiting. I’m the Acme assistant and I can help from here.” |
| The agent asks a teammate | “Let me check with the team. I’ll be back here.” |
The first name is the first word of the member’s display name. If the member has no display name, or it is an email address, the customer reads “A teammate”. Without an organization name, “from Acme” is left out and the line says “the assistant”. A member’s email address never reaches a customer.
Messages your team sends do not use credits. The agent’s own replies, including a draft it rewrites after your answer, use credits as usual.
Learning from your team’s answers
Section titled “Learning from your team’s answers”When a person answers something the agent could not, Auteryn can suggest a Knowledge entry from it. It drafts a suggestion when a conversation returns to the agent after a teammate wrote to the customer, whether the teammate handed it back or the agent took it back after the idle time. It also drafts one when a teammate answers a question in text.
Each suggestion is a title, the question and the answer. The question is reworded so any customer might have asked it, and the answer is cleaned up. Auteryn suggests nothing for a one-off, such as one customer’s order, or for an answer that applies only to that case. It replaces email addresses and long numbers with [email] and [number]. It cannot catch a name or an address written in words, so read each suggestion before you add it.
Owners and admins find suggestions in the agent’s Knowledge section, under Suggested from your team’s answers. Each one shows the date of its conversation and an Open conversation link. Edit the text in Text to add to Knowledge if you like, then choose Add to Knowledge or Discard. Nothing becomes Knowledge until you add it, and the agent needs Knowledge attached before you can. The agent can use an entry once Knowledge finishes syncing.
| What | Plans |
|---|---|
| The Inbox, taking over and handing back, a customer asking for a person, and each Channel’s people, automatic hand-back and reply time | Every plan |
| Escalation rules, the three-tries rule, Ask a teammate, the team chat, and sending an action that needs approval to your team | Pro and up |
| Moving a phone call to a person | Business and up |
Channels themselves start on Pro. See Pricing & Credits.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Website channel: the website’s page and its settings
- Agent access: who can watch, run and edit each agent
- Autonomy & Approvals: what a customer-facing agent may do, and when it asks
- Voice: phone calls and voice in the workspace