Agents

Human handoff

What handing a conversation to a person means on each channel that supports it, what the customer and your team see, how to write the persona so it hands off at the right moment, and what to do on the channels with no handoff.

A handoff is the moment the agent stops and a person takes over. On four channels the agent can do that itself: it marks the ticket or conversation for your team, tells the customer, and goes quiet. On every other channel the agent keeps answering for as long as the channel is connected, so the persona has to carry the customer to a person in words. After this page you will know which case each of your channels is in, what everyone sees when a handoff fires, and how to write the trigger so it fires at the right time and not before.

The persona decides when; the channel decides how

You write the trigger. The persona names the situations that end the agent's part of a conversation: the customer asks for a person, the same question comes back a third time, the request needs something the agent cannot do. How the prompt is assembled shows the recommended wording under Say when to hand over.

The channel does the rest. On the channels that support a handoff, every conversation adds a short instruction to the agent's prompt that tells it how to signal one, and the signal itself is stripped before anything reaches the customer. You never write that signal yourself, and the customer never sees it. On the channels with no handoff, nothing is added, and a line in the persona that says "hand the conversation over" produces a sentence to the customer and nothing more.

What happens on each channel

Channel What the agent does What your team sees What the customer sees
Zendesk Adds the tag echonova_escalated, sets the ticket to open, removes the assignee and leaves an internal note An open, unassigned ticket carrying the tag and the note Echonova agent escalated this ticket — full transcript is in the comment thread. The agent's last reply as a public comment, then nothing more from the agent
Zoho Desk Adds the tag echonova_escalated and leaves a private comment A ticket carrying the tag and the same note The agent's last reply, then nothing more from the agent
Intercom Adds the tag echonova_escalated, leaves a note and unassigns the conversation An unassigned conversation carrying the tag and the note The agent's last reply, then nothing more from the agent
Genesys Cloud chat Returns the conversation to your Genesys flow with the intent escalate Whatever your flow does with that intent. The connect dialog's own guidance is to branch on it and route to a human queue The agent's last reply, then whatever the flow does next

On all four, the conversation on the agent's Conversations tab closes and shows Resolved. The transcript up to the handoff stays there, and on a helpdesk the whole exchange is also on the ticket, which is what the note points your team at.

Genesys Cloud voice, Twilio voice and every messaging channel have no handoff; see Channels with no handoff below.

What the customer sees

The customer sees one thing: the agent's final reply. If the persona has the agent say that a colleague will pick the ticket up, that sentence is the whole handoff from the customer's side. If the agent hands off without saying anything, the customer sees no message at all and the ticket simply goes quiet until a person answers.

So the final reply has to do the work. Have the agent say what will happen next, and nothing it cannot promise: not a time, not a name.

When the agent stops, and when it starts again

On Zendesk, Zoho Desk and Intercom the tag is the switch. While a ticket carries echonova_escalated, the agent does not answer it, whoever writes on it. Remove the tag and the agent answers the ticket again from the customer's next message. Build your views, triggers and reports on that tag name; there is no setting in the portal to rename it, and every helpdesk connection uses the same one.

If the helpdesk refuses the tag, the handoff has not happened: the conversation stays open, the agent keeps answering, and its next reply that asks for a handoff tries the tag again.

A person can also take a ticket without waiting for the agent. On Intercom, the first reply from a teammate other than the one the agent posts as stops the agent on that conversation for good. On Zendesk and Zoho Desk, a reply from your team stops the agent for that reply only; it answers the customer's next message unless the ticket carries the tag. To take a Zendesk or Zoho Desk ticket over for good, add echonova_escalated to it yourself.

On Genesys Cloud chat the agent's part ends when it returns the escalate intent. What happens after that is your flow's decision.

Get it right

Name the triggers, and tell the agent what to say as it hands off. A trigger without a closing line leaves the customer with silence; a closing line without triggers never fires.

Recommended

Hand the conversation over when the customer asks for a person, when they repeat the same request a third time, or when they need a change to their account that you cannot make. Tell them a colleague will pick this up from here, then stop.

Less effective

Always do your best to resolve every issue yourself. Never end the conversation.

The second form does worse than fire late: on a helpdesk it contradicts the instruction the channel adds, and the handoff stops firing at all.

Two more rules that hold on every channel:

  • Do not promise what the handoff does not do. The agent cannot name who will answer or when. "A colleague will pick this up" is true; "someone will call you within the hour" is not something the agent can arrange.
  • Keep the triggers few and concrete. "Escalate difficult cases" leaves the agent to decide what difficult means, and it will decide differently on every ticket.

Channels with no handoff

WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, Twilio text and voice, and Genesys Cloud voice have no handoff. The agent answers every message and every call on them while the channel is connected, and a person writing from the same number or account does not stop it. Three things work there:

  • Give the agent the route. Put a phone number, an email address or a link in the persona, with the hours it is staffed, and tell the agent to give it and stop offering alternatives once it has.
  • On a call, let the agent end it. Turn on the End conversation tool and tell the agent to give the route, confirm the customer has it, and end the call.
  • To stop the agent on a channel for good, disconnect the channel or assign it to another agent. Pausing the agent does not stop a channel; see Agent status.

Recommended

If the customer asks for a person, give them the support line on 800 123 4567, open Sunday to Thursday 9 to 6, and say goodbye. Do not keep answering the original question after that.

Less effective

If the customer asks for a person, hand the conversation over.

On a channel with no handoff the second line makes the agent say it is handing over, and then keep answering the next message as if nothing had happened.

Worked example

A Zendesk ticket arrives: "My order 41822 was charged twice, I want the second charge refunded now." The persona says the agent answers questions about orders and deliveries, cannot issue refunds, and hands over when a request needs a change it cannot make, telling the customer a colleague will pick it up.

  1. The agent replies on the ticket: "I can see order 41822. A refund has to be issued by a colleague, so I'm passing this to the billing team and they will pick it up from here." The customer sees exactly that.
  2. The ticket is tagged echonova_escalated, set to open, unassigned, and carries the internal note Echonova agent escalated this ticket — full transcript is in the comment thread.
  3. Your billing view, filtered on the tag, shows the ticket. A person reads the thread and issues the refund.
  4. On the agent's Conversations tab the conversation reads Resolved. The customer's next reply on the ticket goes to the person, not the agent, for as long as the tag stays.

FAQ

Can I rename the handoff tag?

No. Every helpdesk connection uses echonova_escalated. Build your helpdesk views and rules on that name.

Does the agent hand off on WhatsApp or Slack?

No. Those channels have no handoff. Give the agent the route to a person in the persona, and disconnect or reassign the channel to stop it altogether.

How do I give a ticket back to the agent?

Remove echonova_escalated from it. The agent answers the ticket again from the customer's next message.

What if a person replies before the agent hands off?

On Intercom the agent stops on that conversation for good. On Zendesk and Zoho Desk it stays quiet for that reply and answers the customer's next message; add the tag to keep it out.

Is a handoff charged?

The reply that carries it is a turn like any other. Nothing further is charged once the agent has stopped. See What a turn costs.

Do I have to write the handoff signal into the persona?

No. Write when to hand over, in plain words. The channel adds the instruction that tells the agent how, and strips the signal from what the customer reads.