Bot-to-human handoff

Bot-to-human handoff is the process by which a chatbot transfers specific chats with users to human agents due to their urgency, complexity, or at the user’s request. This happens when bots can’t handle certain tasks, so they assign them to specialists for better responses.

In this article, we’ll explore why bot-to-human handoffs are essential in customer service and review the situations in which a chat should be handed off to a human. We’ll also provide a step-by-step guide on implementing an effective bot-to-human handoff.

Why is bot-to-human handoff vital in customer service?

Although chatbots can manage different types of repetitive tasks, including product information, appointment bookings, FAQs, and customer onboarding, they may still struggle with handling more complex issues. That’s when human agents are essential, and customers can reach them by asking the chatbot. When you offer a bot-to-human handoff option, it brings the following remarkable benefits for your business:

• Contributes to customer trust and satisfaction. If your chatbot can’t handle specific customer issues, bot-to-human handoff prevents users from feeling dissatisfied and abandoned. By quickly transferring the chat to your human agents, customers can receive the necessary help seamlessly and leave the chat satisfied. This, in turn, influences customer trust and encourages them to stay loyal to your brand.
• Enables customers to receive quality solutions to complex issues. Sometimes, chatbot solutions can be too generic when addressing serious and complex problems clients might face. The bots are also unable to understand customer sentiment or show empathy. Human agents are necessary when customers experience issues related to billing, cancellations, returns, and exchanges. When the bot assigns such conversations to specialists, they can conduct a deeper analysis of the situation, demonstrate their care, and provide a proper resolution.
• Automated replies help save time without compromising service quality. They enable human agents to allocate more time to handle complex issues that require human involvement. Agents can prioritize higher-value interactions without needing to respond to repetitive questions. This approach allows them to enhance productivity while maintaining the quality of customer service.
• Provides a positive customer experience. When chats are directed to human agents, they have access to chat history, customer data, and the preferred communication channel. This helps businesses provide consistent experiences without repeatedly asking clients the same questions.
• Reduces the number of abandoned carts. Prospects can abandon their shopping carts for various reasons, with poor customer service being one of the main reasons. When chatbots fail to understand user inquiries, it negatively impacts their customer experiences and encourages them to switch to competitors. However, when the bot transfers the chat to the specialist as soon as it doesn’t get the input, everything changes. Fewer prospects leave their carts, and fewer of them churn out.

Now that you know the most crucial reasons for providing a human handoff button, it’s time to reveal the best moments to take this action during conversations with users. You’ll find this information below.

When should a сhatbot be handed off to a human?

While chatbots are fantastic at handling many tasks, there are times when it's best to hand over the conversation to a human agent. This might be due to the need for specialized expertise, a more in-depth analysis, a personal touch, or other factors that can impact customer satisfaction. Below, you'll find some common scenarios where a human expert makes all the difference.

• Users want to contact customer support agents. When users are frustrated with a chatbot's effectiveness, they instantly click the human handoff button. Once they do this, it’s essential to connect them with specialists as soon as possible. You should always respond to direct requests; otherwise, it will negatively impact customer satisfaction, customer experience, and even your conversion rate and sales.
• Complex problems related to products. It’s always better to set up your chatbot so that it immediately transfers issues related to billing errors, fraud reports, legal concerns, and account closures to agents. Such issues often cause disappointment and anger, which can escalate when customers continue interacting with a bot. Customer support agents are more effective at handling emotional or urgent complaints because they can clearly understand customer needs and requests.
• Urgent requests. If your company offers sensitive products or services, it's important to provide a human handoff option. For example, if a passenger’s flight is delayed or the date changes, customers should be able to contact a specialist directly. Chatbots can't handle these situations, and relying on them can leave customers frustrated and dissatisfied. To maintain trust, avoid long waits and ensure your clients get the support they need right away.
• Negative sentiment. When a chatbot recognizes that users use words and phrases indicating anger, sarcasm, or disappointment, there is a tendency to handle such chats with a human agent. The same goes for messages where customers frequently include the word “useless” in their descriptions. For this reason, consider utilizing sentiment analysis to gauge customer emotions and direct their chats to specialists at the appropriate moment.
• High-value clients. High-value customers should always have access to interactions with human agents. This is very important for maintaining your sales and customer loyalty. These clients need all the necessary support when they have complex issues or are about to purchase additional products from your brand.
• Chatbot doesn’t understand users’ requests. While chatbots are incredibly useful, they can still struggle with understanding customer requests. This may include failing to identify the user’s main intent or providing irrelevant answers. If the same issue arises multiple times, even with different phrasings, it's important to hand the chat over to a human agent.

Now that you know the best time to transfer conversations with customers to specialists, it’s time to move on to the next section. We’ll show you how to successfully incorporate a bot-to-human handoff into your strategy.

How to implement an effective bot-to-human handoff?

When you use chatbots for your business, it’s important to ensure customers still get the help they need when the bot falls short. To ensure everything runs smoothly and your clients remain satisfied, it’s essential to implement a proper handoff from bot to human. Here’s a quick guide on how to do it.

1. Identify the perfect moments for human handoffs. To set up human handoffs, create clear and accurate rules and triggers. You can transfer chats to specialists when users request it, when the chatbot fails to understand the inquiry multiple times, or when the issue is complex. These conditions depend entirely on your goals and business. Consider using intent recognition, keyword detection, and sentiment analysis to help your chatbot identify when human assistance is needed.
2. Think of the right channels. When you have set up chatbots for different channels, including live chat, social media platforms, messengers, SMS, and email, it’s essential to ensure smooth handoffs to humans on each platform. This way, customers can easily contact human agents without needing to switch to another platform.
3. Provide full content to agents. When transferring chats from a chatbot, ensure that your customer support specialists have all the necessary context. This includes essential details such as the full chat transcript, user profile, and history, uploaded files, and any completed forms. With this information at their fingertips, agents can resolve issues quickly, without needing to ask customers for the same details again, which helps avoid further frustration.
4. Let customers know when the agent is available. After the chat is transferred to a human agent, always let users know what's happening. For example, you can send a message informing them that a customer support agent will be connected in one minute. You need to provide clients with a response time so that they know when to expect assistance from your customer support specialists.
5. Ensure that you assign the right human agents to specific issues. Randomly assigning agents can lead to challenges, especially when dealing with particular audience segments. Smart routing is the best approach—this ensures that agents are matched based on factors such as the customer’s location, language, topic, issue type, high-value status, and agent availability. Additionally, for complex or high-priority issues, consider the agent’s experience to ensure effective resolution.
6. Ensure seamless re-engagement with the chatbot. After customers finish communicating with your agents and receive the necessary solutions, enable your chatbot to return to the chat. This presents an excellent opportunity for gathering user feedback. You can inquire about the chatbot's quality, the human agent’s helpfulness, suggest follow-up actions, or share valuable guides and tutorials.
7. Monitor and continuously optimize the handoff process. Adding a bot-to-human transfer is just one step—tracking key metrics is equally important. Focus on customer satisfaction, resolution time, and drop-offs before agents connect. Analytics will show you where improvements can be made to better serve users. Always use these insights to refine your chatbot and enhance the handoff process for complex issues.

Automating repetitive tasks with chatbots makes everything smoother and more efficient. But don’t forget—relying solely on bots isn’t the answer. Customer experience and satisfaction are at the heart of great support. Always keep the human handoff in mind, ensuring your customers stay happy with your brand long after their purchase.

Last Updated: 23.04.2025