Use case
An AI chatbot that hands off to a person
Last updated by Venu Gopal Reddy Muvva, Founder, Surge Software Solutions
Who this is for
This is for business owners and support leads who want an AI first line but don't want customers stuck with a bot. Some questions need a person: a complaint, a refund, a problem the docs don't cover. You want those chats to reach the right person quickly, with the full history, and you want the AI to stay quiet while you handle them.
How to do it in CustomerReplies
- Create your agent. Sign in at /sign-in with an email code and add your website in onboarding.
- Set hand-off rules. On the Hand-off page, choose when a person should take over, on top of the built-in cases.
- Set office hours. Tell the agent when your team is around. Outside those hours, customers see your offline message and can leave their contact details.
- Choose alerts. Pick Telegram alerts, email alerts or both. You can reply straight from a Telegram alert.
- Add your team. Invite people with roles: owner, admin, support agent or viewer.
- Reply from the Inbox. Take over a chat in the Inbox. Hand it back to the agent when you're done.
What happens at hand-off
The agent stops answering and your team gets an alert. The person who opens the chat sees everything the customer said, so nobody has to repeat themselves.
Outside your office hours, customers see your offline message and can leave their contact details, so your team can follow up.
Sharing the work
Routing rules and round-robin spread chats across your team. Response targets and an Overdue filter show chats waiting too long. Saved replies speed up common answers.
The inbox installs on your phone's home screen from the browser and can send push notifications.
An honest resolution rate
Analytics counts a chat as resolved only if the customer's need was met and nothing in it was handed over or left unanswered. The answer-gap report shows what to add so fewer chats need a person.
The first 3 months are free. After that you pay only for what you use, at our cost — no markup. Monthly plans are coming soon.
When CustomerReplies is not the right tool
CustomerReplies is not the right tool if you need hand-off into an existing helpdesk as your main workflow. Creating tickets in Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot or Intercom is in Beta. There is no native mobile app; the inbox installs from the browser. Phone calls are in Beta and need a paid add-on that is not available yet, so hand-off works in text chats only today.
Questions
Does the agent keep talking after I take over?
No. It stays quiet until you hand the chat back.
Can I reply without opening the app?
Yes. You can reply to a Telegram alert, and your reply goes to the customer.
Can chats go to the right person?
Yes. Use routing rules or round-robin to share chats across your team.
What if nobody is online?
Set office hours. Outside them, customers see your offline message and can leave their contact details for your team.