Even the best AI bot has limits. Human Handover lets your Captivation Hub Conversation AI bot recognize those moments and pass the contact off to a real person — cleanly, with the right context already attached. The bot stops talking, a teammate gets notified, the conversation gets assigned, a follow-up task appears, and the contact gets a closing message that doesn't feel like a dropped call.
This article walks through what Human Handover does, how to set it up, and the questions teams ask most often when they're rolling it out.
What is Human Handover in Conversation AI?
Human Handover is a feature inside Captivation Hub's Conversation AI that automatically transfers a conversation from the bot to a human teammate when certain conditions hit. The most common ones: the contact directly asks for a person, the bot doesn't have the knowledge to answer, or it has tried to resolve the issue and failed. Instead of leaving the contact stuck, the bot exits gracefully and your team takes over.
Used well, Human Handover prevents customer frustration, shortens resolution time, and keeps the experience consistent across automation and live support.
Key Benefits of Human Handover
- No dead ends — Customers always end up with someone who can help, even when the bot can't.
- Smart escalation — Detects automatically when the AI is stuck, has failed repeatedly, or has been asked directly for a person.
- Seamless transition — Assigns a teammate, creates a follow-up task, sends a closing message, and pauses the bot — all in a single action.
- Better customer satisfaction — Builds trust by making it obvious that real people are available when needed.
- Faster team response — Notifications fire instantly when a handover or new task lands, so nothing sits unread.
- Customizable triggers and actions — Tune when handovers happen and what happens after, based on how your team works.
How to Set Up the Human Handover Action
Setup is straightforward — open the bot, pick the scenarios that should trigger a handover, then define what happens once the bot hands off.
Step 1 — Navigate to Bot Goals
From your account, click AI Agents, then click the Conversation AI tab.
Click the bot's name (or the three dots beside Last updated, then Edit) to open the bot.
Click the Bot Goals tab. Scroll down to Set Up Your Actions and click the Human Handover button.
Step 2 — Pick a prebuilt scenario
Captivation Hub gives you three predefined conditions that can trigger a handover. Enable any combination that fits your workflow.
Scenario 1 — Human Requested
Toggle on Enable Scenario. Trigger: the contact explicitly asks to speak with a person. Click + Add Example Phrase to teach the bot the wording you want it to recognize.
Examples: "I want to talk to a human", "Can someone real help me?", "Connect me to a person".
Scenario 2 — Lack of Information
Toggle on Enable Scenario. Trigger: the AI doesn't have relevant information or training to answer the question. No custom examples needed — the bot recognizes this on its own.
Scenario 3 — Failed to Resolve Issue
Toggle on Enable Scenario. Trigger: the bot has made repeated attempts to resolve the issue without success. The bot retries up to twice, then triggers the handover. No custom examples needed.
Step 3 — Configure post-handover actions
This is where you define what happens the moment the bot hands the conversation over.
1. Assign Conversation to a User
Pick a specific user the conversation should be assigned to. Optional toggle: skip the assignment if the contact already has an assigned user, so the conversation lands with the same person who handles them today.
2. Final Message
The last message the bot sends before stepping aside. Keep it short and reassuring.
Example: "Thank you! Someone from the team will get back to you."
3. Bot Pause Behaviour
Set a timer that controls when the bot is allowed to start replying again. You can set the duration in days, hours, and minutes — long enough for the human teammate to engage without the bot interrupting.
4. Create a Task
A task gets created on the contact when the handover triggers, so the work shows up on the assigned user's plate. Default due time: 24 hours from the trigger.
5. Create Tags
Add a tag to the contact's record any time the handover fires. The default is human_handover, which makes filtering and reporting easy later.
Notification Management for Assigned Users
Setting up the handover is half the work — the other half is making sure the assigned teammate actually gets notified the moment a conversation lands.
Go to Settings.
Click the My Staff tab.
Click the Edit action button next to the staff member you want to notify.
Click the Notification Settings tab.
Enable notifications across all channels for both:
- When a conversation gets assigned to me
- When a task gets assigned to me
Click Save.
Note: You can configure a maximum of 3 handover actions per bot.
Customizing Handover Actions
A few quick ideas for tailoring handovers to your team:
- Assign conversations to specific staff based on expertise or availability — not just to a single default person.
- Auto-create tasks with clear deadlines so the handed-over conversation doesn't sit in a queue.
- Personalize the closing message so it sounds friendly and human, not clinical.
- Adjust the bot pause duration to give the teammate room to take over before automation starts again.
- Use tags for reporting and to drive workflow automation off handover events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I customize the message sent to the customer during a handover?
Yes — you can write your own closing message that goes out the moment a handover triggers.
Q: What happens if no team member is assigned during a handover?
The conversation stays unassigned until a staff member claims it. To avoid that, configure a default assignee so handovers always land somewhere.
Q: Can I set different triggers for different bots or workflows?
Yes. Triggers are configured per bot inside the Bot Goals section, so different bots can have different handover rules.
Q: How does the bot know when to pause, and for how long?
You set the cooldown duration in the Bot Pause Behaviour setting. During that window, the bot won't respond, giving your team time to take over.
Q: Will my team get notified immediately after a handover?
Yes — as long as the assigned-conversation and assigned-task notifications are turned on in each staff member's settings.
Q: Is there a way to track all conversations that have been handed over?
Yes. Every handover adds the human_handover tag to the contact, so you can filter or report on them anytime.
Q: Can I disable Human Handover for certain bots?
Yes — just toggle the feature off in the relevant bot's Bot Goals configuration.
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