Take over, hand back and handoffs
Decide who answers a conversation, an agent or you, by taking over, handing back or accepting an agent's handoff.
Every thread is run either by an agent or by a person. While an agent runs it, the agent replies on its own (or drafts for your approval). When you take it over, the agent stops replying and the thread is yours until you hand it back. Agents can also hand a thread to you, which is called an escalation.
- Who can use it: Taking over needs Take over from agents (which comes with Reply and send), handing back and assigning need Assign and reassign, and accepting a handoff needs Approve agent drafts. Owners, admins and members have all of these by default; viewers have none. The role also needs Reply or Manage access on the thread's channel to take over or accept a handoff. Items your role can't use are left out of the menus, and dock buttons are greyed out with the reason. See Roles and permissions.
- Before you start: Open the thread in the inbox.
Take over from an agent
Find the agent's status
While an agent runs a thread, the bottom of the thread says what it's doing: … is working this thread, or … handled this thread when it finished on its own, with a line about where it got to.
Take over
Click Take over, or open the thread's More menu (… in the header) and choose Take over from agent.
A notice confirms: You took over from agent. "No agent replies to Owen while the thread is yours." Undo on the notice gives the thread back to the agent.
Reply
The thread is now With you and Assigned to you, a line in the conversation records "You took over from Triage Agent · now", and your reply box opens: You're handling this thread. Write your reply as described in Reply to a conversation.
Take over from isn't offered on an escalated thread (accept the handoff instead) or a resolved one.
Hand a thread back to the agent
When you're done, let the agent carry on.
Open the menu
Under your reply box, open More actions (…). You can also use the thread's More menu in the header.
Hand it back
Choose Hand back to agent. A notice says Handed back to agent: "Triage Agent replies to Owen again." The thread goes back to Agent working and the conversation records "You handed the thread back to Triage Agent · now". Undo on the notice makes it yours again.
Accept an agent's handoff
When an agent can't resolve a conversation on its own, for example a renewal at risk, it escalates the thread to a person and stops messaging the contact. The thread is marked Escalated and shows on Needs you.
Read the escalation
The bottom of the thread says … escalated this thread with the agent's explanation, and "Churn Watch stopped messaging Dmitri until you decide".
See why it escalated
The Why it escalated section in the details column lists the signals the agent saw and their sources. You can also open it from the dock's More actions (…) → Why it escalated.
Accept the handoff
Click Accept handoff, or press A while focus is in the thread. A notice says Handoff accepted: "Churn Watch stopped messaging Dmitri. The thread is yours." The thread is now With you and Assigned to you, and your reply box opens.
To turn an escalation down without taking the thread, dismiss it from the Command center's approval queue. Handoffs accepted there show in the thread as "You accepted the handoff from … in the Command center".
Assign a thread to yourself
Assigning a thread to yourself gets you a notification for every reply from the contact, without stopping the agent.
To stop the notifications, choose More → Unassign me. If you run the thread yourself, unassigning doesn't hand it back: "You're still handling the thread. Hand it back to … to let it reply."
Taking over and accepting a handoff assign the thread to you automatically. To give a waiting draft or escalation to a teammate, use Reassign to a teammate in the approval queue.
Troubleshooting
Your role may not have Take over from agents, or it only reads this channel; the dock's button is then greyed out with the reason. On an escalated thread, use Accept handoff instead.
Assigning only sends you notifications. To stop the agent, take the thread over.
Nothing changed, and the agent still runs the thread. Click Retry on the notice.