An AI agent does well where the answer is known in advance: prices, schedule, address, booking terms. But sales have moments when a person is needed: the customer is unhappy, asks for special terms or asks something that isn’t in the knowledge base. If the agent keeps answering on its own at that point, it risks promising too much. If it calls a person too often, automation loses its point. Let’s look at where the line runs and how to set it up.
The main rule: if you don’t know, don’t make it up
The agent answers only from the knowledge base. If the answer isn’t there, it has two honest options: ask the customer to clarify or hand the chat to a person. There is no third option — inventing a plausible answer. A made-up price or a promotion that doesn’t exist costs the business more than a few minutes of waiting for a manager.
Five situations that need a person
1. Money and special terms
Discounts, installments, wholesale orders, haggling. A person makes these decisions, and the agent shouldn’t promise them. Typical trigger words: “discount”, “wholesale”, “installments”, “cheaper”.
2. Dissatisfaction and complaints
If a customer is irritated or writes about a problem, they need a live answer and a solution. Words like “complaint”, “refund”, “my order didn’t arrive” are a reason to call a manager straight away.
3. The knowledge base has no answer
If the agent can’t find the answer, a person replies. It’s also a signal to add the information to the knowledge base so the agent can handle it next time.
4. Actions only a person can confirm
Booking a specific time, a reservation, changing an order. If an administrator manages the schedule, the agent collects the details and a person confirms.
5. The customer asks for a person
“Can I talk to a manager?” isn’t a question for the knowledge base. If the customer wants a live conversation, hand the chat over without trying to talk them out of it.
How to write handoff rules
Rules work best as simple “if the customer… the agent…” sentences. That makes them easy to check and to explain to the team:
| If the customer… | The agent… |
|---|---|
| asks about a discount or installments | says it will check with an administrator and hands the chat over |
| writes a complaint | apologizes for the inconvenience and hands the chat over right away |
| asks something that isn’t in the knowledge base | asks for details; if there is still no answer, hands it over |
| wants to book a specific time | collects the name, phone number and preferred time and passes it on for confirmation |
| asks for a live person | hands the chat over without persuading |
How to hand over without the customer feeling a gap
The handoff is the most fragile moment of the conversation. The customer shouldn’t have to repeat the question or wonder whether anyone will reply at all.
- The agent says plainly that it will bring in a specialist — no “your request is very important to us”.
- Outside working hours, the agent says when a person will reply, according to your schedule.
- The agent takes the contact details and the gist of the question in advance, so the manager doesn’t have to ask again.
- The manager sees the whole chat and continues from where the agent stopped.
- While a person is replying, the agent stays silent and doesn’t interrupt.
- Once the issue is resolved, the chat can go back to the agent.
Test the rules before launch
Before showing the agent to customers, play out a few difficult conversations as a customer:
- ask for a discount — the agent should hand the chat over, not name a figure;
- write a complaint — the agent should apologize and call a person;
- ask something that is definitely not in the knowledge base — the agent should clarify or hand over, not compose an answer;
- ask to be booked for tomorrow at 18:00 — the agent should collect the details and pass the booking on for confirmation;
- write “get me a manager” — the agent should hand the chat over at once.
Common mistakes
- Handing over everything. If the agent calls a person on every other question, the knowledge base is incomplete. Check which questions go to a manager most often and add the answers.
- Handing over nothing. An agent that discusses discounts and complaints on its own will sooner or later promise something you won’t deliver.
- Handing over and forgetting. A chat waiting for a manager needs an owner and a reply deadline.
- Not learning from handoffs. Every handoff caused by a gap in the knowledge base is a ready-made correction. How to build a knowledge base without gaps is covered in “How to prepare a knowledge base for an AI agent”.
Who replies after the handoff
“Hand over to a person” only works if it’s clear which person. Decide in advance who takes discount questions, who handles complaints, who confirms bookings, and agree on a reply deadline during working hours.
Keep that deadline short. According to a study of website leads, replying within an hour makes you 7 times more likely to qualify a lead than replying later. A customer the agent handed over is already waiting — don’t make them wait longer.
Source: Harvard Business Review, 2011.
How to divide these duties is covered in “Team roles in a sales chat”.
How it works in Mated
In Mated the handoff rules are set in the setup wizard, in the “Handoff to a person” step («Передача человеку»), and what the agent must not do goes into the “Restrictions and unknown questions” field («Ограничения и неизвестные вопросы»). The agent receives these rules together with the knowledge base and a fixed condition: answer only from the knowledge base, never invent prices, schedules or booking confirmations, and pass unknown questions to a person.
While a person runs the chat, the agent stays silent, so the manager’s messages don’t use AI answers from the package. See how many answers each plan includes on the pricing page.
Learn how chats and handoff to a manager work on the features page. To write your own rules, sign up and go through the wizard — the handoff step is required.
