Handoff to your team
When GiovBot brings in a person, where the chat goes, and what happens outside your hours or when nobody is online.
On this page
GiovBot hands a chat to your team only in the situations listed below. It doesn't move visitors to a person on its own initiative. Every handoff follows three rules:
- The visitor is always told. GiovBot says what is happening, even when nobody is online.
- Your team is always alerted. A teammate who receives the chat is notified. A handoff to the shared inbox alerts every operator.
- GiovBot never goes silent. If nobody can take the chat, GiovBot says so and keeps helping where it can.
When GiovBot hands off
| Trigger | What happens |
|---|---|
| The visitor asks for a person, for example "talk to a human" or "connect me to an agent" | GiovBot asks for a short description of the issue and alerts your team straight away. Its next reply hands the chat over, so your team has the context. |
| The visitor accepts GiovBot's offer to bring in a person | The chat is handed over. |
| A message matches one of your procedures | The chat goes to that procedure's route. See Procedures. |
| A guardrail set to Hand off is triggered | GiovBot declines briefly, then hands the chat over. |
| This month's hosted AI credits run out | GiovBot tells the visitor it has reached its reply allowance and hands the chat over. This doesn't happen on your own provider key. |
When its knowledge is weak, GiovBot doesn't hand off. It answers from the conversation if it can, or says it doesn't have that information, and the visitor can still ask for a person at any time.
Requests for a person are currently recognised in English. For visitors who write in other languages, add a procedure with keywords in their language, such as "humano" or "persona", routed to your team.
Where the chat goes
Set the default destination in GiovBot → your agent → Guardrails → Handoff target, or in the Go live step of the setup guide.
| Target | Result |
|---|---|
| Inbox | The chat goes to the shared inbox, unassigned, and every operator is alerted. |
| Department | The chat is assigned to a teammate in that department, who is notified. If the department has nobody in it, the chat goes to the shared inbox. |
| Teammate | The chat is assigned to that teammate, who is notified. |
After a handoff, GiovBot stops replying in that conversation and your team continues the same thread, so the visitor doesn't have to repeat themselves. If a teammate returns the conversation to GiovBot, GiovBot continues, and it doesn't transfer again unless the visitor asks again.
Procedures
Procedures are your own handoff rules. Add them in GiovBot → your agent → Procedures. Each procedure has:
- Keywords, for example
refund, return, money back. A visitor message that contains one of them triggers the procedure. - Instructions for GiovBot, for example "collect the order ID, then transfer to Billing".
- A route: the inbox, a department, a teammate or another published AI agent.
A procedure routed to an AI agent passes the chat to that agent and tells the visitor it's transferring them to a specialist. If that agent isn't available, for example because it's outside its schedule, the chat goes to your team instead. If nobody is online either, GiovBot tells the visitor the specialist is unavailable and keeps helping.
Guardrails that hand off
In GiovBot → your agent → Guardrails, each content guardrail and custom rule has an action:
- Fallback message: reply only with your fallback message.
- Hand off: decline briefly, then pass the chat to your team.
- End conversation: decline briefly, then close the chat.
If several rules are triggered at once, the strictest action wins: ending the conversation comes first, then handoff, then the fallback message. If a rule is set to Hand off but nobody is online, GiovBot declines without handing off.
When nobody is online
GiovBot checks whether anyone on your team is online when a handoff is needed.
- The visitor asked for a person: GiovBot replies that the team isn't online right now, they've been told the visitor wants to talk to someone, and they'll follow up in the same chat. It keeps helping meanwhile. Your team gets an alert to follow up.
- A procedure matched: GiovBot tells the visitor nobody is available right now and that the request has been flagged for follow-up. It keeps helping with general questions, and your team gets an alert.
- Credits ran out: the chat goes to your team and the visitor is told someone will follow up.
Agent schedule
By default an agent answers around the clock. To limit it to set hours, open GiovBot → your agent → Settings → Availability and turn on Use a weekly schedule.
- Choose a timezone, then a start and end time for each day. Each day has one time range.
- If the end time is earlier than the start time, the range continues into the next day, which suits overnight cover.
- Daylight-saving changes follow the timezone you chose.
Outside its schedule the agent doesn't reply, and new conversations aren't given to it. They reach your team in the inbox as ordinary chats, so human support stays available. Test chats in the studio still work outside the schedule.
Answering around the clock is the recommended setting: GiovBot covers nights and weekends, and hands off whenever a visitor asks for a person.
Your company's business hours are set in Company settings. GiovBot uses them to tell visitors when you're open. They don't switch GiovBot on or off; only the agent schedule does that.
Monitor handoffs
GiovBot → your agent → Spotlight shows how many chats were handed off, alongside success, volume and response time. To check that the rules behave as you expect, add a test scenario with Expected handoff set to Must hand off or Must not hand off. See Testing and publishing.