Facebook Messenger Human Handover and Team Inbox
Human handover on Messenger is the point where AeroChat passes a conversation from your Facebook Page to a person on your team. It decides when to hand over from rules you set, finds the right person from the contact owner in HubSpot, Pipedrive, Freshsales or Zoho CRM, and puts the conversation in their AeroChat inbox with a summary and the customer’s record. Your team replies from the desktop or the mobile app.
What happens today
Several people log into the Page inbox in Meta Business Suite. Two of them answer the same customer, or each assumes the other has it. The person who finally replies scrolls back through the chat to work out what the customer wants.
A bot that cannot answer either loops the customer through the same menu or goes quiet. Complaints and urgent requests sit in the same queue as “what are your hours”.
How it runs on Messenger
- AeroChat handles the conversation until one of your handover rules is met: the customer asks for a person, is upset, asks for something above your limits, or raises a topic you always want a person to handle.
- It tells the customer a person is taking over and, outside working hours, when they can expect a reply.
- It reads the customer’s record in your CRM to find the contact owner.
- It assigns the conversation to that person in the AeroChat inbox, or to the right team if there is no owner.
- It writes a short summary at the top of the conversation: who the customer is, what they asked, what has been done, and what is still open.
- It adds a note to the CRM record that the conversation was handed over, and why.
- Your team member replies from the inbox or the mobile app. When they close the conversation, AeroChat takes new messages again.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
Hand the conversation to a person when any of these happen, then follow the steps below.
- The customer asks for a person, a manager or a call.
- The customer is upset, or uses words like refund, complaint or cancel (example).
- The customer asks for a discount or refund above S$50 (example).
- Tell the customer: “I’m passing you to our team now. They usually reply within 30 minutes during opening hours (example).”
- Ask for their email so we can find their record, if we don’t have it yet.
- Find the contact in HubSpot by email. If it has an owner, assign the conversation to that owner. If not, assign it to the Support team (example).
- Write a summary for our team with what the customer asked, what you already did, and what is still open.
- Add a note to the HubSpot contact: “Messenger conversation handed to team” with the reason.
After handing over, do not reply again until the team closes the conversation. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the trigger words, limits, reply time and team names to your own.
Connect the systems behind it
- HubSpot: AeroChat reads the contact owner to route the conversation and adds a handover note to the contact.
- Pipedrive: AeroChat finds the person’s owner so the salesperson who owns the deal gets the conversation.
- Freshsales: AeroChat reads the contact owner and logs the handover on the contact.
- Zoho CRM: AeroChat routes by the record owner and adds a note when a person takes over.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Meta’s rules on Messenger
Automated replies can go within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. Replies typed by a person on your team have a separate, longer window of 7 days, which matters when a handover happens late on a Friday and your team replies after the weekend. The 7-day window is for people only, not for automated replies. If the customer came from a click-to-Messenger ad, you can reply for up to 7 days from their first message. Meta expects automated replies within 30 seconds, so AeroChat sends the handover message at once while the team picks up the conversation.
Also on WhatsApp, TikTok and web chat
The same handover rules run on WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok (direct messages and TikTok Shop buyer chat), Telegram, web chat and email. All of them land in the same AeroChat inbox, so one team works every channel from one place.
Who uses it
- Dental clinics: pain and symptom messages passed to the clinic team straight away.
- Hotels: guest complaints passed to the duty manager with the booking details.
- Beauty stores: reaction reports handed to a person with the order attached.
- B2B suppliers: trade buyers handed to their account manager.
Questions
Can a person take over a Messenger chatbot conversation?
Yes. AeroChat hands the conversation to your team when your rules say so or the customer asks. A person replies from the AeroChat inbox or the mobile app, and AeroChat stays quiet until they close it.
How long does my team have to reply on Messenger?
A person on your team can reply within 7 days of the customer’s last message. Automated replies are limited to 24 hours.
Can several people answer the same Facebook Page?
Yes. Each conversation is assigned to one person or team in the AeroChat inbox, so two people don’t answer the same customer. Every plan includes agent seats: 3 on Starter, 10 on Growth and 25 on Advanced.
Does the team see what the bot already said?
Yes. They see the full conversation and a short summary at the top, with the customer’s CRM record.
Give your team the conversations that need them
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On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.
Related: Messenger customer service and after-hours replies.