Live chat handover
Live chat handover is the moment an automated conversation is passed to a person, along with everything the customer has already said.
Why customers care about it
People accept automation that helps them. They object to automation they can’t get out of. Gartner’s survey of customers shows how much the route to a person matters:
| Finding | Figure |
|---|---|
| Customers who would prefer companies didn’t use AI for customer service | 64% |
| Would consider switching to a competitor if a company used AI for service | 53% |
| Top concern about AI in service | It will become harder to reach a person |
Source: Gartner press release, 9 July 2024, survey of 5,728 customers, December 2023.
A good handover answers that concern. The customer explains the problem once, and the person who takes over already has the order number. A bad one makes the customer type “human” four times, fill in a form and start again.
The four triggers to set
- The customer asks. It should work the first time, in any phrasing.
- The request goes past a limit you set. A refund above your ceiling, a discount outside your rule, a delivery date you haven’t approved. In AeroChat these limits are applied by the system, and a request above them goes to your team with the order details.
- The system doesn’t know. A handover is better than an invented answer. See AI hallucination.
- The conversation is going badly. Repeated questions, a complaint, or clear frustration.
The three failures customers notice
No context carried across. One merchant put the requirement plainly: “the customer should not have to repeat the order number.” Pass the transcript and the identified customer record, or the customer starts again at the back of the queue.
A handover to nobody. Promising a person at 2am when the next person starts at 9am is worse than saying when someone will reply. Give a time, or don’t offer.
No visible change. If the customer can’t tell they are now talking to a person, they will test it, often rudely. Say clearly when a person has joined.
What it means in practice
Handover runs both ways. Once your team has dealt with the complaint, the automation should pick up the thread again for the next routine question, so the conversation doesn’t sit in a human queue for good.
Your team also needs to take over from wherever they are, including a phone. Otherwise handover works only while someone sits at a desk. In AeroChat your team can see when the AI is talking and step in, and the mobile app lets them take over a conversation from the phone.
Related terms
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Set your own handover rules
Start your 7-day free trial. No credit card needed. Tell AeroChat when to pass a conversation to your team, and take over from the inbox or your phone with the whole conversation in front of you.
On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.