For owners
Handoff to people
When the bot hands a conversation to a person, who answers and when, the visitor's contact, topics for an operator, reply templates and the order number.
On this page
If the bot cannot or should not answer, the conversation goes to your operators: to the company's Telegram group and to the app's inbox. In the project's «Handoff to people» section you set who answers and when, what a visitor can leave when nobody is there, and which subjects always go to a person. Owners and admins change these settings; operators see them as text.
When the bot hands over
The bot reads each message before it answers. It goes by meaning, not by keywords, so it recognizes a request in any wording and any language.
| What happens | What the bot does |
|---|---|
| The visitor asks for a person | Says nothing and hands over at once |
| A question about the visitor's own order, payment or account | Answers the general part from your rules, then hands over |
| One of your topics for an operator | As you choose: says nothing and hands over at once, or answers and offers a person |
| The visitor sends a file | The bot never reads files. A file alone goes to people at once. If the file comes with text, the text gets its answer first |
| «Operators only» | Every message goes to people (Who answers) |
| The AI limit is spent: the company's month of AI conversations, or a project's daily guard | Every message goes to people (When the limit is reached, the daily guard) |
If the bot is unsure whether a person is needed, it still answers, and offers a person beside the answer. Under every answer there is also a «Talk to an operator» button. If the message holds an order number, the operator sees it on the conversation (Order number).
Who answers
The «Who answers» block shows one of three states. The words are the same as on the overview and in the phone's list of sections.
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| «Only the AI answers» (orange dot) | Nobody is handed a conversation; when the bot cannot answer, the chat asks the visitor for a contact (Without operators) |
| «AI first, then people» | The bot answers from your sources and hands over when needed |
| «Operators only» | Every message goes straight to people; the bot stays silent |
The state comes from two settings. Each one saves at once.
- «The project has operators»: turn it on once someone can answer. When it is off, nobody is handed a conversation (Without operators).
- «Who answers first»: «AI first, then people» or «Operators only». «Operators only» is also the pilot's emergency switch: the bot stops answering at once.
With operators on, the launch step «Who answers and when» is done (Launch and overview).
Working hours
Working hours are when your operators answer. The AI answers round the clock either way.
- Outside the hours, a handed-off visitor is asked to leave a contact. The exception is when someone is on shift: they answer at any time.
- With no hours set, whoever is on shift or has the inbox open answers.
«Add hours» adds a range: days, a start time and an end time. A project can have up to 14 ranges. A range that ends before it starts runs past midnight, and the form marks it «past midnight». For example, «Fri 22:00–02:00» is Friday night into Saturday. «Save hours» saves the ranges. If you leave the page without saving them, it asks first.
Pick the time zone under «Advanced: time zone», below the save button. The hours are counted in it. A new project starts on Moscow time. Pick your zone, then save the hours above to put it to use.
A contact when nobody answers
After a handoff the visitor waits for an operator. But the chat asks them to leave a contact instead when:
- it is outside the working hours and nobody is on shift;
- nobody is on shift and nobody has the inbox open;
- nobody took the conversation in time.
The contact lands in the conversation, so an operator can write back later. In «The visitor may leave», pick the ways: Telegram, email, phone. At least one must stay on.
«Advanced: wait for an operator» sets how many minutes a handed-off conversation waits for an operator before the contact form shows. The default is 3 minutes; it can be anything from 1 minute to a day.
Topics for an operator
These are subjects your business always wants a person for: payment details, a working mirror, a refund. «Add a topic» opens the form:
- Topic: its title, which operators see on the conversation.
- What it covers: in your own words, what the visitor asks for. The bot reads it by meaning, so write a description, not a list of keywords.
- What the bot does: «To a person at once» (the bot says nothing), or «Answer, offer a person».
- Examples, under «Advanced: examples»: a few messages on the topic, one per line, up to 12. They help the bot recognize the topic.
A project can have up to 20 topics. If you remove a topic, the bot answers such messages again, unless they need a person for another reason. There is nothing to tune: the thresholds are the same for every project and topic, so a new topic works at once.
Check the topic
The «Check the topic» button in the form shows how the bot will read your messages. Write up to 8 messages, one per line. If the box is empty, it checks the examples.
Each message shows what the chat would do («To a person», «Offers a person», «The bot answers») and how sure the bot is. The result is a line such as «3 of 4 go to a person». Check a general question on the same subject too: «Is a card accepted at all?» should stay with the bot.
Checking each message costs money. If topic checking is not set up on the server, the check says it is unavailable.
Reply templates
Templates are ready-made answers. An operator inserts one by typing / and its code in the reply box: /refund, /limits. A template has a code (lowercase Latin letters, digits, - and _), a title and its text. On insert, {name}, {operator} and {order} are filled in (Inbox).
Owners and admins add, edit and remove templates here. You can also turn an AI answer into a template in the inbox: «Save as a template». Operators see the list and use the templates.
Order number
Under «Advanced: order number», in «Number format», describe how your business writes an order number. The operator then sees the number found in a message and copies it in one click. The number also goes into the Telegram topic's card and into a t.me support link as its start parameter.
The number is written as a mask: # is one digit, * any letters and digits, the rest is written as it is, in any case. For example: ##### is five digits (48213), INV-##### is INV- and five digits, ZK-* is ZK- and any letters and digits. The number is looked for as a word of its own: never inside a longer number or word. As you type, «Try it on a message» tests the mask on a sample and shows «Found: 48213» or «Nothing found in this message». The format saves when you leave the field or press Enter. If the box is empty, order numbers are not looked for.
Those who write regular expressions keep «Own expression»: one group in brackets holds the number, (?:…) for any other brackets, up to 120 characters, no repeat inside a repeat such as (\d+)+.
Telegram and the team
The group and the team are shared by every project of the company. So this block shows only their state, and each one links to its own page:
- Telegram: the linked group's title, «No group linked», or what broke, such as «The bot was removed …» in red, as on the overview. Without a group, handed-off conversations wait in the inbox only (Operators in Telegram).
- Team: how many people are in the company and who is on shift now. A grey dot means nobody is on shift.
Without operators
With «The project has operators» off, the bot answers from your sources and hands nobody a conversation. When the bot cannot answer, the chat asks the visitor for a contact. The contact lands in the conversation, where your team sees it. If your developer gave the tag your own support link (the handoff attribute, Widget attributes), the chat offers that link instead. Files cannot be sent: there is no paperclip.
Turn operators on only when someone will really answer. A visitor promised a person who never comes is worse off than one sent straight to your support link.