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Escalate a conversation to a human

Written by , Founder, AskVault · Reviewed by Aashiq
Last updated: · 3 min read

Three trigger paths

  1. Customer asks. "I want to talk to a human", "agent", "human please".
  2. Sentiment-based. Frustration detected by sentiment router skill.
  3. Skill-based. escalate_to_human fires from a specific intent.

The bot routes to a queue or specific agent based on rules.

How to escalate manually

From the bot side: visitor types a trigger phrase. Bot replies "Connecting you to a human" and pauses.

From the agent side: open conversation, click "Take over from bot". The bot stops; you reply directly.

What happens on escalate

Within 30 seconds:

  1. Bot pauses (no more bot replies).
  2. Conversation marked escalated in the inbox.
  3. Routed to the assignee pool (per rules).
  4. Notification fires to that pool (Slack, email, in-app).
  5. Context attached: conversation history, customer details, what bot tried.

Routing rules

Configure under escalate_to_human skill:

  • By channel. Widget escalations to one team; WhatsApp to another.
  • By audience. Enterprise customers to senior agents.
  • By tag. Billing tag to billing pool.
  • By time of day. Off-hours to specific on-call.

About 80% of teams use 3 to 5 routing rules.

Context handoff

When the conversation moves to a human:

  • Full transcript visible.
  • Internal note auto-added: "Bot escalated because: [reason]".
  • Customer's identity (if verified) plus history.
  • Tags applied so the agent sees context immediately.

Cuts agent ramp time per conversation from about 5 to 10 minutes to about 30 seconds.

Webhook on escalation

Subscribe to conversation.escalated:

{
  "event": "conversation.escalated",
  "conversation_id": "conv_xxx",
  "trigger": "sentiment_negative",
  "channel": "widget",
  "priority": "high",
  "assigned_to": "pool_billing"
}

Useful for PagerDuty / Slack alerts.

Reverting to bot

Sometimes a human realizes the bot can handle:

  1. Open conversation > "Return to bot".
  2. Bot resumes on the next customer message.
  3. Audit logs the swap.

Limits

  • Bot pause persistence. Until manual return or 7-day auto-return.
  • Escalation rate. Plan-dependent; typically 10 to 25%.
  • Routing rules per workspace. 25.

Common pitfalls

Too many escalations. Trigger list too permissive. Tighten.

Too few escalations. Customers frustrated, bot doesn't sense it. Tune sentiment threshold.

Routed to wrong team. Rules need refinement. Check Skills > escalate_to_human > Routing.

FAQ

Does the customer see "the bot paused"?

Usually a brief "Connecting you to a human" message. After that, normal chat.

Can the bot keep helping after escalation?

No by default. Configure "co-pilot mode" on Business+ to let bot suggest replies to the human.

Will the conversation revert if the human doesn't respond?

After 7 days idle, auto-resolution may fire (per rules). No auto-revert to bot.

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