Talk to a person

What it does#

Talk to a person passes the customer to your team. What happens depends on your business hours:

• Inside hours: the customer gets your inside message, your team is notified, and the bot stays quiet for this customer so your team can answer from WhatsApp.
• Outside hours: the customer gets your outside message and the chat continues on the Outside hours connection, for example to collect their details. If nothing is connected, the conversation ends there.

It replaces the Notification step for new chatbots: it adds business hours, email and webhook alerts, a conversation summary, and a way back to the bot.

Set it up#

1. 1

   Drag Talk to a person onto the canvas

   It's under Tools in the step list. Connect the step that leads to it, for example a Talk to us button.

2. 2

   Write the two messages

   Under Messages to the customer, edit Inside business hours (for example Thanks! A team member will reply here shortly.) and Outside business hours. You can use answers from earlier steps, like {{@full_name}}.

3. 3

   Choose who's notified

   Under Notify the team, click Add email and Add number (WhatsApp, digits with the country code, e.g. 972501234567). Up to 5 of each. Optionally add a Webhook URL that starts with https://.

4. 4

   Include the conversation

   Keep Include the last messages of the conversation on, and set Messages to include (1 to 30), so your team sees the context.

5. 5

   Set your business hours

   Under Business hours, choose Set hours or Always available. For each day, tick it open, set the times, and click Add hours on ... for a split day (up to 3 ranges). Use Copy ...'s hours to Sunday-Thursday to save time. Pick your Time zone and, if relevant, tick Closed on Israeli holidays.

6. 6

   Decide how the bot comes back

   Under Back to the bot, set Resume after (1 to 72 hours, 24 by default), add Resume keywords the customer can send (press Enter after each), and choose where the bot Continue at: the start or any step.

7. 7

   Connect Outside hours

   Connect Outside hours to steps that collect the customer's details. Inside hours is usually left empty: the team takes over.

New steps start with Sunday-Thursday 09:00-17:00, Friday 09:00-13:00, Saturday closed, Israel time and closed on Israeli holidays. Change them to your real hours.

What the customer and the team see#

The bot answers this customer again when the Resume after time has passed, when the customer sends exactly one of your Resume keywords, or when your team sends #thanks in the chat. It then continues at the step you chose.

Example#

A dental clinic connects a Talk to us button to a Talk to a person step: hours Sunday-Thursday 08:00-20:00, notify reception@smiledental.co.il and 972501234567, resume after 12 hours, resume keyword menu, continue at main_menu. Outside hours connects to a Text step: What's your name and the best time to call you?

On Tuesday at 10:00, Noa taps Talk to us. She reads Thanks! A team member will reply here shortly. The reception phone gets a WhatsApp message with her last messages, and the receptionist answers her from WhatsApp. On Friday night, Dan taps the same button. He reads the outside message and is asked for his name and a good time to call; reception gets an email.

Let customers ask from anywhere#

1. 1

   Open Settings

   In the chatbot, switch from Build to Settings and find Talk to a person. With no step yet, click Add a Talk to a person step.

2. 2

   Turn it on

   Turn on Customers can ask for a person and choose the Talk to a person step.

3. 3

   Add keywords

   Add words like agent, human or נציג. A short message containing one of them, at any point in the chat, goes to your step.

Common mistakes#

• Nobody is notified. The card says Nobody is notified yet and publishing warns you. Add at least one email or WhatsApp number.
• Only a WhatsApp number on the official API. On the WhatsApp Cloud API, a team number only gets the alert if it wrote to the bot in the last 24 hours. Always add an email too.
• No day open. With Set hours and every day closed, every request goes to Outside hours. Open at least one day, or choose Always available.
• Wrong time zone. Hours are checked in the time zone you pick. Set it to where your team works.
• The customer is stuck in silence. If your team doesn't answer, the bot only comes back after Resume after. Keep it short, add a resume keyword such as menu, and tell customers about it in the inside message.