When should an AI hand a chat to a person?
An AI should hand a chat to a person whenever money, a complaint or doubt is involved: a discount request, a refund, an angry customer, two facts that disagree, or a question it can't answer from your published knowledge. Everything routine, such as hours, location and a current published price, it can answer alone. StayReplied is built around that split: the AI answers only from approved knowledge and prices, hands off when it is unsure, and your team can take over, pause and resume the AI on any conversation. Here is a hand-off policy a small team can adopt this week.
The hand-off policy in one table
| Situation | What should happen | In StayReplied |
|---|---|---|
| Opening hours, address, how to order | AI answers | On a channel set to answer |
| A published, current price | AI answers from the price list | Your team sees the source |
| A bundle, discount or special request | A person checks first | Set busy channels to draft only |
| A complaint or refund demand | A person, at once | Recognised and handed off |
| A payment screenshot | A person confirms | "Awaiting verification", not a sale |
| Two facts that disagree | A person decides | Handed off, with a task for the team |
| The AI isn't sure | A person answers | Handed off |
AI can still be wrong, so you decide, channel by channel, whether it answers on its own or only drafts for a person to send.
What a good hand-off looks like for the customer
- No dead end. The customer is told a person will answer, not left waiting.
- No repeating. The person sees the whole conversation and the facts the AI used.
- No double answer. Once a person takes over, the AI stops on that chat.
What a good hand-off looks like for the team
In StayReplied's unified inbox:
- Saved views show escalated chats separately from unassigned and mine.
- A chat can become a ticket with priority, assignee and due times.
- Internal notes look different from customer messages, so a hand-off note never reaches the customer.
- Presence shows who else is viewing, and stale-reply protection asks you to review if the customer wrote again while you were typing.
- AI takeover, pause and resume are in every plan.
When facts disagree, the AI does not pick one: it hands off and "creates a specific task for your team". See AI sales and support.
Set it up in four steps
- Publish your knowledge and prices as reviewed versions; the AI can only use published ones, and web chat reads only a knowledge base set to Public (how to stop wrong prices).
- Choose the AI setting for each channel: off, draft only, or answer. Complaints and refund demands go to a person in every setting.
- Give one person the escalated view during working hours.
- Review a week of hand-offs. Each one is either a gap in your knowledge or a topic that should stay with people. For the complaints themselves, see how to handle a complaint in website chat.
Why this matters more than the model
A careful hand-off policy protects you from the expensive mistakes: a discount nobody approved, a refund promised by a bot, or an order marked paid from a screenshot. Those cost more than any AI bill. Budgets matter too: in StayReplied, when the daily or monthly AI budget runs out, the AI pauses and human replies keep working (keep AI chat costs predictable).
A shared inbox or personal phones explains why a team needs one inbox before it needs AI at all.
What it costs
Every plan has every feature: Starter AED 70, Team AED 210 and Business AED 420 a month, plus 5% VAT, for 2, 5 or 10 human seats. No plan includes AI today: AI replies need your own Anthropic key, billed by your provider. The 14-day trial needs no card. See pricing.
When this is not for you
If you want AI to close every conversation with no people involved, StayReplied is the wrong tool: it is built to hand over. Web chat is the channel you connect today. If you are a team of one, a hand-off policy is simply you; the inbox still helps, but the policy matters less. Read who StayReplied is for.
Questions and answers
When does StayReplied's AI hand a chat over?
When it is unsure, when the answer isn't in your published knowledge, when two facts disagree, or when a customer complains or asks for a refund. You also decide, per channel, whether it answers or only drafts.
Can a person take over from the AI mid-conversation?
Yes. AI takeover, pause and resume are in every plan.
Does the customer see internal notes?
No. Internal notes look different from customer messages and stay inside your team.
Does a payment screenshot close the sale?
No. It moves the lead to "awaiting verification". Confirmation comes from your payment system or a person.
Write your hand-off policy in the trial.
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