Human handoff and WhatsApp

An AI that never escalates is a liability. Storebird hands a conversation to you when the customer needs a person — and lets you answer without sitting in the dashboard.

Human handoff is available on the Pro and Scale plans. See Plans, limits and stores.

When a handoff happens

Your AI passes a conversation to a human when the customer asks for one, when the request is something the AI cannot do (cancel an order, make an exception, negotiate), or when it does not have a trustworthy answer.

Handing over honestly is better than answering badly. If you see the AI escalating things it should know, that is a knowledge gap — see Train your AI.

Answering from the dashboard

Open the conversation in your Inbox and click Take Over. The customer is told a person joined. When you are finished you can return the conversation to the AI.

If the visitor left an email address, they also get a message letting them know a person has picked up the conversation — so they do not sit waiting on a page they already closed.

Answering from WhatsApp

You can be notified on WhatsApp and reply straight from your phone. Your reply lands in the customer's chat on your store; their answer comes back to your WhatsApp. You never open the dashboard.

Set this up under WhatsApp in settings:

Add and verify your WhatsApp number
Choose the Notification types you want
With more than one store, set Per-website numbers so the right person gets the right shop

Verification is a one-time code to prove the number is yours.

Choosing your notification types

Under Notifications and the WhatsApp settings you control what reaches you. Turn on the things that need a human now — handoff requests, captured leads — and leave the rest to your weekly review.

Notifications you ignore train you to ignore notifications. Fewer is better.

Out of hours

If a handoff happens when you are closed, your AI can set a realistic expectation instead of promising an instant reply. See Business hours.

Mobile app

Storebird has a native mobile app with push notifications, so you can read and answer conversations from your phone without WhatsApp in the middle. Ask us in the chat if you would like access.